Cats, do they really give a sh1te about you?

Quick

I was over in my dads earlier and the bloody cat didn't move for about 4 hours while I was there. She just sleeps, eats and sleeps.

I remember our cat when I was growing up and she used to appear for dinner and then disappear back to the hot press to sleep for another 12 hours during winter. In the summer she caught the odd mouse and tortured it to death or removed all bird life from our garden!

So as the subject suggests, does your cat really care you are there or not?

Shanao

I would think that some of them do. One of ours, who I found as a kitten on a night out, has been attached to me ever since, and when I come in from work, he's sitting there waiting for me. If I'm gone for a few days he insists on sleeping in the bed the night I come back. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but he does seem to care if I'm there or not.

SophieSakura

I think my cats care about me

Though one has recently abandoned me for an old lady who feeds him fish and chicken and milk, which is way better than the dry food I give him. But when I walk past her house he runs up to see me

Really though, I have two extremely friendly cats, who love sitting on my lap all day and are really affectionate. You could say they're just using me for attention, but you could say the same about dogs if you were gonna say that.

They definitely like me more than otehr people, but that might just be cos I feed them . . .

Zapperzy

Everytime mine see's me you would swear she hadn't seen me for days, and when she hasn't seen me for days and I come home she's stuck like glue to me, purring, nudging me, licking me, standing on top of any body part she can climb onto, just generally being a pest in a lovable way!

She has to sleep downstairs because otherwise Id get no sleep if she slept in the room with me, when she comes upstairs in the morning and Im still in bed she will lick my face and in my ears, she will nudge me, purr loudly in my ears and dribble all over me before settling down as close as possible to me either on or under the sheets.
Then as soon as I get up she will follow me around the house as I do my usual morning routine of washing, brushing teeth, getting breakfast, if I take a shower she will either wait outside the shower staring in at me or wait outside the bathroom door until I come out.

She's also weird in that she shows no interest in food whatsoever, most cats like you describe would take the hand off you to get more food and will keep eating until they burst, but she will eat just enough until she's full and leave it at that, so our morning routine isin't just about her wanting to get me up to feed her, she genuinely just wants to follow me everywhere.

I think she has attachment issues!

whydoibother?

I used to have a cat that would climb up and go to sleep on top of me if I was lying on the couch. It would be nice to interpret it as affection but I think it could be just that I'm warmer than the floor.

mikemac

Last few posters have more loyal cats then ours

Found two cats on our farm, two sisters and both very weak.
One died soon afterwards

Ah Princess, we cared for you, brought you to the Vet for the full works, fed you, let you sleep by the fire, bought you toys and our reward?

Fooked off to the neighbours and moved in with them. And after that another house up the road used to leave out food and she headed off to them

I'd say the neighbours reckon we were mistreating her and she ran away. But she was treated like a Princess, much like her name

Zero loyalty from cats, they're just users and given a chance they'd take over the world! :pac:

djk1000

A cat would eat you as soon as look at you.

Manach

True, they are totally disloyal creatures. But recently one of hours missing for a few days and on her return sat herself down on the fire by the chair, as if to say what is the concern.

ToniTuddle

Sniffles- My little psycho Nazi. I do truly believe she would gladly see me killed and is only keeping me alive as I give her food. Hates Tabby and barely tolerates Podge.

Tabby- Loves meh! Hates the other two as they have begun bullying him over the last year.

Podge- Can't get enough affection and doesn't leave your side when you are near but in fairness he has been through alot in his life I'd say. Think he is grateful I took him into the family and didn't turn him away like others did just cause he aint so healthy. Hates Tabby and adores Sniffles.


Plenty others have been on both sides of the fence either loving me or using me for food! :pac:

Bullseye1

I wasn't a cat person until I adopted a stray tom cat. He is an indoor cat. He greets me every time i come home and sits on my lap every chance he gets. Not sure if it's loyalty but he does tend to favour me over others.

wurzlitzer

We had a beautiful cat when I was a kid "young like" .
Well we had him since he was a kitten, he would meow at the fridge when he was hungry, and meow through a hole in the glass at the bottom of the back door so we would let him in the house.
If you were at the fridge looking inside wondering "what I am going to eat?", he would give you a slight nip at the back of the leg just to let you know he wanted some milk ham or sausages.

