pets | Communicating Science 2017 Section 212

Tag Archives: pets

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Do cats care their owners?

At the end of a long and exhausting day, all you want to do is to rush back home and cuddle with a little fluffy furry ball, your cat, and let your cat to take your stress away. But wait, where is your cat? You can find it nowhere and finally you see your cat sleeping at the balcony without noticing you coming. However, do cats really not care their owners?

Credit: Pixabay

Cats have been domesticated for around 9000 years now, but they are very different from dogs on their interaction with humans. Unlike dogs, cats did not change much in their behavior or the physical appearance during the domestication process.

Here is the video explaining other weird behaviors of cats.

A research done by John Bradshaw, a cat behavior expert at the University of Bristol has shown that cats can be stressed a lot when surrounding by other cats. Because cats are solitary animals, they don’t usually get on with other cats. Moreover, the research shows that cats, unlike dogs, treat humans as their own kind. In cats’ perspective, their owners are just big clumsy cats. And the relationship between human and cat is more like a mother-kitten relationship. Cat would raise its tails, purr and rub on its mothers, and mother usually would groom it in return.

Mother cat caring their kittens. Credit: Flickr

Additionally, a study by Miklósi et. al demonstrated that cats actually can understand some human’s gestures, such as pointing when they try to find some food. Another study also shows that cats would turn to their owners when they need help. When facing potential danger, such as fan, cats would observe the reaction of their owners to response to the potential danger correspondingly. For example, if the owner shows fear or anxiety towards the fan, cats will tend to walk away.

So, cats would not try their best to please their owners, because they consider human as their kind, and would treat human equally. Study also shows that there is no difference between the way cats treat cats and the way the treat human.

Another research also has shown that cats are highly sensitive to human’s feelings and they are more likely to approach to people who are more extroverted and optimistic, rather than people who are feeling sad. So, your cats run away from you probably because it knows that you are exhausted and it has no clue about how to comfort a big clumsy cat like you.

A cute hidden cat. Credit: Pixabay

By Minghao Yang

4 Health-Boosting Hobbies

Posted on January 29, 2018 by patrick geeraert | 1 comment

In an age of pills, prescriptions, and fad diets, it’s good to know that there are more natural ways to maintain our health. These are four great hobbies for boosting your personal wellbeing:

Dancing
source: flickr

While dancing may not be everyone’s strong suit (me and my ‘dad-like’ dancing included), it’s hard to deny that nearly everyone enjoys busting loose to some funky tunes. Besides dancing’s ability to improve cardio and strengthen bones and muscle, one of dancing’s most noteworthy benefits is its capacity to considerably improve balance in the elderly. A 2011 Cochrane Review demonstrated that elderly subjects who danced at least three times a week significantly enhanced their balance. This is valuable research because, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2.8 million elderly people are hospitalized due to unintentional falls each year, and this number is steadily growing. Maybe getting old folks to implement some jive into their daily routine will help reduce this statistic (assuming no one breaks a hip).
Writing about Traumas/Difficulties

source: flickr

Researchers are now telling us that sitting at a desk all day with a pen and paper can actually enrich our personal health. Writing about personal experiences/difficulties has been shown to improve the mental health of cancer patients by encouraging them to view their situation in a more positive light. In addition to boosting mental health, the act of writing has also been linked with improvements in physical health. An Australian study demonstrated that patients who wrote about distressing life events (Expressive Writing group) had a significantly faster wound-healing rate than patients who wrote about simple daily tasks (Time Management group); by day 11 post-injury, 76% of the Expressive Writing patients were fully healed, while only 42% of the Time Management patients were fully healed.
Listening to Music

source: flickr

In case dancing just really isn’t your forte, it’s good to know that the simple act of listening to some tunes benefits your health as well. A meta-analysis conducted by Medical News Today investigated how listening to music influences our neurochemistry. The main conclusion stated that music boosts the immune system, lowers stress and anxiety, and dampens symptoms of depression. In some cases, music was even found to be more effective at reducing anxiety than certain prescription drugs!
Owning a Pet

source: flickr

Apparently, the relationship between you and your pet is a little more ‘give’ than ‘take’ from your pet’s perspective. According to the CDC, owning a pet not only improves your lifestyle by creating more opportunities for outdoor activities, exercise, and socialization, but it can also improve your physical health by decreasing blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and fat levels in your blood (all of which are risk factors for heart disease). Cleaning out litter boxes and filling up water bowls seems like a small price to pay for the health benefits that accompany living with pets.