Are humans just big cats to domestic felines….?

I recently read an article from a UK university on a friends social networking feed that fascinated me. In it there had been studies that seemed to identify behaviour in domesticate cats that indicated they viewed their human family as larger, less agile cats.

This started the thought process regarding behaviour shown by my own cats that may back this claim up, and I realised there’s a few things that I’d really not considered to any large degree.

All three of the felines that share my home have their own unique noises, and they’re usually used to communicate with members of their own species. The “larger, less agile cats” are privy to meows, as cats recognise that this noise seems to illicit a feeding response. My cats, however, all use their own unique cat language when communicating with me as well as each other.

Not only that, the youngest cat (Sprocket) is adamant that when she comes in from her adventures she has to jump up on to the settee and touch noses with me as she does with the two other cats in the house. She’s extremely persistent and will keep pushing her face towards mine if I don’t immediately react by proffering my nose for her to touch with hers.

Recently, a live house sparrow was brought in to the home and my cats all watched the bird but did very little to catch it. I remember reading how mothering cats bring live prey to their young to teach them hunting instincts regarding prey.

The more I considered the study I read and correlated it with the behaviour shown by my cats, the more it fit. I think it may well be the case that cats do indeed, in some ways, view humans as large cats who are just not very well equipped with the instinctual behaviour they have in place.

I’ve attached a piece featuring an interview with behaviourist John Bradshaw and his thoughts regarding the matter, which makes for very interesting reading.

http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6669/20140114/how-cats-see-us.htm

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Sprocket relaxing…it’s tiring work teaching the big cat to hunt….