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he believes cats are semi-feral and that they think we are cats too
Ok, so it’s just something someone believes, it’s not very scientific… They don’t really provide much evidence other than belief
Probably this is yet another case of a journalist spinning yarn out of some poor researcher’s paper summary, and then being quoted out of context.
Cats don’t see you as cat, but also not as someone superior, they can see you as friend, but you have to gain it, if not, you are only an tin opener and food supply. They are anarchists by nature.
They are more like little dictators.
What the article implies is that they do not understand that we are different species. The relationship between cats and humans is a whole other area. But I don’t believe cats are stupid or have somehow evolved to believe humans are the same species as them.
Certainly they are far from beeing stupid, but they simply don’t have an concept of leaders or hirarchy. You can even train them to do tricks, but it is more difficult as with dogs, not because they are more stupid, but because they must see a reason and have the desire to do it. It’s in their nature, in nature it’s up to their own strategy and decisions whether they’re going to eat or not, there’s no herd or a leader that tells them what to do. This is the difference with dogs, nothing to do with intellectual capacity, perfectly equivalent, females are usually somewhat smarter than males, but just as in dogs, there are individual differences, as it also happens with us humans.
When I had a dog, I used to think my dog thinks he will grow just as big as me and will join my daily routine, which was a bit depressing when you think about it
Ermmm actually you “just believe” the earth is round. /s /most obvious s
tbf i don’t think my cat is 100% domesticated lol
No, they have absolutely no idea about nuclear war and apparently no clear sense that we might be some other species, despite not quite having the strokably hairy torsos they enjoy.
Speak for yourself, my torso hair is luxurious.
My cat knows about nuclear war. He simply hasn’t chosen to exercise the knowledge.
True, it’s common knowledge that all cats know the exact time and date when the first bombs are going to fall, leading to the fall and eventual extinction of the human race
But they all refuse to tell us because they’re silly furry goobersCommon misconception. Not all of them, just the ones that change colors around radiation.
I would insist on a regular inspection protocol. Cat could have an underground relocation system for averting defensive preemptive strikes.
This will totally dox myself to anyone who might be in or know someone in an old friend group.
I’m a very furry person - I joke that I put the hair suit in hirsute - but at least it’s soft! Years upon years ago, I had a one night stand with my then future partner’s (now ex’s) best friend. It was bad. Really, awkwardly bad. The kind of bad where I woke up the next morning and, instead of trying for another go, groaned inwardly because they were still there, a living reminder of how bad it was.
I took out my phone and hastily messaged my best friend, asking her advice on politely dealing with this. Unbeknownst to me, my guest was awake, messaging my future partner. She described being barely awake in the early morning, petting my cat. I didn’t have a cat or any pets. As she became more aware, she realized she was petting my chest.
Apparently some humans think I’m a big stupid cat too.
P.s. She also thought the sex was awful.
Thank you for sharing this story.
Easy test at home. Bring a strange human into your house, note the reaction. Bring a strange cat into your house, is the reaction the same? If not then cats are smart enough to mark a distinction between people and cats.
I agree and disagree. If you did a large enough trial with many animals and people, for each of many test cats in homes, then the data might show this. I just think that even if this hypothesis is true, the reaction to every cat/person won’t be the same for a given test cat. That could be a noisy signal.
It was more a plea to cat owners that know their cat. The cats I know don’t tolerate cats on the street outside their house, let alone inside, plenty of people around though. I’m sure there’s exceptions, I don’t know cats well. As a rule, I think they’re intolerant of strange cats being in “their” space, less so humans. We don’t smell like cats, we don’t sound like cats, we don’t act like cats. Cats aren’t dumb (except orange ones), they know we aren’t cats (even the orange ones)
I have never seen a cat beg another cat for food. I have seen plenty of cats beg humans for food. I am pretty sure cats are smart enough to realize we are not cats. For one, we have hands we can use to open doors and give pets
I see what you mean. I have 3 cats, all girls and spayed. Our neighbor has an outdoor cat (socially acceptable animal cruelty imo), a boy and intact.
