I knew it! Cats found to like humans more than thought

[oldcynic]

Cat slaves, be proud. They like you!

Cats have a reputation as being stand-offish and somewhat distant—some have suggested they only hang around their owners because of the easy meals. But they may actually like their owners more than their reputation suggests, the researchers with this new effort found. They point out that cats may simply be misunderstood, noting that recent research has found that cats have complex socio-cognitive and problem solving abilities. They suggest further that the commonly held belief that cats are less reactive to social stimuli might be due to a lack of knowledge regarding the things that cats actually find stimulating.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-cats-humans-thought.html#jCp

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. My Feline Overlord told me to 'like' this thread. eom

[FakeNoose]

6. Kitty porn

[uriel1972]

20. Darn you... Darn you to heck....nt

[still_one]

2. Lions love them for breakfast. Tigers for lunch.

[Doreen]

3. Are you trying to debunk my theory about cats?

You see, I think that cats are from another planet and traveling through space they found us. Well, they saw how stupid we are and how easy it would be to take over and make us take care of them without question. Hmm, so far it has worked.

[RKP5637]

4. My cat was very protective of me. Even when I fell asleep once on the sofa in the living room he

ran and got others up thinking there was something wrong with me as it was about 11:30 PM. Cats, many, really love people. Mine used to greet me at the door. Yell at me to get up for breakfast, and would never start eating his meals unless I was also served. I really miss him. He passed on a few years ago.

[Rhiannon12866]

22. Awww! You need a new friend...

I found mine as a tiny kitten in a grocery store parking lot back in 2014. He was a tough little guy and there was no way I could have caught him without the help of a couple of employees - who had gloves! It's taken awhile - and he still is kinda tough. But he has grown into the most beautiful cat and what prompted me to reply to your post was that I fell asleep on the couch tonight - and he curled up right next to me. He's still not a lap cat, and I think he likes my dog the best, but he actually looks for affection now, especially likes having his ears rubbed, and tonight he fell asleep cuddled up next to me on the couch.

[RKP5637]

23. Thanks for your post!!! Mine was homeless and a bit wild too. He showed up at the front door one day

then ran into the bushes so fast you could hardly see him. This went on for awhile, then I guess he decided it was really safe and he walked in like he owned the place. I took him to the vet, he said he was very young and his eyes had only opened about two weeks earlier. He was a really tough little guy too, but very loving. I have no idea where he came from, never saw any signs up for anyone missing a kitty, and he fit right into the household like he had always been there and became instant friends with the dog.

[Binkie The Clown]

5. In the past my cats have always loved me.

I'm catless at the moment, though.

Perhaps I'll adopt another one some day.

[Warpy]

7. Everybody who's been owned by a cat knows this

Cats don't need us, they're perfectly capable of hunting rodents and insects to survive on their own, although their lives are much shorter out there. They started to hang around with us because we were messy eaters who drew rodents. They stuck around because they discovered they like us.

[MFM008]

9. We have a stray

She's an indoor outdoor we first met in 2002.
She's still here. Healthy and friendly.

[brewens]

8. No way was it just about food with my old buddy "Fatty". He would go nuts when I got home, wanting

to get petted. Race to the bed when he knew I was going there. Woke up too many times to count with him purring and shoving his nose in my ear to get attention! He was a rescue that was abandoned at my girlfriends cafe. It wasn't long before I was going to bed and hour earlier to make up for his early morning wake-ups. I didn't mind. A little petting and lots of purring and we'd both go back to sleep for awhile.

My new cat, another rescue from my girlfriend, Silver, is totally different. She's younger and wilder but still is affectionate when she wants to be. Usually comes to get petted as soon as I get in bed. Then never wakes me up intentionally. Sometimes she gets riled up seeing something out a window and rampages around. Except for that, she will only come up wanting petted after I wake up. If I wake up in the middle of the night and move around to get comfortable again, there she is, wanting to snuggle and get petted. She probably helps me get back to sleep more than anything.

