What is a cat? And what it is not.

Smell, hearing and control of territory matter enormously. A new box, a guest or moving the litter box can be important events. Meowing is only one part of the language; the tail, ears, pupils, posture and chosen distance often say more.

A sudden change in behaviour can indicate pain or illness. Punishment, shouting and spraying with water increase fear and weaken trust. Before calling a behaviour a “problem”, ask: is the cat in pain, does it have enough resources, a safe place, play and the possibility to withdraw?

The idea of “breed” in cats is surprisingly young — under 150 years, a blink of an eye on the scale of a species that has lived alongside humans for thousands of years. Genetically, a pedigree cat and one without a pedigree remain, for the most part, the same population: a few genes decide coat length, colour or ear shape, but they do not draw a character. Research in feline genetics consistently shows the same thing — temperament variation between two individuals of the same breed can be as great as variation between different breeds. The label on the poster says less about who the cat in front of you is than the first ten minutes spent with her.

A tabby cat, with no fancy name, raised on a street or in a shelter, is just as much a cat, just as capable of play, curiosity and attachment, as any prize-winning specimen at a show. If you choose by appearance, you are choosing less than you think; if you choose by who the individual is, you are choosing exactly what matters.