They make goo goo eyes at each other through the windows. I dont know what would happen if I let them out, but they look like they’d be friends.
Why is an outdoor cat animal cruelty?
One of the big things is their robust appetite for murder. Domesticated cats destroy bird populations. At minimum they should have a collar with a bell.
It’s not as clear cut as this, a lot of the studies that suggest this don’t stand up to scrutiny, with for example some having numbers of estimated birds killed by cats over the total estimated bird population. Also the fact that the majority of kills by cats are already weak or sick animals, animals that would die soon either way, and not really affect the total population. The only ones that seem legit and suggest an effect on the population are from small islands.
They live much shorter lives outdoors. Im not sure how someone could not care about the length of life of something they care about.
Maybe they care more about their quality of life than their life span. I my opinion it is the other way around, the socially acceptable cruelty is to have them confined their entire lives, doesn’t matter how big and comfortable is the cage.
Yeah, I qualified it as my opinion because I know not everyone agrees. I make sure our cats have many litter boxes, places to nap and places to scratch, and a couple cat buddies. I hope that they do not feel something is being withheld from them. Thats my goal.
Can confirm, am big stupid cat. 😺
Talk for yourself
Meow
Bark
Hisss
Snap
Ribbit
Huf Huf pant pant pant
Mow
Mo
I’ve been wondering if that actually holds any water - or is it just some outdated, poor-quality study (or Sunday newspaper article) that was quoted so many times that everybody believes it now?
If it were the case, how would one prove it or even show evidence for it? And similar question for if it isn’t the case, how would you disprove or show evidence against it? I’m not even sure how one would prove that cats have a concept of species.
Yeah it’s so dumb. Cats obviously don’t think the things over ten times their size that walk on a different amount of legs are the same as them.
Further, another “fun fact” I see a lot (equally questionable) is that cats meow only to communicate with humans, not cats. But that’s mutually exclusive with cats thinking humans are the same as them.
my cat has a specific meow for each of us (including my wife’s cat) when she just woke up and is looking for a specific someone for post-nap cuddles. her “hey, Orange Dumbass! where are you!” is definitely a meow tho.
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Let me ask my cat. She just keeps saying Mao. I guess she’s a communist.
All cats are communists, obviously. They have no respect for concepts of “ownership” and expect to be housed and fed according to their needs.
And according to their means they WILL return the favor in equivalent services of pest control and cuddles (cuddles and pest control may not be available in your area)
It should be pretty easy. See if cats act differently around humans and other cats
I think my cat is a big stupid cat so we are even.
😂
show cat pls
I don’t buy this because cats will react totally differently to cats than people. Regardless of posture. If my cat sees someone walking down the street she doesn’t get angry. If my cat sees a cat outside she’s already on the defense.
I think people are leaving out purring and kneading as behavior. Both are kitten behaviors. Suggesting to humans they click into “kitten mode”
Did I miss the explanation of why this person thinks such a fuckin stupid thing?
The thing I’ve seen is that when they show dogs an image of their owner while the dog is in a PET scan, and show the dog pictures of other animals, the same part of the brain lights up, while showing the dog pictures of other dogs lights up a different but close area of the brain. Doing the same test on cats had one area lighting up for other animals, but the same part lighting up when shown their owner and when shown other cats
While it is scientific people should provide the context that we don’t really understand brains fully yet and this doesn’t mean that his belief or conclusion is correct
3 college professors (1990) suggested we read Desmond Morris’ books. Don’t know how the science has stood up, but he believed this. Dogs and cats think humans are weird versions of their own species, that we’re basically their parents, and act accordingly. Nothing IRL has dissuaded me from that notion.
One interesting idea I got from him; When we’re small we love huge animals, see them as parents. As we get older, we like small animals, see them as our children.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Morris
Again, don’t know how it stands up, but The Naked Ape is damned thought provoking.
Also, people should keep in mind, that kittens are born with their eyes still sealed shut for a while. So once they open their eyes and finally get to see the world, they naturally accept the creatures that have been and continue to care for them.
