Posted on 01/12/2014 12:13:45 AM PST by Slings and Arrows
If you own a cat, you probably identify as something like its mother, albeit a human version, who feeds it, entertains it, and licks its fur to keep it clean (hopefully not). Unfortunately, your cat sees your pet-owner relationship much differently, according to the new book Cat Sense by English biologist Dr. John Bradshaw. It actually thinks you’re a “larger, non-hostile” cat.
-snip-
When a cat kneads your body or the surface of a bed, it’s a behavior that’s meant for its mother’s belly, a message to keep milk flowing. Rubbing up against a human leg or hand is a way of treating you as another cat, “the clearest way cats show their affection for us,” Bradshaw explains. Leaving dead rats around the house isn’t a way of “feeding” their owners, but rather, the cats want a safe place to eat their kill. When they actually take a bite of the victim, they realize their normal human-delivered cat food tastes way better. And if you’ve ever seen a rat in any major city, this should be obvious.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsfeed.time.com ...
Smart dog. She's right.
How do you know you’re not a giant cat?
“It actually thinks you’re a “larger, non-hostile” cat”
Well, that’s better than “pathetic thrall whom I shall allow to continue to serve me until I get *completely* bored with it.” Which is how I think most cats see us.
Oddly enough, it’s how I think most Democratic politicians see us, too.
Meow!
And for some strange reason I kinda still miss that.
Hmm, I’ve seen stories where cats attack their humans...why’s that...do the humans suddenly become a threat???
I fear that once the cat learns how to open his tuna tins himself , I will be rendered redundant. (Yet Another human casualty of the Great Obama Depression’s ever- increasing unemployment )
I’m lucky she lets us live here. We’ll be homeless if she figures out how to open the cans.
Some cats, like some people, just aren’t right in the head. Trust me.
Nah, she’ll still let you offer her tribute.
It actually thinks you’re a “larger, non-hostile” cat.
That’s why a pet fish in a fish tank works for me. No chance of the small ones attacking one.
Don’t know about her, but I’m feeling no hostility.
Maybe she’ll let me in from the backyard once a day to do scoops. I’ll stand at the door with a dead bird in my mouth.
True. OTOH, not much purring or chin skritchies.
Now you’re speaking her language!
Maybe now would be a good time to explain to her why its annoying when she flicks little Fancy Feast pieces around her food bowl on the floor.
(Yeah, right. I need this job too much to make a complaint.)
Also fish don't bite. Very low maintenance pets.
But I totally get the comfort cats & dogs can give. Its so easy to talk to them they meow or bark back while fish do nothing.
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