Feline or Canine?

For readers who prefer Felines, more so than domestic cats,  this article is for you!  You may or may not be surprised to know that researchers say that the domestic cat does not actually care about it’s owner’s.

The term feline is used to describe a member of the “cat family“, with characteristics much as sly.  Nevertheless, they typically share similar traits to their wild cat relatives.  There are currently more than 600 million cats in the world.  There around 100 different cat breeds known.

What Traits do All Cats Have?

All cats inherently share predominate characteristics of physical attributes, needs, and abilities. An article on PawsomeCats.com distinctly covers the correlation both wild cats and domestic cats similarities in anatomy, difference in body signal meaning with acts such as “scent marking”, and predator inherit behaviors.

Imagine from Uncannyflats.com

An article from io9.com  writes of research that extends on the idea of cats not caring about their owners.  The article entitled, “Why House Cats Generally Do Not Care (About You),”  states that cats can seem “…indifferent to their human companions.  But it is not an act — they actually do not care.”

Studies have been done that support this idea.  The idea of cats being independent has been taken to another level as Dr. Daniel Mills, a professor of Veterinary Behavior conducted the Ainsworth Strange Situation study with 20 cats.  The study was used to test whether or not cats had a “secure attachment” to their owners, similarly to the ones emitted by children and dogs to their primary care provider.  Here is a video of the study itself, which allowed him to conclude that the relationship between owner and pet cat is not reciprocated.  Mills claims that the research on the relationship is  “not what would be described as a secure attachment style relationship”.  According to the test video, cats have allowed researches to perceive their view of their owners as a “provider of resources,” instead of a sense of security.  The conclusion to the study is that although “previous research has suggested that some cats show signs of anxiety when left alone by their owners,” in similar ways to dogs; Cats have been found to be overall more independent in comparison to children and canines.  Another study of cats attachment was measured in the UK and had come across the same set of end conclusions.

Reasons behind this has been correlated to feline genomes.  Based off of the genetic makeup the similarities of felines in the wilderness and domestic felines have been regarding hunting instincts.  According to io9.com characteristics such as “pouncing, kicking with the hind limbs, chasing prey,” are both distinctive innate learned behaviors for wild and smalls cats.  The website has an observational study as one of its resources.  “Development of aggression and defense in the first 164 days of life,” a study conducted on cats by Robert E. Adamec in Canada.  Within 52 days after birth, there were evident signs of “attack on prey”, defense, as well as withdrawal (before any encounter of a predator according to i09.com).

In conclusion,  cats genetic makeup has been studied while their behaviors has been observed.  The process of hypothesis testing has been able to draw the results that cats do not have the ability to form secure attachments to the extents that dogs and humans do.  So next time you have a pet watch their behaviors and hopefully they’ll answer the question to whether or not cats really care.