What Do Cats Think About Us? You May Be Surprised

National Geograhic ^ | 1/28/14 | Christine Dell'Amore

[DallasBiff]

Since cats first got their adorable claws into us about 9,500 years ago, humans have had a love affair with felines.

Today more than 80 million cats reside in U.S. homes, with an estimated three cats for every dog on the planet. (Watch a video about the secret lives of cats.) Yet there's still a lot we don't know about our feline friends—including what they think of their owners.

[kelly4c]

My two cats greet me at the door every evening. They also love to curl up with me at night :)

[kelly4c]

We adopted two cats at the same time from a shelter but they were from different states and amazingly they’ve always gotten along and are very much a bonded pair. A Tuxedo and orange tabby.

[kelly4c]

Not all cats are like that. They have different personalities. Right now I’ve got a timid but vocal tuxedo who couldn’t hurt a fly and an orange tabby that is as affectionate as any dog could be.

[Dr. Sivana]

There is an evil cat named after you in Dickens’ “Bleak House”(great book)

[AbnSarge]

Our cats greet me with a look of severe disappointment, then look past me to see it my wife is following

[JimRed]

“…what they think of their owners.”

Dogs have owners; cats have staff.

[sauropod]

I caught that. Ted approves.

[linMcHlp]

Cats are notorious for not thinking.

[Seaplaner]

I love animals and I admire people who like and care for animals.

I especially love dogs and birds.

Cats, and I know many very nice people like them, cats are blood thirsty bird murderers, and they love to make their prey suffer for their own amusement.

In my foothill neighborhood, we had dozens of quail, robins, dove, and several other bird species. Then a cat-owing neighbor moved in, and in very short order, all the quail and dove and robins are gone.

[reasonisfaith]

I knew somebody out there would catch it.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Monday night this week, I stayed at Heidi’s Inn in Ilwaco, WA. They have a motel cat in the lobby that is the friendliest cat I’ve ever seen. When I was checking in, he wouldn’t leave me alone. It’s really rare to find a cat that friendly with strangers, especially when having to deal with a steady stream of strangers.

Our local hardware used to have a very mellow orange tabby store cat. He would snooze on top of the big old CRT computer monitor. He loved having customers dote on him and scratch him behind his ears.

[EinNYC]

My Maine Coon is currently howling because she didn’t like the flavor of canned food offered a couple hours ago, and so didn’t eat it. So now she’s hungry and wants me to give her another can of food in a flavor she likes better. No dice. This is a common thing that she does and she still has not learned that I’m not giving her another can of food because she didn’t like the previous can’s flavor.

[trebb]

Cats are like Dems - pleased as pie to be fawned over and treated to the good life but they maintain their ability for cruelty and killing...

[ladyjane]

I expected a comment about husbands would elicit a reaction on a Friday night. ;-)

[Dr. Sivana]

We husbands are desensitized to women making comments about us as a class.

First mention of "Lady Jane" in "Bleak House".

The birds began to stir and chirp.

“I cannot admit the air freely,” said the little old lady—the room was close, and would have been the better for it—“because the cat you saw downstairs, called Lady Jane, is greedy for their lives. She crouches on the parapet outside for hours and hours. I have discovered,” whispering mysteriously, “that her natural cruelty is sharpened by a jealous fear of their regaining their liberty. In consequence of the judgment I expect being shortly given. She is sly and full of malice. I half believe, sometimes, that she is no cat, but the wolf of the old saying. It is so very difficult to keep her from the door.”

[ladyjane]

Your post is very interesting to me. When I signed up for FR years ago I couldn’t think of a screen name. My mother used to call me that name when she tried to get me to behave. “Stand right there, Lady Jane...” she would say. And my mother loved Charles Dickens. I strongly that she got the name from the ill-fated one from England and the cat from Bleak House.

[Albion Wilde]

This thread needs more memes!

[CottonBall]

lol, love that last kitty!

thx for the ping

[CottonBall]

“I’d rather the crooks in DC had given that 61 billion to animal shelters instead of Ukraine”

Can you imagine the amount of misery that would be prevented? I’m even more mad about it now. Can I steal that for a tagline?

[CottonBall]

“Probably some of the smartest cats there are are Tuxedos”

I wish I had kept the little tuxedo from my first rescue litter. He was so smart. I came home one day and he was prancing around the kitchen, somehow he got through the baby gate and I still don’t know how. When I was let all of them terrorize the house, he would figure out some new fun thing to do like climb all the boxes to get to the top of the curio cabinet. Then he would wait up there until one by one, all his litter mates figured it out. Then he would take off and go find something else to teach them.

It would peer over the edge of the washer to find out where the water was coming from. He was curious about everything.