My grandmother who lived with us used to talk to him and he would meow back.
he used bring gifts and drop them at the back door, a mouse, a redwing.

He would hang around my sisters neck as she walked around the house.
He was the only cat we owned who had character, a personality.

WELL... one day he disappeared after four years, he upped and left.

Two years later my brother was in a neighbours house doing some work, the lady of the house gave him some dinner, who strolls in looking for grub, but the darn cat, he had a new name and everything.

My brother stared him out of it, My brother said the cat new damn rightly who stared back...
he just played it cool.

The turncoat!

seanybiker

I have a cat for years now. Well he's about 7 now. I dont think anybody really owns a cat, its more like the cat chooses to spend time with you. Obviously thats different for cats that live in the house.
My fella Keano, pops down to me every day for a bit of food and a drink, has a little meow for a few minutes then bogs off for the rest of the day. Lovely fella though. Impossible to get a good picture of though always has his head in the bowl sipping away when I try to take a pic of him.

The Sweeper

Cats return interest and affection that is directly proportional to the interest and affection you show them.

If you feed your outdoor cat once a day and pat it on the wall for 10 minutes when you come home from a day out, don't be surprised when your cat pisses off to live with the old lady who's home all day, lets it sit on her lap and strokes it while watching daytime TV, talks to it, includes it in her household habits, gives it some food that it likes and that she feeds it by hand, and generally spends her day interacting with it.

Cats also attach more regularly to just one or two people than dogs do - so while a friendly dog will love everyone who walks through the house, a cat will often give passing folk the impression that it's an unfriendly beast, where in truth it'll spend the evening on the couch curled up on the legs of the person it's most fond of.

My cat Eric won't let anyone else in the world touch or hold him apart from myself and my other half. On three different occasions I've returned after leaving him for three or four weeks (I went back to Ireland and got a catsitter in). On each occasion, Eric has given me a full body 'hug' when I return, climbing into my lap and walking up my body until his head is under my chin and he presses in for a cuddle. Visitors to the house think he's feral.

Frank isn't much interested in visitors either, but is the only cat we will tolerate on the bed because he cuddles us and then sleeps quietly (the others spend the night walking over your head). He will also climb into your lap, pur like a tractor and stroke your face with his paws.

Turbo Diesel tolerates attention for a while, and then bites everyone who is touching her, in spite of having been reared with nothing but gentleness and affection. She is quite amiable initially though, and sometimes folks won't listen to us when we tell them 'please be careful, she bites'.

Hahn is standoffish indoors, but if you go out and garden you literally do all your weeding and watering with a cat under your arm. He's into everything, purring and headbutting, and if you run the hose to water the plants he wants to drink the water and also have a 'shower' - you can run the hose (not full blast, a gentle stream) over his head and body and he loves it.

Cleo plays fetch with hair bobbins and will jump on the couch and spit a bobbin into your lap to initiate the game. She's better at it than the dog.

Sasquatch is the most outwardly friendly of our cats to strangers and visitors. He's also our guard cat - we've had a few deliver folks approach the front door and when they go to open it saying 'hi puss' they jump back as he hisses and arches at them. The moment we join him at the door he calms down and butts himself off the visitor in a friendly fashion (usually as they stand there looking worried - but he's never deliberately lashed out at anyone in his entire life, not as much as a smack from a paw - these same visitors usually end up being bitten by Turbo because they can't read cat body language).

Cats are great. They're not the machiavellian schemers people think they are. They're independent, but they are trainable, affectionate, interested, playful pets. Thing is, if you're not arsed, well - they'll just go find someone who is.

wurzlitzer

[/QUOTE]Cats are great. They're not the machiavellian schemers people think they are. They're independent, but they are trainable, affectionate, interested, playful pets. Thing is, if you're not arsed, well - they'll just go find someone who is.[/QUOTE]

Hey sweeper , I agree with ya but.....
we invested alot of time, food ,affection into the particular Cat I mention above,
he was the only cat that we had at the time, we reared him from a kitten, his mother was also brought up from a kitten in our house.
He was allowed to sit an armchair, every evening he was on someones lap.

