Cats that have been rescued don't show any gratitude. True or false?

There is a story on the Fox 13 Tampa Bay website which tells of a grumpy cat showing no gratitude after being rescued from between two walls. The cat had to be chiselled out of their predicament. It happened in Preston, Lancashire, UK. You can see the rescuer and the cat below.

Note about the picture: It is noticeable that the cat is a calico - a tortoiseshell-and-white. Torties have 'catitude' - meaning attitude. This may partially explain why she is described as not being grateful! 💕😉

So the question is why don't cats that have been rescued, sometimes after great effort, so any gratitude to the rescuers who often save their lives. 

Grumpy female cat does not show gratitude for being rescued from being stuck between walls.

Initial point

The initial point to make is that sometimes domestic cats will show their version of gratitude under certain circumstances. They may show subtle signs of it. I can remember a firefighter rescuing a cat from a destroyed building and the cat climbing onto the firefighter. She had a fearful look on her face. But her general demeanour and her behaviour indicated gratitude to me. Therefore, I don't think that we can generalise about domestic cats by saying that under all circumstances domestic cats don't show gratitude. They do sometimes but perhaps a different way to the way humans show it.

Concept of gratitude

I will try and answer that question. The first point to bring up is the concept of "gratitude". As humans know, gratitude means being thankful to others for the help that they have received. Or a gift that they have received. Or they might show gratitude for something good that has happened to them. Or, if a person has been rescued by somebody else. They will thank that person in an act of gratitude.

Human social norms

Why do we do it? Because it's part of good social etiquette. It is part of social norms. These of course are human norms within our human society.

Cats are solitary

To the first point is that cats don't have a society like humans in which they network and interact and help each other.

Cats - by which I mean domestic cats - are essentially solitary creatures because they have inherited their wild cat ancestor's character which is that of a solitary creature.

Multi-cat homes

Of course, domestic cats sometimes live multi-cat homes where they have to be somewhat sociable and get along with other cat. This is an adaptation to living in the human environment in a multi-cat home but cats under these circumstances can be stressed. They are more likely to be stressed than a solitary cat living with their caregiver is unnatural but they adapt as mentioned.

No society

So the point here is that domestic cats don't have a society and they don't have a hierarchy. And therefore they don't have societal norms. And therefore there is no need to be grateful for being rescued.

Domestic cat looking supremely content and grateful for all their caregiver brings them in their lives.

Emotions

There are other issues. An act of gratitude stems from an emotion of thankfulness. And relief. It is doubtful that cats feel these emotions. Domestic cats feel certain emotions such as contentment and fear, anger and friendliness. But it is doubtful that they sense the higher emotions although this is work in progress.

So the emotional background is another point worth mentioning which might be a barrier to being grateful.

RELATED: Infographic on 9 emotions domestic cats feel and 1 they don’t.

Rescuers are often strangers

A third point comes to mind. When a cat such as the one you see in the picture has been rescued from a very difficult and terrifying circumstance they may suddenly meet a complete stranger under very stressful circumstances. Domestic cats are often fearful of strangers. The emotion of fear will certainly block any requirement to feel grateful or to express gratitude.

Not in their armoury of behaviours

The bottom line probably is that domestic gas don't have the social behaviour of expressing gratitude in their armoury of behaviours. It simply does not exist and the reasons above, I hope, help to provide some understanding of this characteristic.

Caveat/exceptions?

There is some caveats. It undermines what I've just said in the last paragraph. If a cat is left alone in your home most of the day and perhaps feels the emotion of separation anxiety, they will be grateful to see you when you come back from work. They will rub against your leg and perhaps purr. They might express their gratitude toward you for returning to them.

And if a cat has a favourite treat and you provide them with this treat, before you provide it they might express their gratitude in anticipation of receiving it by rubbing up against you and going up on their hind legs to head-butt you.

I think therefore that sometimes domestic cat can demonstrate their version of gratitude but it is a bit different to our version.

Wild cats

I have seen conservationists in videos releasing small wild cat species from cages after they have been rescued and rehabilitated. And we the cat running away as fast as possible into the undergrowth. No gratitude whatsoever. This reinforces the argument that cats don't show gratitude. But then, once again, we have to understand the circumstances under which they have been placed which would have been highly stressful for the reasons mentioned above. And they are suddenly surrounded by people. Wild animals are fearful of people in general. People are the world's top predator.

In Africa when they played the sound of human voices as a waterhole through loudspeakers, all the animals were scared. Even a leopard dropped its prey and ran off. They were more scared of the human voice than prey animals are scared of lions!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Diary of a female Palestinian in Gaza recording taking a cat to a veterinary clinic

The Guardian newspaper online is publishing extracts of a diary from a 35-year-old Palestinian man living in Gaza by the name of Ziad. The diary provides us with some insights into life in Gaza under this terrible Israeli onslaught. Note: I first believed the diary was written by a woman because I misinterpreted the name's gender! Hence the title to the article.

A dystopian scene of shattered and destroyed Gaza. Image: UNICEF/UNI453255/EL BABA

We all understand that Israel has a right to retaliate in response to the terrorist attack on October 7 which was horrendously brutal. But to many, Israel have gone too far and they seem to be bent on destroying Gaza. Although I won't get into a political debate on that.

But Ziad is writing his diary within this context; a shattered Gaza were the inhabitants are struggling to survive and remain alive. Within his diary is a little extract of a cat that she rescued and how he deals with her. The cat's name is Manara. The name is Arabic for "Light". I've taken the name to be female.

I hope The Guardian don't mind me republishing a short extract from Ziad's diary:

Saturday 4 November 9.30am: "We finally find a vet where we can take Manara to have the remaining injections. It is 45 minutes’ walk away....I go with Ahmad with Manara in the bag. She does not resist..We finally reach the vet, and he tells us there is no need to give the remaining shot to Manara. He says that her eye is ruined, and all we need to do for the other one is to use eye drops. 

He does not approve of giving her anti-flea medicine because she has scars all over her body...The vet has no food left or cat litter, but he directs us to another shop, which takes another 10 minutes of walking to reach. When we arrive, I feel shocked; there is a lot of destruction around the place. I am scared.

We go into the shop and buy the food and litter. I see a number of birds, fish and one hamster. The owner tells us he has lost many animals because of the bombing....Noon Since Manara has chosen to sleep in an old carton, I go to buy her a box. Finding a box is easy but finding a blanket to put in it is not. There are almost no blankets or covers left."

He goes on to recount that only one shop has the facility where she can withdraw cash with a Visa card but at a very high commission. He goes in search of a blanket for Manara. He walked for an hour visiting every shop on his walk looking for a blanket. One seller offers to provide him with a blanket from his own home. He refuses and thanks him. He eventually finds a bed cover that came with two pillowcases.

RELATED: No cat food in Gaza since the war began on Oct 7. This means cats will become ill through a lack of proper nutrition.

Comment: my comment on the above extract is that it is surprising to me that a veterinarian's clinic remains open but barely. How many are there? Very few I expect which means many companion animals will not be receiving treatment. 

It also tells us that Manara was badly injured and is blind in one eye. She has scars all over her body presumably from injuries suffered in the collapse of a building or a bomb blast. You wonder how Manara feels emotionally. You wonder whether she'll cope emotionally. She must be enormously anxious because of the disruption, noise, irregularity of human movement and activity. 

Domestic cats love calm and regularity, routines and predictability as it reassures them. This cat is suffering the exact opposite while carrying injuries. I don't have much hope for her in the immediate future bearing in mind that Benjamin Netanyahu has committed to bombing and shelling Gaza for months to come. 

And there will be Israeli troops on the ground trying to find and kill Hamas terrorists. That'll mean more destruction of infrastructure and homes and more destruction of children. It is said that around 8000 children have been known to be killed with a possible added 3000 under the rubble.

I don't take sides. But I see a wrong being carried out here which is an over-reaction by Israel. They are using dumb bombs half the time. These are not guided missiles but from simply dropped injected from warplanes. The bombs have not been programmed to hit a certain target.

I wish Manara and Ziad well. I wish them all of God's blessings and all the luck in the world to survive the next months.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Do cats actually love their owners?

I think you've got to start this discussion with a definition of the word "love". And I think most people would agree that it means an intense affection for another. Although this is a very elastic definition. What I mean is that love is a very personal emotion. Different people have different depths of emotion for their significant other when they say that they love them.

And bearing in mind that the term is elastic and that the word "love" normally applies to the affections that a human has for another, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion that a domestic cat can love their owner, in their way, depending upon whether their owner loves them and treats them in a way commensurate with that love.

Love is a two-way street. A person can love another if that person doesn't reciprocate but it won't last. It'll fizzle out eventually. So, love feeds on the love of another. It is entirely mutual as I see it. The love of one magnifies the love of the other and vice versa.

So, taking that introduction into cat ownership, in the best examples, the cat owner loves their cat deeply. They care for them beautifully. They provide a beautiful, enriched feline environment for their cat which is thoroughly enjoyed. The caregiver feeds the best quality cat food and they spend hours together in play and cuddling.

Under that scenario, a cat will love their owner. I think it's impossible to come to any other conclusion. It has to be said, though, that we do not know what is in the mind of a domestic cat. At least we don't know what is in that mind accurately. We can guess through their body language and their vocalisations. But nobody has yet has actually truly read the mind of a domestic cat.

This mutual love between human caregiver and domestic cat is supported, I believe, by the fact that in this relationship the owner is a surrogate mother to an adult cat who feels like a kitten. That's because their every need is provided for. It's just like a cat mother is looking after their kitten.

This is a useful point to make because it supports what I have just said. A kitten is going to have a close connection with their mother and there will be a mutual love bond between them. That's exactly what the cat owner and their cat should replicate.

You can go further than that when the owner is imprinted on the brain of the cat that they are their true mother. This is when the owner has raised a newborn kitten and become imprinted on that kitten has a feline mother not a surrogate mother. And this imprinted mentality will be there for the rest of the cat's life. Under these circumstances there will be a special and super-close relationship of mother and offspring.

I think everybody would agree that the mother-to-offspring relationship is bonded by love and it doesn't matter what species of animal we are talking about.

But I have to return to the beginning and say that the word love is elastic. We don't know how cats feel except that we do know they feel contentment and pain. They are sentient animals. They indicate very strongly to us that they love being around us if we are good cat caregivers. 

They like to sleep on us and next to us. They like to lick us in a friendly example of allogrooming. They like our emotional warmth and our physical warmth. They like the way we smell. They greet us at the front door and they are thoroughly connected to us.

These are all the ingredients of mutual affection which when deep enough qualifies as love.

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The above section of this article was straight out of my head. That's me, Michael. I would like briefly to refer to the words of Dr. John Bradshaw who is a renowned cat behaviourist and who wrote the book Cat Sense. I'm referring to his book.

He says that domestic cats don't automatically love people. "Cat are not born to love people. It is something they have to learn when they are kittens-they do not automatically love other cats [either]."

In that statement Dr. Bradshaw is stating that cats have the potential to love people. He therefore supports what I have said above.

But the whole process of learning to love a person starts off with being socialised. Unless a domestic cat is socialised at an early age, they will probably never totally lose their inherent fear of humans. They will lose 99% of it if and when they are socialised later as adults but it is far better that they are socialised when they are newborn kittens. They lose the fear of people and then building on that they are able to love people especially their provider, their caregiver.

The video maker things cats can love their owners:

Can domestic cats be super-shy?

Shy cat? Screenshot.

The word "shy" is normally used in relation to the emotions and behaviour of humans and it means a person who is nervous or timid in the company of people. On THAT definition domestic cats can certainly be shy because there are two distinct character types for domestic cats namely the confident cat and the timid cat. 

A timid cat is more likely to hide when a stranger enters the room for instance. A more confident cat is more able to adjust to the presence of a stranger and perhaps even approach them. This is about nervousness to new events and strange people. It's about confidence really.

Video

The kitten in the video is called super-shy? I don't think that the kitten is behaving this way because they are shy. It looks that way but I think the looks are misleading. It looks as if this kitten is a little tired and is placing her paws over her eyes in preparation to sleep or snooze.

Discussion about cats being shy - same as for humans?

But I am not sure that domestic cats experience the same kind of shyness that humans do. A young person might be shy in the presence of strangers because they lack confidence and are unsure about themselves. A cat might be shy in the presence of strangers because they lack confidence but the underlying emotion will not be a feeling of unsureness about their abilities but about the potential dangers that a stranger presents to them. It's about self-preservation. That does not come into play when a person is shy.

To stress the point: for a cat being shy it means that they are protecting themselves against an unknown creature whereas for a human being shy it is not about self-protection but about self-confidence. Although the physical behaviour will look similar between cats and humans.

RELATED: Shy male tabby cat falls for pretty gray female and opens up.

Embarrassment

In humans, as well, when they are shy, they can tend to be embarrassed with a red face. Obviously, this does not happen with cats. The emotion of embarrassment is not in the domestic cat's repertoire of emotions as far as I am aware. 

This is a higher emotion and there is a big discussion about whether domestic cats can experience the higher emotions. There is no difficulty in understanding that cats experience the lower emotions such as happiness and sadness, anger and calm but the emotions such as grief and jealousy are up for discussion.

Learned a lot

There is one thing for sure, though, people are gradually learning a lot more about domestic cats and their abilities together with their intelligence and in doing so we are understanding that cats have a greater range of emotions than we had previously thought were possible.

If you go back far enough you even find that some veterinarians didn't believe that cats could feel pain! That's how far we have moved on and a lot of that is thanks to the education about cats brought to people via the Internet. It has transformed our knowledge of cats.

Cat passed away; will the other get lonely?

 This is a question asked on social media which I'm going to answer here. I think the vast majority of cat owners would answer the question in the same way. When two cats live together and they are friendly with each other a bond is created (obviously). If one of those cat passes away the other cat will feel the effects of that. It depends of course on the depth of the bond and for how long they have been friends.

Cat friends. The loss of one may well cause grief in the other. Image: MikeB.

My strong indication, having researched the matter, is that domestic cats can grieve for the loss of their human caregiver or another cat. The subject of domestic cat emotions is work in progress but it's almost logical to presume that a cat will feel the effects of the loss of a friend.

Domestic cats do have emotions. The question is how complex are they? Grieving, or a form of grieving, can be experienced by a domestic cat I believe. We don't know for sure how cats feel in the grieving process.

I suspect that it is not the same as human grieving but similar. I sense that domestic cats get over the loss of a friend quicker than humans do. After all, domestic cats are much better at living in the present.

They live predominantly instinctively. They don't become nostalgic as humans do. They don't look to the future and question whether things will be better or worse. Those are my assessments. Living in the present is good for both humans and cats in terms of mental health.

Dr. Bruce Fogle, in his excellent book Complete Cat Care believes that domestic cats can feel grief. He says that he has no difficulty in describing the emotion that they domestic cat feels on the severing of an attachment as grief.

He says that "A cat's feeling of grief can be a combination of loss, frustration, worry, and bewilderment. Whatever the specific failings, a grieving cat can become withdrawn, or it may instead become over attached."

Like me, he says: "This may not be the same as grief in human terms, but it is still grief at a loss." Jackson Galaxy, the American cat behaviourist, would concur with this assessment, I am sure.

Do domestic cats feel the cold?

Do domestic cats feel the cold? There are six topics to be addressed in answering this question. 

Wildcat ancestor from hot climate

Firstly, the North African wildcat is the wild ancestor of the domestic cat. That wild cat's attitude towards the cold and towards heat is within the domestic cat. And the North African wildcats as you can imagine live in a very warm climate.

Do domestic cats feel the cold? Yes, of course but they tolerate it better than humans. Image: MikeB

Feline behaviour

This is why the domestic cat likes to be in a warm environment. That's why they like to be on your lap if they are lap cats. That is why they sleep in the airing cupboard where the hot water cylinder is. That is why my cat is right now in a utility room where the boiler (furnace) is situated.

We know that domestic cats like warmth. They seek it everywhere all the time. Therefore, by definition, they dislike cold. That's the first point.

Tolerant

The third point is that domestic cats are very tolerant. They are less complaining than humans. They are more tolerant of pain and distress. There are more tolerant of extreme conditions. That does not mean they don't feel the cold, it just means that they tolerate it better than humans at a psychological level. Their brain processes the feeling of discomfort, in this instance through being cold, better than humans do.

You will find stories on the Internet of domestic and stray cats being frozen to the ground, literally. In these instances, sometimes, when the cat has been rescued, they've had to amputate their paws because of frostbite. A horrible thought.

And of course, feral cats in many parts of the world survive winter in freezing conditions. That's why nice people who operate TNR programs provide feral cats with little homes which are insulated so they can at least feel warmer during those very cold days and nights.

Cat coats

We therefore know that domestic cats feel cold but they tolerate cold better. And one reason why they are better able to tolerate cold is because they have a permanent overcoat on them 👍✔️.

Clearly, some cats are better protected in this regard than others. The longhaired cats with a downy undercoat are going to feel less cold than sleek, single-coated cats.

The well-known Maine Coon cat example has a shaggy, semi-longhaired coat because they originate in the state of Maine as barn cats. They were semi-domesticated in that state, before they became show cats, in the 1800s and before.

Siberian cats. Image in public domain.

The Siberian purebred cat is another example of a domestic cat with a history of coming from a cold part of the world. They have coats designed for cold climates.

Evolution

Arguably they will be too hot in warm homes and in warm climates. A thought. An interesting further thought is this: Siberian cats and Maine Coon cats (for example - there are other breeds) would not have evolved through natural selection to have these warm, longhaired coats unless nature recognised the fact that they needed to keep warm and in doing that nature obviously agreed that they feel the cold. Evolution has protected these cats from cold conditions. It is, therefore, an admission that domestic cats and semi-domestic cats feel the cold.

Nervous system and anatomy

It has to be said that the anatomy of the domestic cat is really very similar to that of humans in very many ways. And certainly, in terms of feeling and detecting cold their nervous system and brain is very similar to that of humans. This strongly supports the idea that domestic cats feel the cold.

Longhaired feral cats

Interestingly, you will find that there are very few feral cats that are long haired because the gene that creates long hair is recessive. That means two carriers of the gene are going to have to meet and procreate to produce a litter of kittens that are longhaired. 

Most feral cats you see will be shorthaired. And they will feel the cold. But in feeling the cold, as mentioned, they process it in a way which enables them to accept it without complaint

Do cats like the feel of tidy fur?

 This is a very esoteric, philosophical question but it came to my mind and I think it's quite important because it's tries to investigate how domestic cats feel. I want to know whether domestic cats like the feeling of their fur to be lined up and combed. The other side of the coin would ask whether domestic cats find it uncomfortable when their fur is not lined up as it is when it's been combed by their human caregiver. The issue is more relevant for longhaired cats because their fur is more likely to become matted if neglected. Do domestic cats hate the feeling of matted fur?

My cat loves to be combed because it feels nice and his fur feels in good nick, all lined up! Image: MikeB.

We know that domestic cats like to be combed and brushed or at least they normally do. So, they like the experience of being brushed. I suspect that this is because they like the feeling of the comb or brush on their skin in much the same way that people like their hair to be combed by somebody else. It has a calming experience.

But people also like to feel that their hair on their head is well-kept. They want it to feel right which means in alignment and tidy. A lot of people dislike the feeling of their hair being untidy and unkempt.

The philosophical question is: do cats feel the same way about their fur? We don't know is the answer! We should know and I would like to know. I'm going to guess. They like it. They like their fur to be in good order, all lined up and neat and tidy.

This is one reason why they are so fastidious about self-grooming. And you know what comes to mind when I think of domestic cats grooming themselves? It is seeing feral cats looking terribly untidy and dirty. You don't see it much but you do see the occasional feral cat looking a complete mess. It must be terribly disconcerting for them to feel like this.

It indicates to me that they have given up mentally and emotionally. They probably feel terrible because of illness and have totally lost motivation to maintain their own hygiene. The beginning of the end for an animal trying to survive in the urban jungle and surrounding environment.

Postscript: in the picture you can see me combing my cat with a flea comb. Another benefit of being combed and another reason why domestic cats like to be combed especially with a flea comb is because it removes any fleas which are an irritation to them. The domestic cat might equate combing with relief from irritation and itching. Another reason why they like it.

PPS: My cat hardly ever has fleas! I flea comb him because he likes it.

Can and do domestic cats sulk?

I have conducted some research on this. The first point perhaps worth making is that 'sulking is a variation on jealousy' according to Dr, Brue Fogle in his book Complete Cat Care. And he goes on to state that 'jealousy is not as common in cats as it is in dogs'. 

Annoyed, jealous or sulking cat? Image assessed as being in the public domain.

D. Fogle strongly implies, therefore, that cats can feel the emotion of jealousy. And therefore, bearing in mind the link between jealousy and sulking, have the capacity to sulk. Sulking can also overlap with annoyance and cats can be annoyed.

RELATED ARTICLE: Cats Feel Jealousy but Not Grief.

Today I went for two walks in Richmond Park. My non-attendance at home was almost twice as long as normal.  My cat often waits for me when I go out on my own (he joins me when I buy the newspaper). 

Therefore, he had to wait a lot longer as I did not turn up when he expected, and I think he was sulking when I returned. That was judging by the expression on his face and general demeanour and body language.

However, it is very easy to project one's feelings and thoughts onto one's cat and dog companions. And sometimes feline anatomy gives the impression that a cat is sulking or annoyed when they are not. 

Anecdotal evidence (non-scientific and based on personal accounts) about cats sulking is all you will see on the internet. 

There are no hard science studies on this possible feline emotion. Yes, Dr Fogle is a very well-respected author and vet, but he is not God. He could be wrong.

And I can't be sure that I am right when I say that domestic cats probably have the capacity to sulk. There are lots of confident statements on the social media sites that cats can and do sulk.

I have lived with domestic cats for decade and studied them for 15 years. We can't say with complete confidence that domestic cats can sulk when they are upset, jealous or disappointed.

Let's be more cautious and circumspect and say it is very possible and there are signs that cats and other animals both domestic and wild experience far more emotions that we imagined. If cats can and do sulk it is likely that the emotion is experienced for a relatively short time. 

Cats have the capacity to move on and live in the present.

For instance, in The Times today is an article about a study on the social skills of pigs. The author states:

"These are important and very complex abilities. What is suggests is they have the ability to be sensitive to the emotions and internal state of others, and then to react to somehow intervene and restore calm to the group".

For far too long humans have been chronically ignorant of the capacity of animals to experience a range of emotions. It is only now dawning on us.

Test finds that domestic cats might experience the emotion of jealousy

I'm going to refer to a test carried out at Kyoto University to see whether domestic cats can experience the emotion of jealousy. They describe jealousy as a "second-order emotion". I take that to mean a higher emotion which humans experience but there is a question mark as to whether animals experience it although a basic form of jealousy has been detected in domestic dogs.

RELATED: in a previous post the conclusion was that cats feel jealousy but not grief: Cats feel jealousy but not grief.

In this test with cats there were 52 participants taken from Japanese households or cat cafés.

They conducted a simple test by recording the behaviour of the cats while they saw their owner petting a social object which might be a rival and which in this instance was a realistic-looking soft toy cat. They compared the cats' reaction when a non-cat object was petted by the cats' owner (a cushion) and when a non-cat owner petted the toy-cat.

I wonder whether that was a wise decision to use a toy because it is plausible to suggest that domestic cats can tell the difference between a soft toy cat and a real cat.

Anyway, when a cat's owner petted a soft-toy cat, they found that household pets reacted more intensely towards the soft-toy cat. There were no other behaviours and they don't describe what 'reacted more intensely' means in the summary. When the soft cushion was petted by the owner there was no reaction and when the soft-cat toy was petted by non-owners there was no reaction.

They were unable to come to firm conclusions about the existence of jealousy in domestic cats. Jealousy is an emotion which is expressed in the context of a close relationship and cats can have close relationships both with other cats and people. Therefore, the question as to whether they have the emotion of jealousy is a fair one.

The study pointed to a distinct possibility that domestic cats can feel the emotion jealousy but further work is required.

The study is called Domestic cats' reactions to their owner and an unknown individual petting a potential rival.

Sweet hug from one stray cat to another

They very much look like sibling stray cats in a Mediterranean town somewhere. The weather is not bad there. In fact it can be great so not bad for stray cats from a climate standpoint which is why community cats are common in Mediterranean coastal towns where they are fed by tourists. These two look well fed and in good condition. I'd say that they are brothers. They are both tabby-and-whites, one brown/orange and the other with grey. I wonder if they are torbies?

SNuggling up to another for warmth and physical contact. Photo in public domain.

The beautiful aspect of the photo is the cuddle, the hug. He wants and needs that close contact with his sibling. It's probably partly to warm up (in may be in the early morning and a bit chilly) and to have that all important physical contact that cats enjoy when they can get it and when sutable.

It is an interesting thought as a lot of people think cats are entirely solitary. Not so for the domestic cat. And community cats are domestic cats, really. They live outside the home but have become socialised. Domestic cats are social animals to a large extent. They like to rest with some space between them but when they are friends they like the contact.

Scientists don't call them 'friends'. They call them 'associates'. I think they struggle with using human concepts on cats and don't want to be seen to humanise cats. But there is no reason to presume that cats can't have chemistry between themselves and can't even love each other as their anatomy is so similar. If their anatomy is so similar why can't their brains be similar too?

Love describes strong affections for another. Cats have emotions. They are sentient. They feel distress, depression and contentment. It is not a big step from there to having strong affection for another.

If you weren't sure that cats have facial expressions this will change your mind

This is a cross post because I think the subject matter is interesting on a number of levels (see the other post by clicking here). Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the video is that it shows quite clearly that domestic cats can have strong and clear facial expressions. A lot of people don't see facial expressions in domestic cats. They consider them as aloof and inscrutable. Or they don't believe they have them. This video should correct this misapprehension.

If you weren't sure that cats have facial expressions this will change your mind. Deeply annoyed and irritated cat probably a Burmese. Screenshot.

And also the sound of the cat makes is interesting. It's a bit like a dog's bark. Sometimes domestic cats do bark like dogs. It's wrong to pigeonhole their vocalisations into well-defined categories because it doesn't quite work like that. Each individual cat has their own range of sounds which can be categorised but which are far more fluid and variable than people sometimes think.

Cat annoyed by owner and asks to be put down. Screenshot.

When you take the facial expression of clear annoyance and irritation together with this strange non-feline sound it is quite clear what the cat wants to say to his/her owner. He wants to be put down because he's being held in the wrong way and in any case he doesn't want to be picked up and filmed like this. I think the woman is deliberately provoking this kind of reaction in her cat for the camera to make an interesting video.

MA’AM, I HAVE A BAD AND A GOOD NEWS:
BAD NEWS, I THINK YOUR CAT IS BROKEN. HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BARK.
GOOD NEWS, CONGRATULATIONS, HE’S BILINGUAL 😂 pic.twitter.com/sYKTh3O7Wr

— MIUBI ◡̈ (@BVZZA) October 28, 2021

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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ASSOCIATED: Cell phone app understands your cat’s facial expressions

Once again, this is a mild form of cat abuse in order to gather a large number of viewings to a video. We see a lot of this. It irritates me but I'm not making a strange sound and I don't have a strong expression of annoyance!

ASSOCIATED PAGE: Noticeable difference in facial expression when feral cat is rehabilitated

What I like about the video is what I've said namely that it kind of proves that domestic gas can have very strong facial expressions. I think the cat is a Burmese and Burmese cats are talkative and they express their views in the sounds that they make! They are also loyal and friendly but not immune to being annoyed if mildly abused!

Unconditional love the primary benefit of the human-cat relationship (and verbal communication is the primary benefit in the human-human relationship)

The long title sums up the summary of a study published on the website Psychological Reports and which is entitled Attachment to Feline Companions. The study coordinators used a mail survey of 100 adult cat owners to investigate the attachment of cat guardians with their companion animals. 54 of the participants were members of a nationwide computer cat club while 46 were attending a cat show in Anaheim, California. The participants were therefore committed cat people.

Jay Leno and his cat.  Screenshot. Leno loves his cat and vice versa I'd say.

More than 90% of the participants said that they preferred cats to other companion animals because of the following:

• Ease of care;
• Affection and companionship;
• Personality.

The positive characteristics of the cat companion were linked with attachment and people tended to put aside feline behaviours which they might find difficult.

SEE MANY PAGES ON THE HUMAN-TO-CAT RELATIONSHIP

A comparison between the benefits of the cat-human relationship compared to the human-human relationship indicates that the participants appreciated the affection and unconditional love of the former and verbal communication as the primary benefit in respect of the latter

As we all know, the study organisers concluded that cat companions can be a very important source of pleasure and emotional comfort.

This study was published on June 1, 1994. A subsequent study published in September 2, 2015 concluded that domestic cats do not show signs of secure attachment to their owners. They decided that cats were "typically quite autonomous even in their social relationships and not necessarily dependent on others to provide a sense of security and safety."

The conclusions of the second study point to a one-sided relationship. The first study is about people appreciating the benefits of living with a companion and in the second study they seem to be saying that domestic cats do not appreciate the relationship quite as much as their owners.

The conclusion that I have is that studies about cats should not be entirely relied upon partly because they are conducted by people who often don't know cats that well or at all. Also, they frequently use questionnaires, and sending out questionnaires to people is fairly inaccurate at best.

Good cat guardians would say that they fully appreciate and rely on their cat companion's presence in their lives as a companion and as an excellent substitute for a human companion, very often. They will also state that they firmly believe that their cat loves them or at least demonstrates affection towards them. 

And that cats do appreciate the security and the general ambience and environment plus the food that there cat owner provides. The human-cat relationship is an interspecies relationship of which there are many. It is not just cats and people who become friends although that is the most common interspecies relationship together with the dog-human relationship.

You will see many dogs being friends with cats and cats being friends with squirrels and many other animals including deer et cetera. I believe that these are all genuine friendships. It looks that way to me. And if it looks like that it probably is that. We know that cats are sentient beings with feelings. It is a very short step from recognising that aspect of their being and behaviour to also accepting that they can make genuine friends, bonded through affection.

Don't do anything bad which your cat will remember

In my experience, domestic cats have a very good memory for bad experiences. Something you may have done which frightened him or her will stick in their minds for a very long time. In fact they may never forget it. You might, for example, accidentally walk on your cat's paw because he's right behind you. Or you might lose your temper one day and shout at your cat. It is likely that your cat will remember these events. It may alter his behaviour. It may create a bit of doubt in his mind. It certainly won't help the relationship. 

Zen cat. Photo: nosenekoshiro (Instagram).

The worst thing you can do is to aggressively slap your cat or shout at him because he's annoyed you. I can understand the desire to do this if you're stressed for whatever reason, and at the moment there are good reasons to be stressed with the coronavirus crisis. It's a particular moment when cats might be the victim of domestic violence. It only takes a moment when tempers are lost and the domestic cat is shouted at or abused even in a very minor way for that cat to remember it. 

It's not a deliberate or conscious memory. Your cat isn't saying I'm gonna remember that and make him pay for it. It's just a mental scar which sits there in the back of the cat's brain and alters his behaviour at least potentially. 

Of course the impact depends upon the individual cat. Each cat reacts differently but it is my belief that there is a level of anxiety in domestic cats which is higher than people believe. Or let's put it this way: millions of cats are very relaxed and content but it doesn't take much to introduce anxiety into their lives. 

