A time for play
Like kids, cats need recess too
Anews story in the July 22 River Valley & Ozark edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noted that 24 elementary schools statewide had been chosen to participate in a pilot recess program that extends the amount of play time students will receive each day.
As prescribed by Act 1062 of the Arkansas General Assembly’s Regular 2017 session, students in kindergarten through grade four will be allowed 60 minutes of unstructured and undirected play per day, and students in grades five and six will be allowed at least 45 minutes of unstructured and undirected play per day.
This extended recess program is driven by research showing that young children need time to release pent-up energy so they may concentrate better in the classroom.
A variety of research on the value of recess, as reported in scholarly research journals over the past 20 years, shows that recess activities can help students concentrate better in the classroom, as well as help them with weight control, overall health and socialization.
The need for energy release is no different for both kittens and older cats, with kittens generally needing more release time than their elders. Call it feline recess.
Although many cat owners are content to ignore their animals during days when work outside the home requires nine or more hours of their time, some owners also ignore their animals before and after work, other than to feed them and perhaps hold them on their laps for short amounts of time.
Such passive attention can lead to kitty boredom and energy buildup that manifests itself as misbehavior, with the foremost offensive behaviors being indiscriminate chewing, “accidents” outside the litter box and other destructive acts around the house.
In turn, these activities frustrate owners and cause them to needlessly punish their pets, re-home their pets, or drop them at the nearest animal shelter.
The owners don’t realize that feline recess should be an integral part of every feline’s day.
Professional cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy, host of the Animal Planet Network’s My Cat from Hell program (soon to begin airing its ninth season), preaches that kittens generally need at least 20 minutes of rigorous playtime (recess) twice a day to release their pent-up energy and keep them civil.
Older cats generally need a bit less, but there are exceptions.
This type of play can involve chasing an object tied to a string, following a lead object through an obstacle course that requires a good deal of movement, or running after a pingpong ball or other light, rolling object. When play time is complete, cat treats may be used as a reward, so the feline associates exercise with positive reinforcement.
Compared to a tightly wound animal with energy bursting to be released, an exhausted feline often is more receptive to being held and to being with other animals, as well as less likely to engage in destructive behaviors when left alone.
It also is less likely to be misunderstood by its owner!
If you own a feline, be sure to provide it with sufficient recess from what might be an otherwise humdrum life that can lead to easily preventable destructive behavior.
And hope that Arkansas children who participate in the pilot recess program benefit from it as much as felines benefit from their recesses.