Alien cats transform humans into feeding, petting machines
By Kim Campbell Thornton
July 31, 2009
Cats are aliens who have enslaved us. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. And it’s backed up by science.
Well, sort of. Conducted by researchers at the University of Sussex and published in the July 14 issue of Current Biology, it showed how successful cats are at enlisting people to perform tasks for them, in particular, providing food. Turns out that cats motivate people to fill their food dishes by combining an urgent cry or meowing sound with the comforting sound of a purr. The noise is annoying, endearing, and difficult to ignore. Cats tell us a lot of other things, too, and not always in the nicest language.
I wrote my column this month about the many ways cats manipulate us or tell us what they want–as well as why we obey them–and got lots of great stories. I also talked to Marty about feline body language and vocal skills, and he gives great advice on how to listen to and interpret what your cat is telling you.
What do your cats tell you, how do they do it, and what do you do for them that you might not do for anyone else?
Kim, I really enjoyed your article. It put a big smile on my face because I have two little furry aliens at home who control me. :) I also had a good laugh with Tamara about her quote. Have a great day!
Comment by Jason Merrihew — July 31, 2009 @ 10:21 am
I have multiple cats in the house and for some reason most of them rarely meow.
When it is close to feeding time they give me that special stare.
Personally I think they communicate an awful lot with their eyes, to me and the other cats.
Some of them give me a tiny bite on my arm when they want something. Especially when I am close to the fridge. And I get whacked on the face(no nails) when I dare to sleep a little bit longer than normal. Or I get the kneading treatment on my chest with nails out which really gets my lazy bones up fast.
Very few meows though.
Guess they have me properly trained
Comment by serijna — July 31, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
One little female I have, nursed from about 1 1/2 week, has some strange communications.
My lap is her domain. When I call another cat while she is on my lap, she stares at me and her pupils get big.
If I continue to call another cat, I get whacked on the face, nails out.
One time, while laying on the sofa, and I had removed her from my body after an especially nasty painful whack, she came back and pee’d on my hair while I was snoozing with another cat..
She had me trained after that, no more other cats calling while she was on my lap.
She also never pee’d on me again.
Comment by serijna — July 31, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
Persephone, aka The Princess, will come into the living room where we are sitting and sit on the floor and sit…and sit….and sit. One of us will get up and walk over to her and put our hand down to pet her. She will rise up a little on her hindquarters to head bump the hand. Then she will slowly walk off, checking to see that someone is following her, to her, gasp, empty food bowl in the other room.
We get a big kick out the “follow me to the food bowl” ritual.
Comment by Susan Fox — August 1, 2009 @ 5:20 pm
We did not domesticate cats. Cats domesticated us.
Comment by Georg — August 2, 2009 @ 9:19 am
We have two indoor cats. One is named Diva! She is so smart. In the morning she goes to our bedroom window and opens the shutters for us to get up. We also had to change all of our door knobs because she could open the doors!. She keeps us intertained!! Her sister Darla just watches it all.
They are both so sweet.
Comment by Darlene — August 18, 2009 @ 10:39 am