Lose a Cat?
Posted on 02/25/2011 1:31:11 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
The bond between cats and their owners turns out to be far more intense than imagined, especially for cat aficionado women and their affection reciprocating felines, suggests a new study.
Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it's not just for the sake of obtaining food, according to the new research, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Behavioural Processes.
The study is the first to show in detail that the dynamics underlying cat-human relationships are nearly identical to human-only bonds, with cats sometimes even becoming a furry "child" in nurturing homes.
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"Food is often used as a token of affection, and the ways that cats and humans relate to food are similar in nature to the interactions seen between the human caregiver and the pre-verbal infant," co-author Jon Day, a Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition researcher, told Discovery News. "Both cat and human infant are, at least in part, in control of when and what they are fed!"
For the study, led by Kurt Kotrschal of the Konrad Lorenz Research Station and the University of Vienna, the researchers videotaped and later analyzed interactions between 41 cats and their owners over lengthy four-part periods. Each and every behavior of both the cat and owner was noted. Owner and cat personalities were also assessed in a separate test. For the cat assessment, the authors placed a stuffed owl toy with large glass eyes on a floor so the feline would encounter it by surprise.
The researchers determined that cats and their owners strongly influenced each other, such that they were each often controlling the other's behaviors. Extroverted women with young, active cats enjoyed the greatest synchronicity, with cats in these relationships only having to use subtle cues, such as a single upright tail move, to signal desire for friendly contact.
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While cats have plenty of male admirers, and vice versa, this study and others reveal that women tend to interact with their cats -- be they male or female felines -- more than men do.
"In response, the cats approach female owners more frequently, and initiate contact more frequently (such as jumping on laps) than they do with male owners," co-author Manuela Wedl of the University of Vienna told Discovery News, adding that "female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners."
Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later. If owners comply with their feline's wishes to interact, then the cat will often comply with the owner's wishes at other times. The cat may also "have an edge in this negotiation," since owners are usually already motivated to establish social contact.
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Although there are isolated instances of non-human animals, such as gorillas, bonding with other species, it seems to be mostly unique for humans to engage in social relationships with other animals. In this case with cats, it's for very good reason. Cats could very well be man's -- and woman's -- best friend.
"A relationship between a cat and a human can involve mutual attraction, personality compatibility, ease of interaction, play, affection and social support," co-author Dorothy Gracey of the University of Vienna explained. "A human and a cat can mutually develop complex ritualized interactions that show substantial mutual understanding of each other's inclinations and preferences."
Dennis Turner, a University of Zurich-Irchel animal behaviorist, told Discovery News the he's "very impressed with this study on human-cat interactions, in that it has taken our earlier findings a step higher, using more modern analytical techniques to get at the interplay between cat and human personalities."
Turner, who is also senior editor of The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour (Cambridge University Press), added that he and his colleagues "now have a new dimension to help us understand how these relationships function."
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Kotrschal's team is presently involved in a long-term study of man's other well-known animal best friend: dogs.
Awwwww..
Great pic!
I'm still waiting.....
Stuffy (Persian/Siamese female) is funny. I think I sort of shock her every time I stroke her fur as she does not like for me to touch her. Husband is big and she runs from him, but not from me. She’s picky and won’t eat a lot of things. Tuna, freshly purchased sliced deli turkey, sometimes fresh chicken breast, baked salmon or fish, dry 9 Lives, a little milk. That’s it; won’t eat beef. She’s aloof; wish she wasn’t, but that’s just her. Husband claims he doesn’t like her, but he spoils her rotten.
I had a domestic long hair that would paw my cheek to awaken me. Very well-mannered he was.
Then what would I call the wife??? ;-))
Gotta BUST this.
I have a MALE Tortoishell cat. One in a million, my vet says. She’s only seen one other in her years of being a vet.
Also, I have three WHITE cats, none of whom are deaf.
So much for the “experts”.
Well, in our house, the cat seeks out my husband much more often because the husband is the one who lavishes more affection on him and allows him to jump onto his lap at any time. I occasionally invite the cat onto my lap, which he enjoys in cold weather.
Out cat is apparently pretty bright. He undestands about 15 words, and he will come and get us when he wants something, e.g., food, to be let onto our screened in porch, or into the sunroom or to be tied up outside.
Lol! You’re bad!
My cat is an incredible mouser even now at the age of 11.
We have five. None but the big ‘ol black tom is a mouser.
Hmmm...my cat is not.
Granted, she isn’t as rare, but our Apple is a female orange tabby (85% of orange tabbies are male). But you seem to be a freak-cat magnet! :)
IIRC, the deafness thing in white cats is usually tied to blue eyes. What color are the eyes of your white kittehs?
LOL
Mine is a little more aggressive.
She was a “street kid” before I rescued her.
She is now the queen of this home, and very fastidious!
>Husband claims he doesn’t like her, but he spoils her rotten<
LOL!
We have a siamese. My hubby pretends he doesn’t like the meezer, calls her stupid and all of it, but he lets her sit on his lap while he’s in the oval office, covers her up when it’s cold and takes pictures of her.
does this explain all the cat farmers out there???
Good advice!
One white cat has a blue eye & a gold eye, not deaf.
One white cat has two blue eyes, not deaf.
The last white cate has two gold eyes, also not deaf.
Yes, I am a magnet.
I believe one of those outside critters put a sign on my house that says “look in the house thru the doors on the deck when the humans are there, look hungry, and they’ll feed you”.
They show up on my deck (we live in the country/rural), and ask for something to eat.
I feed them, and sometimes take them in.
My cat is a black and white DSH and barely qualifies as a female Tuxedo cat.
She’s about 3 years old, and our best guess is that she was abandoned in a foreclosure.
She was hiding in my garage starting June 2010. Started distance talking to her in July 2010. By August 2010 she pretty much stayed in the garden and garage and my wife who dead set against cats took a liking to her and said: “Let’s feed her!”
Well here we are today:
1. She stalks me and know my every move and routine.
2. She knows how to open a door - lever knob - and all by herself. If it weren’t a heavy fire door - she’d be able to push it open.
3. She eats birds, mice, rats, bugs - and as far as my wife is concerned - the bonus is that she eats cockroaches. That sealed the deal with my wife. She has the cockroach phobia.
4. She’s an outstanding communicator in terms of giving hints at what it is she wants.
5. She does have 3 bad habits which we tolerate:
- She ankle swipes when she wants something.
- She anal gland discharges when pet on the rump - and she doesn’t know she is doing it.
- She like all female cats I associate with for some reason think that I will tolerate bitten hands and scratched arms as part of playtime - followed by appreciative licks afterwards.
Somehow, female cats read me 100% right off the back.
Overall, she is turning out to be great cat. The previous owner let go one helluva cat in my honest opinion.
=8-)
“She like all female cats I associate with for some reason think that I will tolerate bitten hands and scratched arms as part of playtime - followed by appreciative licks afterwards.”
Our cat does this too! Although I’ve never gotten the licks after the bites, probably because I usually bop her in the head when she bites me (and for some reason this hasn’t stopped her yet).
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