Yeah I would be interested to hear how many different cats they repeated this experiment with, and what the results were. I have met some disturbingly doglike cats, anecdotally there seems to be a much wider range of human tolerance and adaptation in cats than dogs.
Maybe I just don’t see enough feral dogs. (Does anyone regularly see feral dogs, for that matter?)
I’m not sure I can say that our kittens love me, but they do seem to enjoy my company. I have one of those alarm clocks that starts turning on a light gradually half an hour before the alarm goes off. Our kittens always come in as soon as the light turns on and lick my head until I wake up. At first I thought they just wanted to be fed, but lately they’ve been more or less ignoring their food for a while when I put it down and following me around while I get ready for work.
This seems very insightful (and testable) to me. My guess is that you are right - just today I took my cat to the vet and she had to be dragged out of the cat carrier that she had only 15 minutes earlier fought to stay out of. Then she tried to get back in it - at least it was more familiar than the vet’s office.
The day before, I said her name once when I was leaving for work and she instantly ran to the edge of the second story deck, looked at me, and climbed over a roof peak, down two flights of steps and across a landing, mewing all the time. It may not be love, but it’s enough for me.
Minor point, but nobody ‘owns’ a cat. If anything, they own YOU, you meat puppets!
They should try this experiment on husbands and wives.
I should also note that “love” is itself a horribly badly defined term… to the point where I’m hesitant to use it in human relationships.
I don’t know that I “love” my cats – I care about them, I care for them, they’re warm and soft and playful and amusing and I appreciate their attention and cooperation.
They seem to value my attention. They like sitting with or on me. They like playing with me. They approve of the fact that I give them treats and refill their food and water dispensers. They’re willing to avoid deliberately annoying me unless excessively tempted. In other words, I’m warm and playful and amusing. Is that “love”?
Frankly, either way: Who the heck cares? It’s a friendship with cuddling benefits. It works for me, it works for them, the label is irrelevant.
This is why there are very few cats I like. Sure they are cute - but they are dicks. “Stinky” was one of the few cats I really liked, and she acted more like a dog. Dogs are better all around, though. Sorry cat lovers, it is the harsh, cold truth.
What’s that saying? If you were suddenly 3 inches tall, your dog would still obey you. Your cat would eat you.
I have both a cat and a dog. My relationship with them is very different. I find my dog’s bond to me to be both really comforting, but also really stressful. The dog is very needy and very dependent on me. I am definitely the parent. My relationship with the cat is one much more like buddies. There’s a lot of affection, but not the dependency.
If I’m giving the dog attention, the cat either doesn’t care, or attempts to join in to give and receive attention from us both. If I’m giving the cat attention, the dog gets very jealous and either wimpers or tries to make himself the object of my focus again, physically trying to get between me and the cat.
As they get older and their digestive system gets used to the food you are feeding them, their poo should smell less. Small kitten poo always stinks extra bad!
the “young mammal is endearing” instinct is even stronger with such young kittens. I’m glad Teapot has an older kitty, she can help them figure out the mechanics of how to be a cat. Totally awesome of Teapot for taking them in and doing the feeding-every-four-hours thing. We’ve done that before, it’s tough!
My cat had a bit of a traumatic experience on a long car trip when she was younger - it was the first time she had been in a car, and (long story short) it ended up with her huddled in a dark spot, lying in a puddle of ice-cold water and soaked to the bone.
Once I got her dried off and warmed up, she became completely attached to me. Even with other people around, if I moved to a different room she would promptly follow, always keeping me in eyesight if she could. If I left the house she would sit directly in front of the door until I came back. At night, she would perch directly on top of me all night long, no matter how much I tossed and turned during the night (which led to a few scares when I almost rolled on top of her).
Now that she’s much older, she is usually a bit less clingy, but she still falls back into those old habits from time to time. I have to wonder how that behavior would have been taken during this test.
Not every cat will love it’s owner. In fact, many cats have an owner and another person they like.
I think people who feel like cats can’t love have simply never been loved by one.
Harsh cold opinion, actually. It turns out all these people talking about their cats probably don’t like the same things you do. Amazing isn’t it! I mean, what with you being the arbiter of reality!
It is a good thing that love and need are completely identical concepts with absolutely no differences whatsoever, otherwise the fact that this would work on abusive spouses but not most normal spouses would be a cause to question this as a method of testing. In other news I now remember why I thought psychology was such a joke at university.
Count me in on the not sure about the word “love” at all thing. OMG but just try not saying it when it’s expected!
Love can mean:
Dependency, you OWE ME, oh man I care what you think of me and that sucks because now I have to control you, I’d do anything for you, meh… I like sleeping with you, oh look! Saying that word makes you smile! Good!, I am so sincerely invested in your well-being, I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOUUUUUU… and so on.
Honestly, it makes me anxious. Perhaps that’s sad, that it can’t be more simple. But frankly, even in watching this experiment I find myself thinking more from the human side “if that’s love… how depressing!”
My room mates cat has a weird crush on me. I’ve never even fed her, and yet she comes darting in to cuddle every morning when my bedroom door opens, and sometimes she sleeps cuddled up to me. Cats like people who give them affection. It helps to know what they like- how to stroke the fur on the head and neck just right. They will guide your fingers where they want them. They are incapable of loving as we understand love- they are fundamentally selfish creatures, concerned only with their own comfort and pleasure… They are nothing like dogs- simpering, nuerotic and co-dependant, feingning human emotion to get what they want out of us.
You’re deluding yourself if you think the dog would still obey you – unless you were able to bluff your way into retaining the role of pack alpha. The dog obeys in large part because it’s below you in the dominance hierarchy and dogs care about approval from folks higher up that chain.
I know people who have had to attend obedience classes to learn to be “more alpha” precisely because their dogs would NOT obey without stronger signals that they should do so.
Think about it this way: If you were three inches tall, your kids wouldn’t obey you either unless you could demonstrate why they should do so.
My beloved cat of 13 years died in the night last Friday. There is no doubt in my mind that she loved me, or else at least greeted me when I came home, greatly enjoyed snuggling with me and preferred me over anyone else.
Our younger cat was always kind of a dick to her, and often to us. He barely slept at night, running around like mad instead. But with the older cat gone and my wife out of town, he’ s been really vocal when I come home, demands a lot of petting, and spends the night trying to sleep on my chest, and when I roll over, sleeping at my feet instead.
To me the dog appears to be exhibiting a conditioned response, based on the usual behaviour of their human. Perhaps dogs are just more susceptible to conditioning than cats? Personally I expect love to be more than “salivates on command”, but maybe I’m just dating the wrong people?
Next time bring back a dead critter and drop it in her lap…
