They're too cute for their own good. They being hunted down to extinction for pets to export to the US and other countries.
Posted on 12/02/2013 5:07:58 PM PST by Dysart
Cats, according to new research, recognize their owner’s voice. They just can’t be bothered to react to it.
Researchers in Japan arrived at this conclusion after performing experiments with twenty house cats. They played recordings of the cats’ owners’ calling to their pets in whatever cat-talk voice they typically used. They also played recordings of three strangers calling to the cats, using the same words.
To quantify the cats’ reactions, the researchers recorded how often cats moved their head, tail, paws or ears, or whether they meowed or dilated their pupils. While the cats showed a significantly greater response to their owners calling their names than to strangers doing so, they did not bother to get up in either instance, the researchers found.
As the Independent explains, the authors think cats’ dismissive attitudes are a product of their evolutionary history over the past 9,000 years:
As early societies developed agriculture, these cats moved in to prey on the rodents that were attracted to stores of grain. In the words of the paper’s authors, they effectively “domesticated themselves”.
“Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.” This is in contrast to the history of dogs and humans, where the former has been bred over thousands of years to respond to orders and commands. Cats, it seems, never needed to learn.
Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/12/cats-recognize-their-owners-voice-but-chose-to-ignore-it/#ixzz2mMyn7FKZ Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.smithsonianmag.com ...
His deaf uncle must have just said whiskey repeatedly until some appeared. Not necessary to hear! LOL
Mine as well. In fact, mine is more obedient and “by my side” than my Pugs were.
Those dogs were hot air balloons with fur.
Researchers needed to waste taxpayer/donated funds to find out THIS fact? All they had to do was ask a cat owner or two. Study done. Mine have turned ignoring me into an art form.
Checking in to report I have been given the finger (again).
Now she is eyeballing the couch. She thinks she’s gonna get some kind of reaction when she starts shredding it.
In the name of research, I am prepared to sacrifice the couch.
This is a battle of intelligence.
GMF sounds like a steely one for sure, and I’m sure sorry about the couch but this is for the enrichment of the hive mind after all.
They're too cute for their own good. They being hunted down to extinction for pets to export to the US and other countries.
Mark Twain once went on book tour with a fellow author who was such a lush that Twain locked him in their hotel room until it was time for them to go & speak before their admirers.
When Twain unlocked the door his colleague was even drunker than before. The confined author had bribed a bellhop to hold a bottle of whiskey on the other side of the door with a straw through the keyhole, and he imbibed deeply.
Anyway, I once had a beautiful cat who came when I called on any occasion, & always craved attention. I had rescued her as a kitten & my wife said she was `my cat’. Miss them both......
"Adversity introduces a man to himself."
This is news?
I would constantly see couples in my rearview mirror pointing and laughing at the bumper sticker...I even got pulled over one night because I had a tail light out, and the cop said (as he handed my license back) "I like your bumper sticker..."
My wife actually forced me to get a hearing test, and it came out fine...:)
I always insist to her that I hear EVERYTHING she says, because I know she will quiz me on it!
Smashing!
SIgh. Life here is so short for all of us, but sometimes longest for those who are left.
Our cats come when called — by the sound of the can-opener.
One of mine is that way with the catnip bag. He also loves to play fetch with his stuffed mouse.
Heh, Gary Larson was the best ever, in my book!
I never named my cat of 18 years, so a whistle worked as my call.
My wife opens a can of wet cat food whenever she wants to get my attention. I’ve got to try harder to ignore her.
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