Houston, we have a litter box problem.
We’re figuring out how to send people to Mars. But can we bring our cats?
For National Cat Day, Everyday Mars explores life on the Red Planet with humanity’s most independent, occasionally affectionate, and almost certainly most judgmental companions.
After Dogs on Mars with Dr. Clive Wynne and Pets on Mars with Dr. Jamie Foster, it’s finally the cats’ turn.
Joining me is Dr. Mikel Delgado, a cat behavior expert, researcher, certified applied animal behaviorist, and author of Play With Your Cat! She earned her psychology PhD at UC Berkeley, researched feline behavior at UC Davis, and co-founded Feline Minds.
Together, we ask what cats need to thrive—and whether a Martian settlement could provide it. How do you train a cat for space travel? Handle kitty litter in zero gravity? Feed an obligate carnivore on Mars? And would bringing cats along be fair to them?
We explore domestication, training, feline affection, catios, allergies, kitty litter, enrichment, and Félicette, the first cat to successfully travel into space.
Along the way, we ask whether future generations could meet an entirely new population of Martian cats.
Because surviving on Mars is one thing. Convincing a cat to choose its multimillion-dollar habitat over the cardboard box it arrived in? That might be the real challenge.

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Articles:

• ”Early Taming of the Cat in Cyprus”: link

• ”Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt”: link

• ”More evidence for cat taming at the Predynastic elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt)”: link

• ”The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2,000 years ago”: link

• ”Ancient Pets. The health, diet and diversity of cats, dogs and monkeys from the Red Sea port of Berenice (Egypt) in the 1st–2nd centuries AD”: link

• ”Earliest ‘Domestic’ Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)”: link

• ”Assessment of Clicker Training for Shelter Cats”: link

• ”Social interaction, food, scent or toys? A formal assessment of domestic pet and shelter cat (Felis silvestris catus) preferences”: link

• ”Dogs outperform cats both in their testability and relying on human pointing gestures: a comparative study”: link

• ”A comparative study of the use of visual communicative signals in interactions between dogs (Canis familiaris) and humans and cats (Felis catus) and humans”: link

• ”Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words”: link

• ”Carrier training cats reduces stress on transport to a veterinary practice”: link

• ”Comparison of positive reinforcement training in cats: A pilot study”: link

• ”Human-animal interaction: understanding the role of dog and cat interactions in emotional wellbeing”: link

• ”The Impact of Cat Fostering on Older Adult Well-Being and Loneliness: A Feasibility Study”: link

• ”Effects of Interactions with Cats in Domestic Environment on the Psychological and Physiological State of Their Owners: Associations among Cortisol, Oxytocin, Heart Rate Variability, and Emotions”: link

• ”Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans”: link

• ”The Relationship Between Attachment to Pets and Mental Health and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review”: link

• ”Experimental Analysis of Human-Cat Interactions During First Encounters”: link

• ”The ethology of the human-cat relationship”: link

• ”Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats”: link

• ”Providing Humans With Practical, Best Practice Handling Guidelines During Human-Cat Interactions Increases Cats’ Affiliative Behaviour and Reduces Aggression and Signs of Conflict”: link

• ”Reduction of active Fel d1 from cats using an antiFel d1 egg IgY antibody”: link

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A huge thank you to Mikel for sharing what cats need to live happy, healthy lives—even on another planet. Thanks to Nick Thorburn for the theme music, Ceci Giglio for the graphics, Jero Squartini for the animations, RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining our Facebook group, and my family for supporting this project.