In the most extensive, I do a deep dive into the evolving history of cats and dogs, from wild animals to beloved family members, for The Shelter Cats Podcast. If you don’t have patience for the whole thing, I highly recommend the last 4 minutes, where I give my thesis statement about why cats are so special.

Next up, I appeared on the Pets Add Life podcast to discuss the evolving legal status of our pets, and my greatest hopes–and fears–for the future of our relationship with our companion animals.

And finally, I appeared on my home podcast, The Science Podcast, to chat about some cool stories that–sadly–don’t involve cats and dogs. But stay for the anteaters!

The idea to write the book first struck me in early 2010. I was young in my career as a journalist, and though I always hoped I’d write a book someday, I assumed “someday” would be decades in the future. But an itch formed. I began to feel, ever more persistently, that I had something unique to say about the strikingly elevated status of pets in modern society–how we got there, how it’s changing both us and them–and no single article could scratch it. So I decided to go all-in.

I spent months reading as much as I could about the domestication and cognition of cats and dogs, their current status and impact on society, and their remarkably evolving legal status. I probably read more law articles than the average first-year law student. The endeavor–which continued through finding an agent, drafting a proposal, and writing the book itself–consumed my nights and weekends. Shouldering the project on top of a full-time job, a new teaching position, and the birth of my twin girls nearly broke me. As did my frequent traveling for the book; my reporting took me from the hidden enclaves of my adopted city, Baltimore, to the farmlands of Indiana, to an air force base in Texas.

The reporting–and especially my travels–didn’t just enrich the book, they enriched me. Over the course of four years, I’d come face-to-face with majestic gray wolves, explore the postdiluvian ruins of New Orleans (and the pets that still inhabit them), tag along with police officers investigating animal abuse on the rough streets of South Central Los Angeles, and meet a dog on death row in Georgia who became one of the only animals in the country to get his own lawyer.

The effort paid off. Citizen Canine is one of my proudest achievements–an intimate, probing book about pets that contains stories no one else has told. Its pages reveal not only how dogs and cats became the most cherished animals on the planet, but how their evolving status in society reveals truths about our own place in this world. For we have not only changed our pets–they have changed us. As I write towards the end of the book:

As much as pets have civilized us, I think they’ve also kept us wild. Of all the roles they play, the most important may be that of shamans. Instead of bridging the gap between our world and the spirit world, they serve as mediators between our asphalt jungle and the real one. All pets are a bit like feral cats, straddling the line between wild and domestic, person and beast. And because they can cross this boundary, they serve as a lifeline—perhaps the last lifeline—to our animal past. We don’t just need them to comfort us and play with us. We need them to remind us of who we are and where we came from.

My high school history teacher once told me that everyone has one great book in them–something that only they could write, something they were put on this world to write. For me, that book is Citizen Canine. It has changed my life. I hope you’ll give it a chance to change yours.

Is it tuna? (Credit: FBenjr123, Wikimedia Commons)

Cat are known as finicky eaters, and my current fur babies are no exception. Iggy and Spud have turned their noses up at a variety of flavors in their two short years with us, but things finally clicked when we introduced them to premium tuna cat food. Suddenly it was all they wanted–and nothing else.

Iggy and Spud aren’t alone in their love of tuna. The dish is a staple of everything from New Yorker cartoons to Meow Mix jingles. And fish in general is such a hit with felines that an estimated 6% of all wild fish caught gets turned into moist cat food alone. That’s an odd diet for an animal that evolved in the desert.

Now researchers think they know why our feline friends have this curious craving. As I write in Science, researchers have discovered that cat taste buds contain the molecular machinery needed to detect umami. That’s the savory flavor of various meats, and one of the five basic tastes in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But the feline palate isn’t just find tuned to meat–as one might expect for an obligate carnivore. The team of scientists also discovered that the cat’s umami receptor responds especially vigorously to molecules found in tuna. In taste tests, cats in the study preferred water flavored with these compounds over all other dishes. Tuna appears to hit the “umami sweet spot” in cats, as one of the researchers told me.

Still, it’s unclear why cats would have evolved a taste for tuna. It may have become a useful adaptation to living with humans. As far back as 1500 B.C.E., cats are depicted eating fish in the art of Ancient Egypt. And by the Middle Ages, felines in some Middle Eastern ports were consuming large quantities of fish—including tuna—likely because they were feasting on the scraps left by fishers. Cats that had a hankering for tuna likely had a leg up on their fish-averse comrades.

If your own cat doesn’t like tuna, don’t sweat it. Researchers have shown that cats aren’t able to tase sugar, but my cat Jasper used to love marshmallows, which are basically just sugar and more sugar. Some feline mysteries, it seems, can’t fully be explained by science.

Stray cats Amman, Jordan. (Credit: Alexey Komarov, Wikimedia Commons)

Birth control for cats and dogs might sound like the setup for a joke, but it’s no laughing matter. There are more than 1.5 billion homeless dogs and cats in the world, suffering on the streets, being killed to stop the spread of rabies or protect wildlife, or getting euthanized in overcrowded shelters. Spay/neuter surgery can help keep pet numbers down–indeed it has made a massive impact on shelter euthanasia since the 1970s–but it’s too slow and too expensive to put a dent in the global overpopulation crisis.

That’s why scientists have been trying to come up with an alternative to the surgery for more than 20 years. They’ve been hoping to develop something like a shot or a pill–a one-time, permanent contraceptive that’s cheap and easy to administer. I wrote about these efforts in 2009, but nothing has worked–until now.

In a new study, researchers report a gene therapy approach that appears to contracept female cats for at least two years, and perhaps much longer.  The strategy delivers a gene for antimüllerian hormone, which is produced by follicles in the ovary that give rise to eggs. Cats that received the shot overproduced the hormone, which seems to disrupt the formation of their ovarian follicles, preventing ovulation. No cats given the shot became pregnant, despite spending lots of time with a willing male.

The study is small–there were only six treated cats and three controls–but experts say it’s by far the most promising progress they’ve seen towards the “holy grail” of pet contraception. If the approach proves safe and long-lasting (ideally permanent)–and if it works in dogs–it could truly revolutionize birth control for dogs and cats. No joking.

A classic German Shepherd (Hans Kemperman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Most modern breeds as we know them trace back less than 160 years. And yet the supposed personalities of these dogs feel like they have been engrained forever. Labrador retrievers are lovable and friendly. Border collies are neurotic and energetic. Chihuahuas are yappy. But things aren’t quite that straightforward, according to a new study that puts these temperaments to the test.

Researchers drew on data from thousands of dogs across the U.S., including genetics and owner surveys. As expected, most breeds have a defined look. When you shop for a German Shepherd, you’re going to get a tall canine with a bushy tail and pointy ears. But behaviors such as playfulness, trainability, and attachment to people varied widely, even within the same breed. The bottom line, says one of the study authors: If you’re looking for a dog with a specific personality, “you shouldn’t shop out of a catalog. Each dog is an individual.” (A website the team set up shows just how hard it is to know what you might get.)

Read more about this research in my latest story for Science. 

(Credit: Photo by Bicanski on Pixnio)

One of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is that I’ve been able to write a lot more about dogs and cats than I usually do.

I’ve been trying to keep pet owners updated on what the latest science says about the impact of the coronavirus on pets.

Now, with human vaccines in the spotlight, cat and dog parents might be asking themselves if they need to worry about a vaccine for Fluffy and Fido. The short answer is “no”. Pets–as scientists have long said–seem to play little role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and they don’t seem to suffer serious symptoms either.

But if a pet vaccine was needed, how quickly could it be developed? And what would it look like? I answer these and other questions in my latest story for Science.

Way back in March–which feels like a lifetime ago–I wrote my first article for Science about COVID-19 and pets. As with humans at the time, experts knew very little about how susceptible pets were, what their symptoms were, and how likely they were to transfer the virus to humans.