Some nights he slept at the bottom of the bed,

He hung out with our dogs, in fact he used to curl up to one of the dogs outside the back door the odd time.

He had it all...but he left since then we have had many cats and I can not
bring myself to get close to them, coz we were worried sick about that cat, and just left.

we now have seven cats at home, none of them are allowed in the house, my family were deeply hurt by the turncoat cat...

The Sweeper

Yeah, Wurlitzer, but since he was an outdoor cat, you don't know what happened to him, do you?

He vanished.

Four years later you found him in someone else's house.

A cat that's moving house to a neighbour does it gradually - over time spends more and more time away from home until just not returning - the final changeover may manifest itself by the cat being gone for a week, or even two weeks at a time, but still reappearing.

Your neighbour may have discovered your cat, hurt, hit by a car in a gutter or something, and not knowing who owned it, took it to the vet and kept it inside for weeks while it healed, so on. Alternatively your neighbour may have cat-napped your cat. A cat kept indoors for weeks will adjust to the new property as its new home.

Or there could have been some change in your house that you weren't even aware of that upset the cat so it left, for instance a new pet that it didn't get on with, a new baby, a new person, so on, but even in that instance I'd expect the changeover to be gradual.

If you have many cats you sound like you may be on some space - if you're on acreage and your neighbours are too, it wouldn't take much for the neighbour to have taken the cat in one day after a trauma - an accident, an injury, an attack by a dog, or the fear of a bad storm, had the cat with them indoors for a few days, then a week, then a couple of weeks. If they're far enough away and the cat doesn't roam much, he wouldn't be able to find his way home.

It would be EXTREMELY unusual for any cat that was allowed free range to the outdoors to leave his home at number 22, go live at number 24 in close proximity and NEVER darken the doorstep of number 22 again. Most people physically can't keep neighbour's cats out of their own gardens, crapping in their flowerbeds and so on! For him to have moved a short distance and never, ever showed up at yours again, if he really is only a very short distance away then something at your place may have frightened the wits out of him (but even that's a stretch - seriously, people turn hoses and trap cats on their properties to try and put them off coming into the garden and STILL they reappear).

I think there's more to your cat's relocation than some perceived ungratefulness - cats have tiny, fuzzy, peanut brains - seriously, they're not capable of the level of scheming attributed to them.

MsFifers

The thing is - who cares if the REALLY love you or not. They are pretty good at faking it (headbutting, snuggling, jumping up to see you) if its not genuine, and I love them so I'm happy!

chris_ie

We've always had cats growing up. None of them left and they were indoor, outdoor cats. They went out at night but came in during the day when they wanted. Plenty houses around us but they always came back.

What I dont get is the dog vs cat argument alot of people go one about. "Dogs are more loyal etc, cats dont give a sh..." I've had both growing up and think both a pretty cool. When I go down home to my parents now the cats will still come up and sit on my lap and one is quite afraid of strangers in the house, but obviously remembers me and I wouldnt have been the one feeding it down home.

SophieSakura

I actually think cats are more affectionate than dogs. Well mine are. In the way that, my dogs always want me to give them attention, but my cats give me attention!

I prefer cats but I like both

planetX

If you give your cats affection, you'll get it back tenfold. My cats don't love each other, but they do love me:D:D:D

Shenshen

Quick wrote: »

I was over in my dads earlier and the bloody cat didn't move for about 4 hours while I was there. She just sleeps, eats and sleeps.

I remember our cat when I was growing up and she used to appear for dinner and then disappear back to the hot press to sleep for another 12 hours during winter. In the summer she caught the odd mouse and tortured it to death or removed all bird life from our garden!

So as the subject suggests, does your cat really care you are there or not?

