When I talk to my 5-month-old kitten, Leo, I like to think he understands what I’m saying to him.
He’s the most lovable cat, always trying to rub up against my leg or climb into my lap. I usually ask myself what he thinks of me when I see how he responds to certain things.
The way I speak to Leo and the way he responds leads me to believe that he loves me as I do him, not that he just uses me to get food and shelter.
However, one cat expert thinks that cats don’t understand us humans quite like dogs do, insinuating that dogs reign supreme.
I beg to differ. According to John Bradshaw, a cat behavior expert at the University of Bristol, dogs don’t treat humans like they do other dogs.
When they see a person, they change their behavior to be unlike how they treat another dog. Bradshaw says that cats don’t treat people differently — cats treat us like other cats.
How is this the case? Well, they lick us in the form of grooming. They raise their tails high into the air when they’re around us. This is all behavior that cats have around other felines. So, according to a kitty, we’re just another, larger cat.
After reading about Bradshaw’s claim, I came to my own conclusions. I want to believe that cats, my little kitty in particular, do love me. And I honestly believe that they do. I also have to agree with Bradshaw that my kitten just so happens to see me as a larger, clumsy cat. This doesn’t mean that Leo doesn’t love me, though. I’m just a cat to him.
Another thing Bradshaw reinforced is that cats aren’t stupid. When your cat is alone in a room, it usually yowls, correct? Well, cats do this for a reason. It’s all to get your attention.
Cats know how their owners will react to different sound variations that they create, thus leading them to meow as loud as physically possible just so we can come into that room and see them laying on their belly. They are straightforward learners.
There is one main thing that I can’t agree with Bradshaw on. He says that cats aren’t as sociable as dogs are. I think that cats are almost more social. Leo plays with me and tries to interact with people more than I’ve seen a lot of dogs do. Because of this, I think that cats have the capability to be just as, if not more, social than dogs are.
You can be a dog-lover, a cat-lover or whatever kind of lover you want to be — I choose to love my cat because I know he loves me too. Leo is the best cat I could hope to have, and I know he’s extremely social. Maybe your cat isn’t quite the social butterfly. Each animal has its own personality!
