Even dog people must admit that cats are having a moment. In a year where Sen. JD Vance’s comment about “childless cat ladies” touched off a political firestorm, and a New York magazine article called “Is My Cat a Prisoner?” positioned our pets as windows on our souls (or lack thereof), a book by a jovial Parisian veterinary psychiatrist has steadily climbed the French bestseller lists. Just translated and published in the United States, Claude Béata’s “The Interpretation of Cats” puts cats on the couch — as well as their human companions.

“What do we do with cats?” Béata asked recently over aperitifs in a cafe not far from the Eiffel Tower. “Today, they are iconic. But yesterday they were devils — witches’ familiars. And tomorrow maybe they will be devils again. Because we don’t understand them. We just project.”

He added, “Cats are not so easily understandable as dogs. Dogs are a social species; it’s easy to talk with them. Cats are strangers.”

In “The Interpretation of Cats,” Béata, 65, explains feline behavior by introducing us to the hyperactive Nougatine, who wreaks chaos wherever he goes; the hypervigilant Caramel; the fiercely territorial Kiss and Cheri; and others, many with appetizing names. But the book was not written just so people can understand why their cats act as they do. It’s also a fount of practical tips for cat owners. He recommends, for instance, that people give cats a drinking place, an eating place and a sleeping place they can claim as their own: “They are individuals and we have to respect them.”

Some of Béata’s advice is culturally specific. The French don’t have a concept of “cat people” as the natural adversaries of “dog people” (vive la différence), and Béata often suggests that his human clients get one of each. Also, the French tend to be more sex-positive when it comes to their pets. For Béata, to deny an animal the ability to reproduce is, in some sense, curtailing their liberties.

Many of Béata’s prescriptions are universal, however. For example, he wishes to tear down the stigma against keeping cats indoors. As he points out, cats are a relatively new arrival to the human home, far more recent than dogs. They are still wild animals — small ones, programmed for vigilance (and, sometimes, violence). When they venture outside, they are both predator and prey. As such, cats who are free to wander may find it harder to relax in your lap, and they are also less likely to play — they’re too tired. Outdoor cats live an average of four years less than housebound cats, a difference that Béata attributes partly to stress.

Cat owners, Béata said, should always remember that their pets like to keep to themselves. That’s why COVID was hard for cats, compared to dogs: “In general, dogs were so happy that the people were there. But cats, the first day they would say, ‘Wow, interesting.’ The second day they say, ‘OK.’ The third day they say, ‘When are you going back to work? I’d like my space, please.’”

If “The Interpretation of Cats” has one overarching refrain, it is the uselessness — the cruelty, but especially the uselessness — of trying to punish a cat. Because cats are fundamentally asocial, because (unlike primates, or canines) they are not hard-wired for hierarchy, negative reinforcement doesn’t register with them, except as a turnoff. They may remember a swat — indeed, Béata says, cats can hold a grudge for life — but they won’t learn from it.

This doesn’t mean we can’t learn from them. In fact, Béata said, cats are excellent teachers, and can help us internalize important lessons about intimacy and consent. “When the #MeToo movement happened, and everyone was speaking of respect for the body, I was thinking, cats are the perfect teachers. Cats say, ‘Don’t touch me if I do not allow you.’”