The inner lives of cats: what our feline friends really think about hugs, happiness and humans
I wanted to know the exact amount of time I spend ruminating on the inner lives of my cats, so I did what most people do in times of doubt, and consulted Google. According to my search history, in the two years since I became a cat owner I have Googled variations of cat love me how do I tell? and is my cat happy 17 times. I have also inadvertently subscribed to cat-related updates from the knowledge website Quora, which emails me a daily digest. (Sample: Can Cats Be Angry or Disappointed With Their Owner?)
How do I love my cats? Let me count the ways. The clean snap of three-year-old Larrys jaw as he contemplates me with detached curiosity is my favourite sound in the world. I love the tenor and cadence of my six-month-old kitten Kedis miaows as he follows me around the house. (High-pitched indignant squeaks means he wants food; lower-pitched chirrups suggest he would like to play.) I love the weight of Larry on my feet at night and the scratchy caress of Kedis tongue on my eyelid in the morning.
But how do I know what these little tykes really think and feel? I fear the authors of online listicles written in cursive fonts are unlikely to provide me with the latest scientific research and are probably just saying what they think I want to hear. To truly journey into the feline soul, I will have to go to the fountainhead.
Despite the fact that cats are the most common pet in UK households after dogs, we know relatively little about them. This, says Dr Carlo Siracusa of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, is partly due to practical problems.
Dogs are easy to study: you can take them to a lab and they will be content. But cats are intensely territorial creatures. The behaviour of a cat is so modified by its environment that if you move it to a laboratory, says Siracusa, what youll see is not really reflective of what the normal behaviour of the cat is.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/08/the-inner-lives-of-cats-what-our-feline-friends-really-think-about-hugs-happiness-and-humans
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For further reading, I suggest The Tribe of Tiger, by Eiizabeth Marshall Thomas