[safeinOhio]

10. Damn cats keep adopting me.

[irisblue]

11. Majik is wrapped around my head purring into my left ear as I type this.

I'm pretty sure he likes me.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Large orange cat on my lap, I'm trying to type around

his fat furry butt. He wants to be on my lap all the time. I think he likes me.

[IcyPeas]

13. of course they do!!

[uriel1972]

21. much luv for this gif... nt

[MANative]

14. My little Janeway was brilliant. She figured out how...

To open bi-fold doors by popping the hinge in the middle. She'd lay on her back, put her paws together at the hinge and apply force. Tried several other methods before deciding that one would work. She would watch us doing things so intently, and she'd try to emulate them. You could see the look in her eyes as she thought problems through. It was amazing to see her solve anything that intrigued or puzzled her.

[tenorly]

15. And Republicans, LESS like humans than previously thought.

[center]

With the possible exception of Kasich, not a real human in this photo.[/center]

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Dogs see humans as pack leaders. Cats see humans as mothers.

That's what some socio-biological studies have found.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. OTOH, Dogs have human pals, cats have staff.

Full disclosure: I like both, but I prefer cats.

[TygrBright]

18. Wow. Researchers totally miss the key to cat behavior....

Read the description of the experiment.

"The cats were kept sequestered for two and a half hours and were then watched as they were presented with three items from one of four category types: food, scent, toy and human interaction. The researchers mixed up the stimuli for the different cats to get a better read on which they found the most stimulating. The degree of preference for any one stimuli was judged by which stimuli the cat went for first and how and for how long it interacted with it.

The researchers report that they found clear variability among the cats regardless of home type, but overall social interaction with humans was the stimulus most preferred—half of the cats chose interacting with a human above anything else offered, which included food—they spent on average 65 percent of their time interacting with a person."

Where they're CORRECT: Cats do, indeed, have much more complex, developed, and advanced socio-cognitive abilities.

What they MISS: Cats know where the food COMES from.

As in, "OK, therez a saucer of kibble on the floor.... OR, therez a hoomin over there who can probably be persuaded to give me greenie treetz and gooshy fud. hmmmm... choisez, choisez... Hello, hoomin! Aren't I KEWT? Here's a purrrrr for you. Thoz are greenie treetz in yer pokit, arnt they?"

cognitively,
Bright

[womanofthehills]

19. I know my kitty, Mr. Lucky loves me.

He loves to make eye contact and say meow.

[Throckmorton]

24. Any article with an Orange Cat of the first page gets my vote.

Because, Orange Cats Rule!!!

[3catwoman3]

25. One of our four sticks to us like a burr.

If my husband and I are sitting on the couch together and this cat is on one lap, that is not enough for him - he has to reach out his paws to touch the other person. Kind of sweet, most of the time, but sometimes a pain in the butt.

Our biggest cat likes to sit on one of my arms when I am using my computer on the kitchen island. He weighs about 15 pounds of sleek muscle, so he pins me down quite effectively.

One of our females will follow me into our big walk in shower and sit in the far end, where it's dry, and stay there until I am done.

The oldest and smallest one considers my husband her best buddy, and will meow loudly at him until he picks her up. This is quite a change, and happened after she went deaf a few years ago. She used to be afraid of his louder, lower male voice and would run away from him. Now that she can't hear, she adores him. He's rather flattered by it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. I have a velcro cat who wants to be on my lap all the time.

Right now he's asleep next to me on the couch but soon he will wake up and climb onto my lap. Another cat is on the ottoman leaning on my feet. The third one is playing with her catnip banana but she's usually on the cat tree behind me where she can lean over and pat me on the head. When I go to the bathroom they have to watch. They'll follow me to bed and wake me up in the morning. I am always surrounded by them.

[3catwoman3]

27. We will be adding the term...

..."velcro cat" to our vocabulary -