Think Morris touches on that! Been 35-years since I studied him though. Afraid to read it all again in case he turned out to be so very wrong.
Nothing IRL has dissuaded me from that notion.
Cats react differently when seeing an unfamiliar cat than they do when seeing an unfamiliar human.
They only meow at humans
And they KNOW humans provide sustenance on a regular basis, and protection, so I can’t believe they think we’re just giant hairless monstrous cats. They’d have to think everything else is a cat otherwise. Look at the flying cats, mom! I’m gonna catch and eat one!
Perhaps they think we’re too stupid to realise they’ve grown up and could feed themselves, just so long as they pretend to be kittens by meowing
Kittens meow, but adult cats in the wild don’t. So they literally speak baby talk to us.
The difference between a domestic cat and a wild cat is like 90% size.
May I present to you: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty-spotted_cat
very smol
I would like five and dont care what they scratch or pee on.
I’ve heard this a few times and doubt it. At least with my cat. He howls at other cats and tries to attack them. He loves humans.
Because you’re his big bald kitten
Oh boy. You don’t know how right you are.
So the conclave is in agreement, the cats (hopefully) think humans are gentle, bald, stupid giant cats.
I’ve seen people who treat their cats like they are little stupid humans.
But they are!
They can’t even turn doorknobs, no matter how many months they try. But you give them a lever knob, that’s a totally different story…
I had a cat as a kid that could turn doorknobs - my parents would send him to the basement at night because he had a bad habit of trying to mark furniture as his territory, and we had to start locking the door because he figured out how to open it
Round doorknobs? Your kitty actually gripped and turned it?
Dang, ours tried tirelessly for like 2 months. He knew and understood exactly what we were doing, and we could literally see him trying to turn it, but he never could get a good enough grip.
My dad kept a latch lock on the front door though, eventually our cat learned all on his own to bat at and use as his own door knocker.
Not all cats are stupid, just limited in human abilities…
Our cat would jump up and hang from the doorknob by both of his front paws and then wiggle back and forth until it opened. Our other cat at the time could never figure it out lol
Ours had it fully figured out, I just guess your doorknob was probably a bit easier to turn than ours was…
meowmeow
A dog is an herd animal and need an lider to follow, a cat (except lions) are lone hunters, they don’t even have the concept of an lider, the can have anarchistic groups and friendships when they have with it advantages to obtain food.
The dog thinks, he takes care of me and feeds me, he must be a god
The cat thinks, he takes care of me and feeds me, I must be a god
Leader*
*Litre
LIDAR. Cats don’t even have the concept of it.
Have they even started work on Maxwell’s Equations?
I can’t even get one of my cats past intermediate algebra, and the other keeps confusing the Kronecker delta with the partial derivative delta. I’ll keep trying, I won’t fail them.
Dogs don’t need a leader - the whole alpha male wolf thing has long been disproven, by the original author none the less. Dogs are highly social and live in groups, yes, but there’s no boss dog. Very few animals have a concept of a leader. In fact I’d argue that none do and it’s a totally human idea.
I like your cat/dog thinking idea though. Cats very much think ‘me me me’!
Elephant seals definitely have a leader, though.
Is that leadership or just breeding and/or social dominance though? Do they tell others where and when to hunt e.g.? I’m not so knowledgeable about seals of any species so a genuine question.
This isn’t quite true, wolf packs do have leaders: the pack’s mom and dad.
Most wolf packs are a breeding pair and their children, and the children will break off and form new packs over time. Every time you hear pack you should legitimately just translate it to “family”
I’d argue that parents are different to a ‘leader’ as we perceive them, or as I read was suggested in the comment. Children will stick with their parents, up to the point at which they’re ready to start their own family, like you say, but is that leadership in the same sense?
But yes, I agree, pack = family is accurate.
an lider
Also an 'erd animal
That’s pretty rich given that they’re the ones who are big, stupid cats. 😡🤬
