title: Association between characteristics of cats and satisfaction of owners who adopted cats from an animal hospital in Japan.
abstract: A follow-up questionnaire survey was conducted with 29 cat owners who adopted cats from an animal hospital in Japan. Physical characteristics were found to be important factors for the owners when choosing a cat. There were significant differences between impression of the cat for the owners at present and images of their ideal cats, and the levels of aggression and activeness of the cats at present were rated higher than their ideal cats. A significant negative correlation was found between the degree of satisfaction with the cat and occurrence of house soiling; thus, some behavioral problems may deteriorate the relationship between the owner and the cat.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Companion Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare, Department of Animal Sciences, Graduate School of Science & Engineering, Teikyo University of Science, 2-2-1 Senjusakuragi, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-0045, Japan.
authors.forename: Nodoka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Onodera
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uchida
authors.forename: Yoshie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kakuma
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats / Q000502:physiology*; D004609:Eliminative Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D057805:Pets / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires