Sorry, But Your Cat Really Doesn't Need You Around

[Eugene]

Source: Huffington Post

Sorry, But Your Cat Really Doesn't Need You Around

New research shows felines don’t feel much for their owners.

Jacqueline Howard
Associate Science Editor, The Huffington Post

Posted: 09/07/2015 09:06 AM EDT

What does your cat think of you? Maybe not too much. A new study suggests that cats don't need their owners to feel secure and safe -- the way dogs do -- but rely on them mostly as a reliable source of food.

Womp, womp.

"Animal-human relationships may be built on different priorities--for dogs clearly safety and security are important, but this is not the case in cats," Dr. Daniel Mills, professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at the University of Lincoln in England and lead author of the study, told The Huffington Post in an email. "It seems cats are much more resource focused... I’m sure you know someone whose cat moved in with their neighbor who started to feed it (rather than offered it shelter and protection)."

The study was patterned on a classic psychology experiment known as "strange situation," so named because in the experiment -- developed by American-Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) -- a baby or child is left in a room to play by the mother or caregiver while a stranger then walks in. The experiment is modeled to help scientists gauge how attached children are to their mothers.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

What did the researchers find? The cats vocalized slightly more meows when their owners left them in the room with a stranger, but the researchers didn't notice any additional evidence to suggest that the cats were strongly attached to their owners.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sorry-but-your-cat-doesnt-need-you-new-study-suggests_55e9982ee4b002d5c075b4f6

[underpants]

1. Not ours. They know their names and come on command

Well the girl does (Maine Coon cat) the boy well he comes into the area.

[tblue]

2. I love dogs.

[Android3.14]

3. I feel the same way about cats

As long as our cats kill vermin, use the catbox and not scratch the guests, they can stay. Mrs. 'Droid is one of those people who thinks cats are beautiful and affectionate because the cat will lick her chin.

She doesn't believe me when I tell her the cat sees her more like meat-flavored chewing gum than an object of care and affection.

[brewens]

4. Mine at least likes me, I know that. She seems to like my girlfriend and a buddies 11 year

old daughter more though. She's all over them when they are around and doesn't even know I'm here.

The whole point of having a cat rather than a dog for me is that she doesn't need me constantly. As a bachelor, with my job, I can't really give a dog the attention it needs and take it with me all the time.

When I'm here hanging out by myself, I find her in my lap wanting attention a few times a day. That's attachment enough as far as I'm concerned.

[packman]

5. Maybe, but this type of thing disproves that for me

[HassleCat]

7. One bad-ass cat! (eom)

[Vincardog]

12. Does that prove the cat needs the person? Seems to me the people need the cat.

[HassleCat]

6. Comforting for the cat

Cats like their humans because the humans are a source of food and comfort, not just food. Sometimes they even display sympathy when the humans are in a bad mood. Cats are enigmatic, and the researchers haven't figured out how to get past that, so their findings are superficial.

[AlbertCat]

8. Well, duh!

Cats are the ONLY domesticated animal that is not also a social animal in the wild.

The only "social" cats are lions, and then only the females really.

The regular house cat behaves more like a tiger than any other wild cat.








Yes, I saw a NOVA on domesticated cats.....

[Warpy]

13. That's not quite true

Studies of feral cats have shown them to be quite social and affectionate with each other. The social behavior is a lot more subtle than that of effusive dogs so a lot of researchers simply missed it over the years, assuming cats are solitary. They're not.

[AlbertCat]

16. Studies of feral cats have shown them to be quite social and affectionate with each other.

I (and Nova) mean like living in herds, or packs....y' know.

[lastlib]

19. My kitteh wouldn't admit to behaving like a tiger--

she wouldn't play in the little leagues for anybody!

[Bluenorthwest]

9. The problem with this is that 'need' and 'feel for' are not the same things at all.

Independence does not contraindicate affections. To leave my cat in a room with a stranger the cat would have to be restrained as she departs from strangers until they are strangers no more. If the cat was free to move and I left the room, the cat would go with me. Every single time.

[Warpy]

10. Need, no. Want, yes.

I had to leave them for long periods when my parents were ill, with neighbors looking in on them to make sure they had food and water. When I got back, once they remembered who the hell I was, they were glued to me for a couple of weeks, meowing if I closed the bathroom door or was otherwise out of their sight. Then they settled down and were cats again.

Cats are affectionate with each other and with their people (note I didn't say owners, nobody really owns a cat). It's so subtle cat to cat that it took researchers years to figure it out.

[HuckleB]

11. This is science that is being questioned, big time.

If you haven't read Carl Safina, it's time to do so. We don't have good means of assessing these things, at this point in time, so studies like this are just plain ridiculous.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/from-apes-to-elephants-wolves-to-whales-a-tour-of-animals-minds-and-emotions/?_r=0

[Judi Lynn]

14. My husband followed a car which hit a cat on the road, got out, picked up the cat from the roadside,

placed it beside him on the car seat, drove him to our local 24 hour animal hospital, where they discovered its two back legs were crushed.

He asked for the surgery needed to repair the little white cat's back legs. The surgery was extensive, and then he brought the little guy to our house.

The cat, "Jim," had to drag himself into his cat box, to his bed for a few days, and discovered he could be well concealed behind the row of books in a nearby bookcase in case our great dog got through the door into his room. He wanted to make sure he couldn't be seen.

Within a a couple of weeks, the little guy was able to walk well, and became a constant, comical, lovable friend. He was independent, playful, full of energy, played with the big dog, went on sudden sprees of exultation, lived with us for at least 18 years after he came to live with us.

He was congenial to me, to the dog, and he was completely devoted to my husband. There was absolutely no doubt whatsoever he adored the man who saved his life. He walked back and forth on the desk, leaned against my husband's arms, shoulders, face, purred, "bit" his face, started "shaking hands" for special attention like time with the electric vibrator, or cat treats. He wouldn't leave him alone from the time he would arrive until he went to sleep, and sometimes would be sitting near his face when he woke up.

He was terrified of all other people, and would hid as far back as he could under beds if people were here to work on the house.

The people in his vet's office loved his custom of walking out of the examination room on his leash, trotting out the door like a dog.

He regularly came to me to ask for brush times, and when I returned after a stay at the hospital, came to sit on my lap and didn't move for a long time, something completely different from his routines.

There is NOTHING I ever saw from this wonderful creature which would allow me to believe cats don't have real attachment beyond interest in food for some of the people they know.

A lot of behavior often is connected in part to the respect with which people treat their animal friends, as well.

Sorry to have spent so much time with this post, but what I have experienced in my own life wouldn't allow me to let it pass.

[MillennialDem]

15. There's a difference between a cat needing us (they don't) and loving us (they do)

[Orsino]

17. My cats seek my company, and tend to follow me from room to room...

...when their bowls are full. I don't know whether this is "need" or "love," but it's something.

They hide from strangers.

[qazplm]

18. my cat is sitting at the door

when I come home from work. She vocalizes and comes for attention. She parks it next to me wherever I am in the house.
She does this whether her food bowl is empty or full.

The one time I left home for four days because my mom died, I came back, she still had food in her bowl, but the level of "I missed you" meowing was ridiculous, and again it wasn't because she was hungry or wanted food.

Cats are not dogs for sure, but the idea that they don't feel affection or need or identify/bond with particular humans is fairly ridiculous.