So, football's not coming home — but what about kitty?

I t's hard not to have got caught up in the football fever, even for someone like me, who is not usually particularly interested. There's something about feeling part of a group that's irresistable, and at a recent Lightning Seeds concert, I heartily sang ‘Football's coming home’ with the rest of the crowd. The feeling of comaraderie was strong, we were all happy, we all wanted the same thing!

Cats, unfortunately for their human owners, don't feel the same about being part of a group. Indeed, it seems that their domestication is so recent that they have not yet managed to evolve genetically to become the companions required of them, and as a result life in the home can prove stressful: so much so that it is estimated that as many as 25% of cats fail to cope and opt for a feral life. Claire Hargrave discusses the genetic barriers to domestication in her fascinating article (p316).