Positive welfare for cats goes beyond preventing negative experiences to actively providing opportunities for pleasure, choice, and flourishing.
Positive welfare for cats requires moving beyond a harm-prevention mindset to actively designing environments and interactions that create positive experiences. A cat whose pain is managed, whose diet is appropriate, and whose vaccinations are current may still have poor welfare if it is bored, isolated, lacks play opportunities, or has no control over its social interactions. Welfare-positive cat care provides choice — multiple resting spots of different temperatures and heights; option to engage or withdraw from human contact; varied enrichment; and regular interactive play that provides the satisfaction of successful predatory sequences. These interventions are inexpensive and transform cat quality of life in measurable ways.