Considering mine will follow me around the house most of the time, and in the garden as well, wait for me to come home at night and will not settle down or sleep until I'm home, I'd say they do.

I doubt they'd show that much interest in a passing visitor to my house, though.

anniehoo

Ive had Beanie nearly a year now and hes a ridiculously friendly cat...too friendly me thinks. He literally would shack up with anyone who showed him the slightest bit of attention. I love him to bits but last saturday i got a call from people in the estate behind mine to say he'd been in their sitting room for hours. I went around straight away and the complete blank stare of "who are you again? " from him was mortifying.

Dixie Chick

Anniehoo, he shamed you!!

My own cats are a bit feral looking to the outside world but when its just me its constant "chat" between us and then they walk all over my face in bed at night which I can sleep through sometimes! Whether or not they love you, I tell myself most the time that yes they do but when i go on holidays I tell myself they dont care to assuage my guilt!!

My friend has two cats who were wild enough as kittens but are little sluts now, like the minute you sit down they will be like "Ooooh look at my lovely chin, give it a scratch" and settle to sleep very quickly next to anyone.

Asphyxia

I had a cat that loved cuddles he was always jumping onto my legs and snuggling into me My parents have two cats one of them is madly affectionate while the other isn't. I think cats can really love people. I think it depends on the cat and the environment it grew up in.

Lawrence1895

My cat goes out during the day, and always comes back as soon as I go into the back garden or come back from work in the evening.

And he sleeps on to of me or on my pillow 9 out of 10 nights.

I guess, he likes me

anniehoo

Dixie Chick wrote: »

Anniehoo, he shamed you!!

Lol i know!

The worst bit was i had just put hair dye in my hair so when i got the call i had to go around straight away or else it would've looked like i couldnt have cared less about him. So i rocked up to the house with what looked like tar on my head so probably had "mat cat lady" written all over me.

No wonder he disowned me...."state of ya" he was proablly going!:D

The Sweeper

Two good friends of mine are the proud owners of Graeme Reilly, Ace of Cats. (Has his own Facebook Page.)

Graeme spends much of his days across the relatively un-busy road from their house at Dennis Station in Melbourne, greeting commuters. He's well-known enough to have been in newspapers and they've been phoned for interviews by papers and news feature TV shows! Graeme has a tag on his collar with his owner's phone number on it.

Grame's a 12 year old black smoke tabby, who was on the streets for an undisclosed amount of time. They can only trace the last six years or so, because he was adoped from the RSPCA aged 6 years as well as anyone could tell.

Graeme has been known to ride the train, and they got a call the other day to say he was two stations away on the city-bound side, so they're not sure how he got there, whether he rode the train and crossed the tracks, or went around the entire city loop!

Graeme is currently the only cat I know who really is so set in his lifestyle that it would cause him distress to confine him to the house, and a kitty run would be very impractical in the property they're in. Much of Graeme's day is his sociability and the time he spends greeting his 'fans'. (He's had actual fanmail to the house!)

That doesn't stop his owners worrying about him on a quite literally daily basis though. Part of setting up GRAOC's Facebook page is to increase the number of people who watch out for him and recognise how cool it is to have such a social cat in this day and age.

doctor evil

Our cat was a wonderful guy for liking people, he would walk into a room and lounge on the floor in the middle of it all. You could be doing the most repetitive tasks and his head would be bobbing along watching you do it!

How do people estimate the age of a cat if they don't know when it was born?

The Sweeper

Growth and condition of teeth is some of it, as are other indicators of muscle and skeleton and so on. It's not an exact science. Youth is easy to identify. Great age is easy to identify. The middle years are hard to pinpoint.

MsMaryMc

our neighbours cat knocks at the window to be left in, we are both allergic ( literally as opposed to the cork way) and she runs in whenever theback dorr is open and lies on a throw i have on the couch, Cue the anti histhamines for me.

i reckon they go wherever they get fed and a few rubs, i love cats you have to work for their affection, pity about my allergicness:(

maryxyz

As someone said "Dogs have owners, cats have staff !! "

doctor evil

My small cardboard box.
You cannot see me if I
can just hide my head.

