There are two cats in our mobile-home park who I think are old pals–unless, though it seems unlikely, they are brothers. There’s an orange tabby we call Stripey and a vaguely gray one we call Gato–we don’t know their real names.
The other day Stripey and Gato were lounging in our front yard until they apparently found a little lizard to chase, and they both did–across a drive. One pawed a neighbor’s shrubs while the other one waited. I half expected them to discuss their efforts to catch the critter!
Do cats naturally bond like this?
Yip! Cats that grow up around other cats are quite likely to be social. They don’t have to be siblings, either.
Sorry, didn’t spot that this was GQ. Here’s a cite:
http://expeng.anr.msu.edu/sites/animalwelfare/files/Social_Behavior_1_(Voith,_1986).pdf
We’re pretty sure the Neville kitties are not related, but they curl up together, and sometimes groom each other. They were sharing a patch of sun in the kitchen yesterday. They’ve lived together since 2004, when Luna was eight months old and Katya was five months old.
Our two cats are presumably siblings, rescued from a dumpster.
They wrestle and ambush one another. They are inseparable. If left alone, one will cry and the other will come running. They play with toys together.
Feral cats often live in colonies, and sometimes the females help raise each other’s young.
Big cats do too… Although it’s usually multiple females or multiple males, but not both.
though catty at times they will get along at times to their mutual benefit (like huddle together for warmth).
My pet cat had a pet cat.
My cat liked to sleep all day and meow at me to play with him throughout the night. The solution was to get a cat to keep him company. It solved the problem, for they enjoyed playing together.
It can be mixed-sex pairs, too, though. The two ferals that live under my mom’s front porch are rarely seen outside of each others’ company, and one’s a male and the other female. And yes, we’re certain about their sex, because we caught them long enough to have them fixed.
Lions hang out together, in the tall grasses of Africa. The big male always eats first though.
The cat I had as a kid was friends with a cat that lived a few houses away. Mine was solid black, the other one solid white and deaf. The other cat would climb up on the back deck and wait for my cat to go out and then they’d wander off in the woods together.
Cats do not have to know each other from youth either, to become social friends. I moved a neutered female cat into my barn, where she immediately took up with a neutered male barn cat she had never met before. They were both 5-7 the first time they met and within weeks were often seen hanging out together and and sleeping together in a pile.
Bubba, our Russian Tabbi had a buddy who lived across the street we called El Gato. El Gato would show up just about the same time every morning and sit quietly by the front door. Bubba about the same time would do the same from inside the house. We would let Bubba out and off they would go. Bubba would show up around dinner time unescorted. Next morning,same routine…they were good pals
A professor here did a study on cats at an animal shelter and found they were very social and formed friendships and alliances pretty readily.
My 2 cats each have a best friend cat - one is best friends with the next-door cat, and the other is best friends with the cat across the street - constant companions. They don’t get along with each other at all.
I was surprised at how bonded my cats seemed to be to each other. I got Owen at five years old from a shelter, and then a few years later, adopted adult cat Darcy (sadly, RIP) from a rescue. They slept curled together, groomed each other, had occaissonal spats, but mostly seemed to really like each other, rather than just co-exist together like other cats I’ve had in the past. It was nice.
I had Little Guy (male) for a number of years. Then I got Bertie (female).
When I brought Bertie home and released her into the house, she vanished utterly for most of the day. When I next saw her about 8pm that night, she and Little Guy were curled up together on a chair. They were mates the rest of their lives.
To add to my previous post…
There are a lot of ferals in my neighbourhood, mostly spayed and neutered by one of my neighbours who feeds and takes care of them as much as possible. I often see the black and white male, Handsome and the calico female, Big Mama, napping together in my front bushes or on my front porch. It’s sweet.
Yep. Most of our cats, with the exception of Maggie, who hates everyone, are all pretty friendly. Annie and Luci are siblings and are while they aren’t as co-dependent as they used to be as kittens, are pretty tight. They still like to curl up together and will give each other baths. It’s the cutest thing in the world.
And our cat Misty was pretty friendly with everyone (again, except Maggie. Maggie doesn’t like anyone, and they don’t like her).
My cats definitely love each other. My female even grooms the male sometimes.
They can have enemies, too. My old cat hated my brother’s cat the second she saw him, but nobody really liked him anyway.