Could music therapy for cats really be legit?

No one has declared it the official song of the summer yet, but “Leeloo and Fur ends” makes some noise.

Purring noises, to be exact. “Leeloo and Fur-ends” is the first track on “Power of the Purr,” a 10-song playlist that hit YouTube last month. It’s a made-in-Toronto collaboration between Grammy award-winning producer Nineteen85 (aka Paul Jefferies), Purina’s Fancy Feast, and some really cool local cats, including Leeloo, a brown tomcat whose purrs are woven into the songs on the playlist.

“My ultimate goal is to make music that makes people feel and transport something,” says Nineteen85. “I am very excited for Canadian cats and their families to move, groove and experience this unique collection of music created with the aim of creating calming moments of connection.”

Laugh if you like about tasting spiders, but a specific album, “Music for Cats”, It has been shown to help cats cope with stressful situations. It was recorded by David Teie – a cellist with Washington DC’s National Symphony Orchestra and almost certainly the world’s most prominent cat composer – who collaborated with animal scientists to create music with “ecologically appropriate” characteristics for cats.

“When I first heard about this, I thought, ‘That’s a bunch of malarkey,'” recalls Jacklyn Ellis, the behavior director of the Toronto Humane Society. “And then I read the papers and I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s actually some clear evidence.'”

“Music for Cats” is the only cat music that has been well studied to measure its effect on cats. It has been the subject of at least three clinical studies, one of which observed cats during a routine vet visit.

“They had three groups of cats, one that played classical music, a group of cats that played cat-specific music, and a group of cats that had the exam without music,” Ellis said. “They found that the cats that heard the music designed specifically for cats had lower ‘cat stress’ scores and it was much easier for the vets to examine them.”

At the Toronto Humane Society, Teie’s cat music plays all day in the background where cats are housed. The people don’t seem to mind either. Ellis said it sounds like “spa music, but with spiders.”

Should Pet Parents Try This at Home? Ellis says it can be a helpful tool, especially for people with anxious cats.

“It won’t hurt, and there’s reason to believe it will help,” she said. “It’s not a bad idea to let it play when you’re going to be out of the house for a long time or if you feel like there’s a chance something might come up that might scare them.”

I played “Power of the Purr” to my own cats, Sophia and Rocco, but unfortunately I couldn’t see if they noticed. So I bought two more albums from Teie and made a cat music playlist. The results were mixed. Soph seemed interested at first, but then walked away. Rocco came to play after I switched it to a human playlist. It was a fun afternoon, which made me think that even if their reaction to the music was minimal, it might have helped the band.

“‘Music for Cats’ seems to be more effective at reducing stress than human music or silence,” Ellis said. “But there is some reason to believe that human music is still better than silence.”

Anyone who sings to their cats (a surprising number of people according to my casual social media poll) probably already knows that.

“Our cats gather around the piano when one of us plays,” says Andrea Ledwell, a Toronto-based graphic designer. “Boy Cat especially likes Bach and sometimes leans into me and purrs while I play. He is the old soul of the two cats.”

Girl Cat loves every old tune Ledwell plays.

Toronto resident Piper MacFadyen says her cat, 13-year-old Ash, has calmed down since kittenhood when he hears M. Ward’s “Transistor Radio,” while Toronto actuary Rob Corkum said his cats, Dipper and Mabel, do that don’t seem to have. no favorite albums, but there are definitely a few that they clearly don’t like.

“Sun Ra cleans the room every time,” Corkum said. “They don’t appreciate Tool either.”

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