It is well known: the cat is a solitary animal. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. On the contrary ! Moreover, some are very cuddly and even stuck to you all the time. A new study conducted by Japanese researchers from Kyoto University, relayed by the New York Post, supports these facts. According to them, cats can learn words spoken by humans, and even connect the names of these or other cats with faces. According to the researchers, domestic cats “anticipate a specific cat’s face by hearing the name of the cat in question.”
⋙ The video of a man helping a kitten… but not only, goes viral!
Lots of energy, but all different
These new findings may indicate that cats are able to “learn names by observing human-to-human interactions: a third-party perspective,” the study authors add. Another lesson from these results: do not judge too quickly the attitude of cats. Why ? Because, in the example where the cat is kicking, it is not necessarily because it is angry or does not like you. They sometimes attack because they are bored. A feline trainer, Jennifer Van de Kieft, admits to our American colleagues: “I see this regularly with young cats, they have a lot of energy.”
She adds, “If they don’t have a chance to let off steam, or opportunities to at least pretend to play, then they go after whatever.” Importantly, a study published in the journal Current Biology shows that cats can become attached to you in the same way babies can. “Cats may have the same abilities to form secure and insecure bonds with humans as children do,” the study authors said. For example, to show their love, cats sometimes come and rub their faces against you or butt you. They then produce pheromones and “just put their perfume on you to tell you: ‘Hey, you’re mine'”, abounds Jennifer Van de Kieft.
⋙ This cat accompanies its master everywhere by bike in the streets of London!
The cat, an animal that is not made to live indoors
But in cats love is not apprehended in the same way. So when some rub each other, others meow to bring you into the bedroom to have a hug… none of them react the same way. After all, they remain individual. In addition, for Carlo Siracusa, professor of behavioral medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, it is important not to interpret the behavior of a cat as that of a dog, this one is being developed in packs and the cat descended from solitary hunters. In any case, some domestic cats will meow a lot because they are bored. Because by definition, a cat remains a hunter and, for its physical and mental health, playing or hunting is vital to it. Not to mention, according to Jennifer Van de Kieft, that these little felines are “not made to turn indoors. It’s not really what nature intended them for”.
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