A recent blog post on The Cat's Meow highlighted the results of a research study published in the journal Current Biology. Researchers found that cats control the actions of humans with an urgent sounding, high pitched meow.
If you have a cat it certainly isn't news to you that they are in control. What I found interesting was that they only mentioned this certain purr-meow as a control method. I think there is a lot of potential here for future studies (don't anyone steal this idea, I'm planning on applying for research grants!). If you read this blog you know that I have two cats. It's also pretty clear to you that I'm in control, not the cats. Ok, if everyone is done laughing I'll continue. My cats have many methods of controlling me that I think are worthy of study. I'll share a couple of their methods with you.
Pippin was busy tonight utilizing one of his favorites. He will only eat packets of Friskies cat food. I don't like to leave his bowl out long because I don't want it to spoil and especially in hot weather, we all make sure to stick it in the refrig after a short time. Pippin seems to consider this a game. He goes to the kitchen, finds his bowl gone and stands and meows loudly and sadly until someone comes and puts it down for him. Then he looks at it, looks at the helpful human and walks away. Helpful human decides Pippin wasn't really hungry, puts bowl away and goes about their business. 5-15 min later Pippin is back in the kitchen meowing again. I call this his "see how often the helpful humans will jump up" game. My personal best is 12 times in 1/2 hour.
Mellifera doesn't like people jumping up and down. Instead she wants you to remain seated and not move a muscle. Literally. She waits until your comfortable, climbs onto your lap and settles down. Usually she'll allow you time to start reading or stitching something so that she can force you to stop. Anyway once she's comfortable you aren't supposed to move. If you talk she hisses, if you move a hand she swipes at it and if you try to move her you might as well just give up your arm to her claws & teeth. She is actually a very sweet cat but there is nothing subtle about her determination to have her own way.
What I still haven't figured out is why I find these behaviors so cute . . .
2 comments:
Me either! lol. My cat likes to wake me up around 4a.m. Almost every morning. I pet her which probably reinforces it but she gets little enough attention having to share with 3 dogs.
I keep reading you should just ignore them & not reinforce but I've found them impossible! They are just too cute! Thanks for visiting!
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