4 signs your cat might, well, not like you very much
Dogs are man’s best friend and cats are man’s masters. Dogs love you unconditionally and cats love you because you provide them food. The eternal dogs versus cats war might just come to an end with research showing that despite loving cats, they don’t actually think much of their owners. Just don’t tell a cat-lover that!
Cats don’t love owners the same way dogs do
This is likely due to the difference in the animals’ evolution to domesticated pets. While dogs were domesticated an estimated 32,000 years ago, cats have been living with humans for only 9,000 years – and at first, they were mainly lurking around humans for scraps of food, not for human contact. Furthermore, while humans chose dogs to be their companion, selectively breeding positive traits, as well as teaching them to help us (for example, herding animals, protecting humans), cats chose people. It is thought that cats stuck around humans firstly because their food source, vermin, were around populations and then they realised they could live a well-fed life if they stuck by humans.
Cats might not care whether you stay or go
Professor Daniel Mills of Lincoln University staged an animal version of the “Strange Situation” experiment, a famous psychological experiment that proved children have special bonds with parents and caregivers. In the experiment, strangers and caretakers enter a room randomly that the subject is in, and the subject's reaction to the entrances and exits are monitored. Mills conducted his experiment on dogs and cats. He found that dogs overwhelmingly reacted to their owner’s presence with enthusiasm and joy, whereas cats generally were uninterested whether their owners depart and return.
Cats know when you’re calling them; they just choose not to respond
Researchers played a recording of three different people (two strangers, plus the owner) calling cats’ names. Regardless of order, cats always reacted to hearing their owner’s voice (independent observers who did not know which voices were strangers noted slight ear and head movement), but none actually responded such as moving to look at the voice, meowing or approaching their speaker.
Cats are master manipulators
While the purr of a cat is believed to be the sign of contentment it is not always the case. Researchers at the University of Sussex recorded the purring sounds made by cats in two types of situations: when they wanted food, and when they didn't. It turned out that food-related purrs were very different and comparable to a baby’s cry. While most purrs are low-toned noises, researchers concluded the high-toned food related purrs, which seemed more urgent and less pleasant to humans, were a deliberate way to trigger humans’ parenting instincts and get them fed faster.
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