Sunday, April 6, 2014

Ever wonder how your cat sees you?


Just as my cat Cam dropped a rolled-up sock on my lap and gave me a wide-eyed look of anticipation, my eye caught a link to an article in the National Geographic Daily News:  “What Do Cats Think About Us?  You May Be Surprised.”

I tossed the sock into the next room, clicked on the link and, true to the title, I was surprised. 

The researcher (and author of the book "Cat Sense") is John Bradshaw, a cat behavior expert at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.  Bradshaw says that although dogs recognize us as a different species and treat us accordingly, cats don’t seem to understand that we’re not, well, other cats.  

Bradshaw has observed that as soon as dogs see their owners, they change their behavior.  The way they play with people is nothing like the way they play with each other.   But cats, he says, are different:  All that head bumping, wrapping around our legs and grooming us is exactly what cats do to each other.

To some extent, I agree with this expert. My two cats do sometimes treat me like another cat, especially when they nip my toe and run away because they aren’t getting the attention they want.  Brats!  They pick on each other in very similar ways.  But I wonder if Mr. Bradshaw has any personal cats at home.  If he does, maybe they don’t display some of the behaviors that, to me, seem like unique cat-to-human interaction.

For example, the sock Cam just dropped in my lap.  I’ve never seen either cat take a toy to the other and drop it in front of him.  Cam loves to play, and he meows loudly and pounds relentlessly on the drawer where his toys are kept.  He’ll interrupt that behavior by jumping into my lap and staring at me until I make eye contact; then it’s back to the meowing and thumping. He doesn’t run to his brother and ask him to open the drawer.  He knows I’m the toy guy.   Ditto for food.  They both know I’m the food guy. 

In addition to carefully observing cat-to-human behavior, Bradshaw spent many hours watching the interaction among groups of cats.  His research led him to one conclusion that I’ve been harping on to my clients for many years:  Cats are sociable, but not to the degree dogs are.  Although many dogs enjoy being around other dogs, cats might not care for company as much as their owners think they do.  So before you run out and bring home another cat, remember that your cat already has one or more big, clumsy pseudo-cats in its environment:  us.   And we may be enough.