There was a time when cats were considered the easy pet, meant for those who wanted a furry friend without all the fuss. But as the animal behaviorist Zazie Todd, PhD, explains in What Cats Need on page 16, the complex lives of our kitties mean weve got to put in the work. Throughout this issue, we go beyond the basics of food and litter boxes, explaining what cats require to thrive and live with joy: novelty from social play with owners and a rich assortment of toys; constant motivation, in the form of positive reinforcement, to help them learn; and easy access to a vet. Cats also need the sense of territory and privacy the wild endowsrequiring the kind of specialized resource distribution within our homes that animal behaviorist Mikel Delgado describes in At Home on the Range, on page 38. Elevating the house cats life is made easier by advances in science, from research showing how cats track humans through buildings to new technologies for translating a cats meaning into the spoken word. If you want to give your kitty her best life, this issue is a start.