Flash forward nearly six months and there’s a lot we still don’t know. But a slew of new studies is starting to provide some answers. In my latest story for Science,  I detail everything we currently know about the new coronavirus and our cats and dogs. Should you get your pet tested? How much of a risk do pets pose to us, and vice versa? And what safety precautions should you be taking with you pets? Here’s what the experts are saying.

Credit: By Keith Kissel – http://flickr.com/photos/74419347@N00/107382056This file has been extracted from another file: June odd-eyed-cat.jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18523021

Ever since I wrote a Q&A on pets and coronavirus a few weeks ago, I’ve gotten a lot of emails (and some tweets) from concerned pet owners. They want to know whether their pets can get the new virus, SARS-CoV-2, and whether there’s any chance they can pass it on to humans.

The short answer is: it’s very unlikely. There is currently no scientific evidence that pets can pass COVID-19 to people, and very little evidence that cats and dogs can become infected with the coronavirus.

Here’s what we know so far: Two dogs (both in Hong Kong) and one cat (in Belgium) have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. All lived–or had close contact–with covid-positive humans, so experts suspect they got the virus from people. And this week, researchers showed that cats could become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and pass it on to other cats–but the research was done in artificial laboratory conditions, and experts are skeptical it would translate to the real world.

Given that there are hundreds of millions of cats and dogs in the world, there is no evidence so far that human-to-pet transmission is a widespread problem. And there is zero evidence that pets can transmit the virus to people. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies say the same.

At the same time, veterinarians want more information. Several labs have developed tests that could determine if a dog or a cat was infected, but none are in widespread use because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recommended against it. Experts also say that–given the scale of the human problem and the lack of evidence on the pet side–the focus of testing right now should be on people.

All of this could change if more evidence comes out that pets can become infected or transmit the virus. But, for now, “It’s really important that people don’t panic,” as the CDC told me. And DON’T ABANDON YOUR PETS. In these scary and isolating times, they need you–and you need them–more than ever.

Credit: Schmidti333 / Wikimedia Commons

The new coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic. But many questions remain about how the virus spreads and the best way to combat it. Pet owners have questions too. Can we pass the new coronavirus to our cats and dogs? Can pets serve as a reservoir of the virus and pass it back to us? Should we quarantine our pets too?

Yesterday, I chatted with with Shelley Rankin, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia, about these and other pressing queries.  You can find the full interview here, including advice on what we should be doing right now to protect our pets.

If you have any experiences or advice, please share them in the comments!

Ancient burial of woman and dog. (Credit: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China)

Dogs and cats are the most popular pets in the world. There are more than 200 million of them in the U.S. alone, and hundreds of millions more across the globe. And, as I write in my book, Citizen Canine, they are the most valued animals on Earth. We spend more money on them and are more emotionally invested in them than any other animal. We haven’t just welcomed them into our hearts and homes–we’ve made them fellow members of our society.

Our relationship with cats and dogs is so strong, in fact, that it’s likely to show up in the archaeological record. That’s one of the take-homes of a new study published in Anthropocene. Millions of years from now, researchers argue, it will be clear to future archaeologists–or perhaps visiting aliens–that we valued dogs and cats over all other animals. As we reported in a Q&A at Science with the study authors:

What do you think future archaeologists will make of our relationship with cats and dogs, based on what they see in the fossil record?

Karen Koy: Of all the animals, dogs and cats are more likely to be buried in a manner similar to people. There are pet cemeteries that are set up similar to human memorial parks. So if anything like that is stumbled upon, that’s going to say something different than a pit that people threw a bunch of pigs into randomly. I think it’s going to be obvious that we felt differently about dogs and cats versus pigs and cows and chickens.

Roy Plotnick: Will they think we worshipped them? I have no idea. Religious explanations seem to be a stock answer, but hopefully future researchers are more sophisticated than that.