Right now I have a cute little black cat, Sputnik, sleeping all streatched out across my wrists (which makes it pretty hard to type).
If cats are solitary creatures, why does Sputnik insist on curling up on some part of my body nearly constantly? Why does he perch up on the bathtub- in obvious peril of falling in- just to be near me when I bathe? Why does he meow and meow and meow when I am unlocking the door? Why does he lick my face to wake me up in the morning?
Nicky has a continous food supply. I don’t think he particularly associates it with me. He’s never known what it is like not to have a mysterious always full food bowl always full of food.
So why are cats affectionate? Is there anything more than them wanting food?
Cats have gotten a bad rap. They may not be pack animals (although domestic cats have shown more pack-like behavior than researchers originally expected to find), but when you adopt a cat, you become part of his family and he will respond to the love you give him, just like any other (mammalian) pet would. He just isn’t as likely as a dog to actually do something you tell him to.
Well, cats are affectionate because they’ve been domesticated, i.e., we’ve bred them to be affectionate. In other words, cats who were affectionate to humans were fed by them and cared for by them, and so the cats who happened to be affectionate to humans prospered. Cats haven’t been domesticated as long as dogs, but domestication of felines goes back to ancient Egypt. You might say it’s all about “wanting food”, but after several thousand years of association with humans, their affection is hard-wired, and as real as any other mammalian emotion.
Cats, unlike dogs, didn’t start out as social animals. (Feral domesticated cats will form colonies, but I don’t think this is the case with the small wildcats who are domesticated cats’ closest living relatives, so the intra-species gregariousness of domesticated cats, even ones which have in many respects reverted back to the wild, is probably a consequence of domestication.) However, one powerful emotional bond all mammals have is that between mother and offspring. Young mammals have an extremely strong drive to stay close to mommy, a matter of life and death. Since most mammals are born in litters, young mammals will usually at least tolerate each other’s close company as well.
This allows for the domestication of even normally asocial mammals by prolonging infantile or juvenile emotional traits into adulthood. When they’re being affectionate, cats will often display a lot of infantile behaviors–“kneading” for example, which basically mimics what kittens do when they nurse. Basically, your cats probably see you, emotionally speaking, as their mother.
Short answer-you’re their mother (doesn’t matter if you’re male or female)-the only lifeform that has tended to their every need.They appreciate this.Some more than others.They also like warm spots.You’re warm,but I’ll bet you pale to a good soaking by the window with the rays streaming in.
OOPs,on preview seems like I’ve been beaten to the punch.What they said.
I’ve never kept any cats, but the ones at a bed and breakfast I visited recently came into my room to “visit,” purr and rub their sides and heads against me. I guess they like the guests too.
Just as an aside, you may find that this practice leads to obesity when the cat is older. My cat originally maintained a normal weight with a constantly full food bowl. At about age 8, however, the vet advised me I needed to start limiting her feeding because she was becoming obese. I guess YMMV.
Another aspect is the sowing of confusion. I dined out on Thursday and as I was coming back, I found a healthly-looking but collarless orange cat, who was very friendly. Since I don’t like to leave cats out on especialy chilly nights, I let him into my house. He was very hungry but nevertheless charming in a wander-around-investigate-everything kind of way. Trouble was, I was babysitting my girlfriend’s cat, who started getting all upset, though the orange stranger paid her no mind. Not wanting any brawling, I locked the newcomer in my basement with a dish of food, planning to kick him out the next day.
In the morning, I found the dish untouched and subsequent searches uncovered nothing, which means:
A) This healthy-looking cat crawled under one of my many basement debris piles and dropped dead, or
B) He managed to escape my basement by as-yet unknown means.
Assuming (and hoping for) the latter, I’m sure there’s an evil plan somewhere.
Try reading “When Elephants Weep, The Emotional Lives of Animals”. It presents a huge number of situations suggesting that all mammals share essentially the same emotions. (It’s brain power that sets humans apart, not emotionality.)
I’ll go with Internet Legend, when a cat is affectionate, it’s because it likes you. Maybe it loves you.
Of course, it could be all part of their plan to prey on our emotions. There might be some emotional satisfaction in that, too. Nah. Too cynical. It’s because they love you.
Oh, and I’ve found cats are much more likely to “mark” you (with their facial glands) on the face and hands if they want you to stay around, or at least they like you :).
When thinking of cats, people often don’t consider that lions lived in large family groups, showing affection among the members. It isn’t unheard of in the wild, although it isn’t the norm going across species.
My Inigo is a complete mama’s boy. He can’t stand not to be in the same room with me, and literally follows me around. He’s happiest when curled up in my lap–whether here at the desk, or on the couch, in bed, etc. He’s a man’s cat–very dependent!
The species we call “house cats” (I forget the Latin name) is not solitary. You’ll encounter lone cats, sure, and toms tend to be combative during mating seasons, but otherwise, feral cats form groups all the time. They HUNT singly – most prey a house cat could handle won’t feed more than one cat – but often live together, sometimes in rather large groups.
Your cat plainly feels that you’re one of its family. People who say cats are aloof and unaffectionate don’t know squat about cats.
As an owner of many cats…9 at the moment I have noticed that cats are like people, many different types. Some who love to be petted, some who only want it when they want it. Some who never want it. I have also noted that most of my cats are attracted to the part of me that actually does the petting, my hands. They will actually try to rub on my hands. I have to hide them at times. I’m not sure they even know the rest of me is there. And I do believe that feeding them is a big part of their affection.
There was an article on this in the Atlantic Monthly last summer… Oh, look–I have it right here in the clutter on my desk: “The Character of Cats,” by Stephen Budiansky, June 2002.
Mr. Budiansky has also written a book by the same title, which I have not yet read.
The gist of the article is that domestic cats are genetically not very different from their wild counterparts. Wild cats are extremely unsocial animals, interacting with each other only for mating or when mother cats are raising their kittens. So why are domestic cats social? Budiansky says that:
“Social interactions that are common in all domestic cats, such as playing with, rubbing against, grooming, and lying close to familiar cats and people, appear to be behavioral overflows and hodgepodges, left over from those circumstances in which wild-cats are social.”
Which is pretty much what others have already said: your cat thinks that you’re Mommy.
He also says what MEBuckner does in his post: wild cats do not form colonies, but feral domestic cats do even when they haven’t been around humans for generations. I thought that was interesting, that social behavior seems to be ingrained in them.
Personally, I like to think that my cats are fond of me. They seemed very glad to have me back after I went away for the holidays all last week, even though someone else came in to feed them, and have been following me all around the house since I came home.
Oh yes. This happened in my household too. We thought that the foil treat bag would be safe. Nope. And once they had a taste for it, they would hunt it out. Finally had to put it up on top of the kitchen cabnets where they hadn’t mastered the art of jumping that high.
Bryan Ekers - - In the morning, I found the dish untouched and subsequent searches uncovered nothing, . . .
I hate to be the first to tell you this, but orange tabby cats can teleport. I swear.
Reeder - - I’ve also wondered if my cats thought of my hands as two extra critters, not really connected to me. I know they know that the rest of me is there. They snuggle in my lap and jump up on chair backs to cuddle against my head. Sydney even has a foot fetish. If I’m barefoot, he’ll lay on my feet and lick them.
