Posted on 09/23/2019 5:07:21 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Although cats have a reputation for being aloof, a new study says they bond with humans much like dogs do.
Researchers at Oregon State University discovered that cats — just like dogs and young children — can form secure or insecure bonds with their humans.
“Like dogs, cats display social flexibility in regard to their attachments with humans,” Kristyn Vitale, study author and researcher at Oregon State University’s Human-Animal Interaction Lab, said in a statement. “The majority of cats are securely attached to their owner and use them as a source of security in a novel environment.”
Vitale and her team wanted to study the level of attachment cats have to their owners, so they used a simple attachment test, which has been conducted before on dogs, with cats. The first group of tests was performed with the owners of nearly 80 kittens, all under the age of eight months. They spent time with their owners for two minutes in an unfamiliar room, then the owners left for two minutes, and then the owners returned for another two minutes. According to attachment theory, the different setting would make some cats stressed out without their humans present.
Upon being reunited with their owners, the scientists then watched how the cats behaved upon seeing their owner again. About 65 percent of the cats and kittens were found to be securely bonded to their owners, according to the study.
The bonding finding gives the researchers hope for how many cats could be placed in homes in the future, especially given how many cats and kittens are present in animal shelters. …
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
What can I say.... ?
Talent on loan from God...?
Cats think humans are useful domestic animals.
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If cats had opposed thumbs, they wouldn’t need us.
stop it!! LOL
Cats allow us to bond with them, plain and simple.
I was against getting the cats because I didn’t believe that the kids would take care of the cats.
I unfortunately was correct.
Maybe the cats chose me because I took their attention on their terms and I was the one that put food in their bowl.
My two cats always followed me into the bathroom, and either sat there staring at me, or rubbing their faces up against the cabinet. As soon as I headed to bed, they'd be up there too. One loved to have his belly rubbed, and would lay on his back so I could do that. Whenever I stopped, he'd put his paw on my hand which was his way of telling me to keep doing it.
What about that billion years of tiger DNA (as the mayhem guy says in the insurance commercial)?
They are just probing our weaknesses.
Make that “sanbi no neko”.
Big cat will lie there in ecstasy for as long as you are willing to rub his tummy and give you the sad eyes when you stop.
I do like that.
I tend to be an ‘Alice Tinker’ when it comes to jokes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fhU18rxFNg
So true! I have four right now. Three of them are male and are rescues. The female I have was a gift from a former student. I got my first Siamese when I was 17 and she lived to be 18 years old. My most favorite one lived to be 17.5 years old and sadly died of lymphoma. He was the sweetest, most affectionate cat I ever had and was also a rescue. I still miss him every day and he died four years ago this month.
They’re all different; but some cats go right for the person who seems aloof.
Is that pic from Cathouse On The Kings? The woman looks like the owner. We donate heavily to that charity.
Our cats have gone so far as telling the wife and I they don’t want to be called ‘’cats’’ anymore. They’ve told us they want to be known as “Feline-Americans’’.
That’s a funny commercial. I like his collar and tag. And “Mayhem” would be a great cat name.
This is so stupid, conducting a study to discover what every person owned by a cat has known since cats started keeping humans.
These nut jobs must live in some sterile bubble free of any animals, and likely hire some other clown to go to a shelter, pick up a cat, take it home then study them.
Just effing stupid!
We our latest bond is with a feral cat we started feeding as a kitten. It comes running to us whenever we go outside and wants to be held as we go for our daily walk. Feeding it and bodily contact tamed it, and it has bonded like any other cat will.
“She is starting to get hinky around other people,”
Ours are very sheltered. They’re super socialized when it’s only DH and me in the house. If the doorbell rings, they run to our bedroom and snake up the side of the bed and hide under the top quilt. So there’s a king bed with five lumps.
I’m glad they’re shy around strangers. I’d be afraid they try to escape when we answered the door.
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