Terrible battle.
I fought for hours. Come and see!
What's a 'big essay?'

Small brave carnivores
Kill pine cones and mosquitoes,
Fear vacuum cleaner

I want to be close
to you. Can I fit my head
inside your armpit?

Wanna go outside.
Oh, ****e! Help! I got outside!
Let me back in again!

Oh no! Big One
has been trapped by newspaper!
Cat to the rescue!

chris_ie

maryxyz wrote: »

As someone said "Dogs have owners, cats have staff !! "

Yeah cos dogs do everything for themselves and dont require you to do anything for them :rolleyes:

dan_d

Our last cat loved us, but on her conditions only!That meant....feed me, let me sleep on your bed, and pet me ONLY when I allow it (which was at fairly random intervals!)
But (we had her from a kitten) she loved getting up on our laps and going to sleep on them. Or burrowing her nose into my armpit and snoozing.

My current 2, on the other hand, are ridiculous. One is afraid of her shadow, but loves us aswell! Hops up on the window when the car pulls in, throws herself at our feet as we walk around the house, to be scratched. And her sister is a complete disgrace to the feline breed - she's closer to a dog in her habits! Comes when you call her name (bounding up the hall to you!!!), wants to be on your lap all the time, follows us around, demands to have her head scratched constantly, and makes friends with everyone who walks through the door. Neither of them stray far from the back garden; they meet us at the front door when we come home, either sitting on the windowsill, or sunning themselves on the front lawn.

As I type, they are both snoring on the bed beside me, and delighted with life (they spent a good 15 mins earlier cleaning each others faces and ears). They're terribly cute.I've no idea whether they love me or not, but I do love them!!!:o

SophieSakura

Shenshen wrote: »

Considering mine will follow me around the house most of the time, and in the garden as well, wait for me to come home at night and will not settle down or sleep until I'm home, I'd say they do.

I doubt they'd show that much interest in a passing visitor to my house, though.

Mine too. My two rescue kittens (well 7 month olds) are nervous cats, but they follow me around the garden purring and rubbing up to my legs. You could just say they want food, but they do it even when they're not hungry and I have nothing in my hands. They don't even want attention, they just want to follow me

SophieSakura

My friend who studied psychology actually said that dogs are one animal that feel pure love, because they're absolutely in love with their owners. And that cats don't feel love. they just have a longing for affection and they "want" to be with their owners, but don't love them. But then he said there is no such thing as love anyway.

But he liked my cat!

poconnor16

My female kitten Tibbs is very attached to me....follows me everywhere, wakes me in the morning etc. The little guy, Maxi is extremely affectionate but more loyal to Tibbs! He follows her everywhere and will cry if he cant find her.
There were both recently in a cattery for 4 days and when I came back to get them, Maxi just looked at me as if to say 'Oh tis yourself, want do you want'. Where as Tibbs went crazy when she saw me - she definitley missed me. (Best feeling ever )

SophieSakura

poconnor16 wrote: »

There were both recently in a cattery for 4 days and when I came back to get them, Maxi just looked at me as if to say 'Oh tis yourself, want do you want'. Where as Tibbs went crazy when she saw me - she definitley missed me. (Best feeling ever )

Yeah when a cat is missing for a while and then comes home, they really show that they love you

I had a kitten who was missing for 4 days and someone found her. My dad called me to tell me she was home and I could hear her purring down the phone. She was so happy for weeks and wouldn't go outside and if I left the room she'd go mad thinking she'd lose me again

Coeurdepirate

My cat is incredibly affection. Total cliché, but it depends on the love you show them imo.

Coeurdepirate

SophieSakura wrote: »

My friend who studied psychology actually said that dogs are one animal that feel pure love, because they're absolutely in love with their owners. And that cats don't feel love. they just have a longing for affection and they "want" to be with their owners, but don't love them. But then he said there is no such thing as love anyway.

But he liked my cat!

