Some of my coworkers have adopted a stray cat. I have noticed, just as I have noticed before with other cats, that the cat seems to learn very, very quickly who to avoid and who is a “cat person.” How are cats able to do this? Please don’t tell me it’s because they have magical cat powers. I am looking for a real answer. What do they observe with their ordinary senses such as sight, smell, hearing, touch, etc. that makes this possible?
I have noticed a similar behavior with wild squirrels. If you are just out in nature looking at the cute little critters they don’t seem to mind. But if they sense you are exhibiting predatory behavior they will hide or try to escape.
People get weirded out at how I can call strange cats to me. It’s a combination of mimicking the body language they use when greeting another creature they like and making sounds that mimic friendly cat noises. Cats are the masters of subtle body language, which is hilarious when they interact with dogs who are anything but subtle.
Okay. You know all those cute pictures all over the internet of cats lounging nonchalantly on computer keyboards or snuggling up to smartphones? Well… they are participating in a giant discussion group/message board/database where they trade information on the hoomans who inhabit their world (IOW the whole world). You may think they’re dozing or playing with a paper clip or nuzzling you for nose boops-- don’t be fooled. Nothing escapes them, and all data immediately gets transmitted through the UCN (Universal Cat Network).
I was visiting my dad last fall, and his housemates had a quite skittish cat. I tried to make friends with it by crouching down as low as possible, and holding out my hand (at the level of the cat’s head) with my palm facing downwards. Most cats will come up and sniff my hand, maybe rub against it and let me scratch them under the ear; this one gave me a sniff, but not much more.
My dad then reached down from where he was sitting and held out his hand, palm up. The cat didn’t run, but didn’t come over to him, either.
I think SmartAleq is right; subtle bits of body language make a difference. I tried to look small and unthreatening, and let the cat come to me. My dad was sitting up on the couch, and the way his hand was turned looked like he was ready to reach out and grab the cat if it got close enough. Cats are domesticated, but still have most of their wild instincts; one of which is keeping their distance from big things that want to grab them.
Could it be related to the cat’s vomeronasal organ, which enables them to smell pheromones? Here’s a journal article with an abstract that refers to “the pivotal role of the VNO in the social life of cats and other species” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1098612X15606493
I suppose if we want to be factual, which I do, we should also ask do cats really have the ability to quickly figure out who is a “cat person” and who isn’t. It’s not just me that has believed that, I have heard many others tell me that. But maybe it’s just some sort of confirmation bias or wishful thinking or something like that. Again, this thread is looking for factual answers.
I am not a cat person but am often “approached” by cats. Some cats rub their bodies on my legs while I am talking to people. When I was single and lived in an apartment, a black stray cat would bring me “dead birds” most mornings in hopes of befriending me.I just gave some fish to the cat whenever possible but I didn’t let it come inside.
Maybe it is Toxoplasma gondii acting on human cat lovers; just like it acts on mice. Toxoplasma gondii makes mice attracted to cats.
“ Toxoplasmosis is caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii . In the United States it is estimated that 11% of the population 6 years and older have been infected with Toxoplasma . In various places throughout the world, it has been shown that more than 60% of some populations have been infected with Toxoplasma .” - CDC - Toxoplasmosis - Epidemiology & Risk Factors
There’s a lot of cues about whether someone likes/dislikes/is trying to catch an animal in terms of posture, movements, eye focus, breathing, and other body language. People who are trained at close quarters fighting (like boxers and fencers) learn to recognize a lot of small ‘tells’ to see when someone is about to make a move, and to cover up their own tells to make it harder to predict them. Creatures like cats and squirrels have good reason to pay attention to this since humans outweigh them 10:1 or more, if there were ton-weight giants striding around over your head all the time you’d probably be skittish too. Maybe someone has done a study, but this seems like something with a really blatantly obvious answer to me.
I wouldn’t say that cats gravitating towards cat people is in any way universal. I would argue (with only personal experience and testimonials to go on) that many if not most cats actually gravitate to the non-cat people. Cats are generally introverts in the sense that they prefer to interact with others on their own terms. So the person that ignores the cat is the one who seems to get the cat’s attention, since the cat is the one that initiates. The people (like myself) who see a cat and immediately want to go towards them, arms outstretched, calling out “here kitty kitty kissy kissy omgyou’resocute” are more apt to scare the cat away.
But has anybody studied in detail which particular postures, sounds, movements, etc. that cats use and how cats evaluate each of these particular clues in determining who is a friend or a foe?
I don’t know of any studies, but I’m usually successful approaching cats and I can give my empirical guidelines:
Don’t make loud or sudden noises.
Don’t make quick or sudden movements.
Talk softly to the cat to attract her (or his) attention before approaching her, so that she knows you’re not trying to sneak up on her.
Crouch down, so that you are not towering above the cat. Don’t look her in the eyes when you approach. That’s threatening. Look slightly off to one side.
Don’t smile or show your teeth.
Continue talking softly, and hold out a hand slowly, palm down.
Let the cat approach and sniff your hand.
Move your fingers slowly to let her know you want to pet her, but let her decide whether she wants to be petted. If she does she will come closer.
Based on frequent stories about cats making advances towards people who are allergic to/and or detest cats, it’s doubtful cats generally have a super-instinct about who’s a “cat person”.
To keep this response within the realm of Science, given that cats’ attraction to feces is dependent on factors like seasonal/sex-related differences in chemical content, perhaps certain humans have bodily odors (fecal-associated or not) that are differentially attractive to cats (who, it has been observed, may be into butt-sniffing in much the same fashion as dogs).
Maybe I am looking at this wrong. Maybe cats have the ability to quickly figure out which humans might be a threat and avoid them and the other humans (who would be more likely to be a “cat person”) are approached instead.
I haven’t any studies, but apparently neither do others in this thread so far.
The person who doesn’t like cats is likely to look slightly away from the cat – not entirely away because they want to see if the cat’s coming at them, but not directly at the cat because they don’t like the way cats look or because they think looking directly at the cat will encourage it.
Thing is: for a cat, looking directly at a stranger is a sign either of aggression (get a good look at what you’re about to pounce on) or of fear (I need to watch out that they don’t pounce on me!) If you really want to encourage a cat to come to you, meet the cat’s gaze only momentarily, then close your eyes in a long slow blink and turn your head slightly away, exposing the side of your head and neck to the cat.
This apparently means something along the lines of “I am not about to pounce, and I trust you enough to take my eyes off you.” It’s a friendly gesture in Cat.
– A great deal of Cat is spoken with body language. The voice is mostly an attention getter, and not always used even for that. Humans are so used to using language with words that we’re often terrible at body language. Plus which, of course, we’re terrible at the Cat dialect because we have no tails and can’t move our ears right. Nevertheless many cats get pretty good at reading people; and most people who recognize the problem and are willing to try can get passable at reading at least some cats.