This is because they live in a human environment to which they adapt but it is often not the best of environments for a domestic cat who is wild at heart by which I mean in terms of character and behaviour they are a short step from their wild cat ancestors. Always seek to create a calm and friendly environment for your cat. It is an ongoing mission of the concerned cat caretaker/guardian.

Who Said Cats Don't Have Emotions?

Here's a video of two cats who I would say are closely related. They have similar coloration and they are clearly very close emotionally. The larger and perhaps senior cat is, on the face of it, comforting the other cat.

They are both in a stressful situation. It is a time when at an emotional level they need some comforting and it is being provided. It is impossible not to believe that these cats are feeling emotions, particularly the emotion that goes with being caged in a cat shelter with noises and strange things happening; anxiety.

The reaction is an emotional one, a desire to comfort and a desire to receive comfort. It is a charming video which I believe supports the view that domestic cats have emotions.

Little by little there is a gradual awakening to the fact that domestic animals feel emotions and indeed a very substantial proportion, well over 50%, of concerned cat owners believe that their cat can feel compassion and a similar percentage although slightly lower believe that they can feel jealousy. These people have a closer bond than usual with their cat.

I'm not sure that this depth of emotion is true or whether the cat owners are projecting their emotions upon their cat but anecdotally it could be argued that domestic cats have the ability to feel what are described as secondary emotions.

The other day I was out for a walk with my neighbor. She has a cat. We discussed cat emotions. She was adamant that cats do not feel emotions. She said that domestic cats behave instinctively. Yes, domestic cats do behave instinctively but that does not preclude the possibility that they feel emotions.

The point that I'm making is that a lot of cat owners are unaware that it is likely that domestic cats feel emotions. The real debate is how deep and how complex they are. It is obvious that domestic cats feel contentment and can feel depressed (often through chronic illness) although pretty well all of us now realize that domestic cats instinctively hide their vulnerabilities in the interests of survival.

There is another argument concerning how over the 10,000 years of the domestication of the cat that they have evolved into possessing a strong ability to learn from their human companions. They observe and learn. This, for example is where we see some domestic cats opening doors by turning the door handle. The point I'm making here is that it may be the case that the domestic cat has developed his or her emotions during domestication. Their behavior is less instinctive than that of their wildcat ancestor. It is more learned in a highly domesticated humanized environment. This should encourage the development and refinement of emotions.

Do cats shed tears?

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Is Scaring Cats with Cucumbers the Funniest Thing You'll See?

On one website it says that scaring cats with cucumbers is the funniest thing you'll see today. I don't think it's particularly funny. Why should it be funny to scare a cat? It might look amusing to a person but it is still scaring an animal and, personally, I do not see any pleasure in doing that and I certainly don't see it being funny.



It seems to me that people find the reactions of cats to certain stimuli as funny when the reaction is extreme and strange. But this is natural behaviour for a cat. If the cat is frightened of a cucumber which is placed behind him then there's a good reason for his reaction. Perhaps the cat believes that the object might be a predator of some sort or a danger to him. Cats are not familiar with the appearance of a cucumber. Why should they be? If the cat is uncertain about what the object is then he initially will be anxious and in some cases scared. However, not all cats react in this way. It is about individual cat behavior. We should not imply that all cats are scared of the same things.

I'm just making a point in this short note. Lets be more sensible and stop thinking that it is funny to scare a cat even if the cat's behaviour might look amusing to a human. If a human thinks it is funny to scare a cat then the human has a problem in my opinion. Unfortunately, many humans have this sort of problem. It is human behavior born out of a sense of superiority over animals. Humans are not superior to animals.

Cat Facial Expressions

I would expect that a lot of people would say that cats do not make facial expressions. People who live with cats and who love their cats and therefore know them will understand that cats do make facial expressions. They are more subtle than the facial expressions of people. Is that because there are less facial muscles and/or because the feline face is covered in hair? Or perhaps a cat has less emotions that a person and therefore does not need to express them so much through his or her face. I'm not sure, but I am sure that cats do make facial expressions and here's a very good example:

This photograph has been praised, in fact, for showing both the human and the feline expression. This white cat with a very charming face has a very concerned and anxious expression. There is also a slight indication that she is relieved and that she feels secure being held by this fireman who himself has an expression which conveys to me that he is genuinely concerned about this cat's welfare and that he is pleased to have saved her from a fire.

It is a good photograph because, for me, it shows both human and cat in a similar light; both under some stress, both showing expressions that reflect the circumstances under which they have come together. It's a photograph of equality. I like that.