That's incredibly cute if it's true My baby is so weird though, when you enter the room she goes mad looking for attention, she jumps onto your lap and rubs her face into yours and won't stop until you literally smother her with love! But after about half an hour she starts biting and scraping the **** outta your hands, but if you put her down she'll just jump back up and sit there. Hopefully she'll grow out of that, she's only 7 months.

SophieSakura

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

That's incredibly cute if it's true

I think it's true, but I think they do love their owners too Whatever love is, I think all animals feel it to some degree. Ok maybe not tiny insects and stuff, but I think animals love their offspring, and their animal friends and their owners


I don't think my rabbits love me really, though they do like me, but they love each other and they love their babies until they get sick of them!

PaulieBoy

A cat will care about you if you care about it.

Lawrence1895

maryxyz wrote: »

As someone said "Dogs have owners, cats have staff !! "

'You don't own the cat, the cat owns you'. That's what I heard

SophieSakura

I think a lot of people just don't understand cats.

Cats aren't always as friendly as dogs to strangers, so most cats won't run up to a stranger and be friends with it. Some of mine would (two or three out of six) but the others would be scared and you'd have to gain their trust.

So if people don't own cats, then they think cats aren't friendly, cos the only ones they've met weren't friendly. Or they have owned cats but didn't give them enough attention so they were semi-feral or something.

Cats are really complex and intelligent and they can be really friendly if you get to know them

lrushe

My cat will be sitting across on a neighbours wall and will literally run to at speed when I go out side. She will then shadow me around the back garden as I clean or do some gardening just keeping my company. She is very affectionate, I never knew how strong a cat was until I got my cat and experienced her head butting rubs

peckerhead

PaulieBoy wrote: »

A cat will care about you if you care about it.

Like a fifty-dollar whore it will.

Coeurdepirate

peckerhead wrote: »

Like a fifty-dollar whore it will.

Feck off back to your dog threads. Dogs love you automatically, cats choose to love you.

angelfire9

There are 4 of us in our house
Me, mini me, hubby & baby
and our cat LOVES me
He follows me everywhere
He sleeps under our bed at night (on my side)
If I am in town he recognises the sound of my car pulling into the drive and is sitting by the front door to greet me when I get home
He comes when I call him if he is outside

Our 9 year old he tolerates
My hubby he HATES
The baby he hasn't figured out just yet

He is madly over protective towards me and will hiss and arch his back at strangers if he detects animosity from me towards them (very handy when you have canvassers calling to the door in recent weeks)

Other visitors he will ignore if I am happy with them

All in all a very cool cat

FastFuse

Zapperzy wrote: »

Everytime mine see's me you would swear she hadn't seen me for days, and when she hasn't seen me for days and I come home she's stuck like glue to me, purring, nudging me, licking me, standing on top of any body part she can climb onto, just generally being a pest in a lovable way!

She has to sleep downstairs because otherwise Id get no sleep if she slept in the room with me, when she comes upstairs in the morning and Im still in bed she will lick my face and in my ears, she will nudge me, purr loudly in my ears and dribble all over me before settling down as close as possible to me either on or under the sheets.
Then as soon as I get up she will follow me around the house as I do my usual morning routine of washing, brushing teeth, getting breakfast, if I take a shower she will either wait outside the shower staring in at me or wait outside the bathroom door until I come out.

She's also weird in that she shows no interest in food whatsoever, most cats like you describe would take the hand off you to get more food and will keep eating until they burst, but she will eat just enough until she's full and leave it at that, so our morning routine isin't just about her wanting to get me up to feed her, she genuinely just wants to follow me everywhere.

I think she has attachment issues!

One of ours is exactly like this with Mrs Fastfuse. Even the food thing. :eek:

chesmond666

our family cat was 21 when she died and she hadnt left her basket in years only to go to her bowl and her tray in my parents house. On the day she died she got up and hobbled over to my house next door to say goodbye to me then she went home and died by her basket. It was heartbreaking, she was such a loving cat - of course cats love their masters everybit as much as dogs in my opinion