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.
You are so right. Cats bond and cats remember.
A long time ago I was asked to care for a foster cat. It was temporary. Five years later I ‘inherited” the same cat. They handed it to me in a carrier where it had howled, pooped and peed for hours. The minute the cat carrier came into the house the cat stopped crying. I opened the door to the carrier (reluctantly) and the cat came out, walking low, and it immediately recognized where it was.
Five years is a long time. That’s half a life span for some cats. Cats are smart.