Are Cats a Man’s Best Friend?

We’ve often heard of the saying,  “A dog is a man’s best friend,” but that doesn’t mean that cats can’t be as well! A recent study from the journal Current Biology found that humans and cats can share an attachment bond with each other, and that this is not just limited to dogs.

In this study, they conducted a test where an adult cat or kitten was left in a room with their owner for two minutes, followed by two more minutes alone. They were then reunited with their owner for another two minutes. The frequency of “meow” vocalizations were recorded in the alone phase as a measure of separation distress. They noticed that during the time the cat was left alone, the number of vocalizations was much greater than in the company of their owner, signifying distress in the cat. Consequently, they discovered cats share a very similar attachment to their owner as do infants. This sign of human attachment persisted through the cat’s adulthood. Therefore, this shows that cat-owner relationships are closely related to parent-child relationships.

Image from SkitterPhoto

They’re not Kitten around!

Humans find companionship with their pets and thus being one of the reasons we feel so close to them. Another study in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that most owners regarded cats as family members with developed socio-cognitive skills. For example, the cats noticed visual and audio cues of humans such as the pointing of an arm and recognizing their owners’ voice. The researchers noted that there were certain traits in cats that were similar for dogs. For instance, both cats and dogs were seen as more emotionally matching with their owners, meaning they feel emotionally closer with them. This shows that there are strong attachment and emotional bonds between cats and their owners.

Image from Pixabay

Paws for a moment.

So what is the cat-ch? You may have heard people treating their pets as if they were their own children, and there is a lot of meaning to that. These studies enforce the idea that cats are just as capable of forming strong bonds with their owners as with dogs, especially if you put in the effort to do so.  The ability to share a close relationship with your pet is what makes them so special to us, and more so the reason we should consider every one of them, even cats, our best friend.

Edmund Kwan

Sep 30, 2019

Revised Oct. 21, 2019