How do cats really feel about their owners?

Understand and forgive. How do cats really feel about their owners?

 Science has learned a lot about how cats perceive the world. It turned out that they have optical illusions, they like to communicate with people, although they are poorly versed in human relations. And experts have found a very unusual, but effective way to communicate with pets.

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For the first time, suggestions that cats are susceptible to optical illusions were made in 1988. Then researchers from Northwestern University (USA) observed two animals that, over and over again, correctly recognized the squares of Kanizsa - geometric shapes that have corners but no contours. That is, in fact, the brain of cats completed the invisible sides of the squares. However, the authors themselves treated the findings with caution - the sample was small, and the animals were specially prepared for the experiment.

Thirty years later, the experience was repeated by scientists from Australia and the United States. True, much more cats were involved in the work - about five hundred. All demonstrated their abilities in a familiar environment - at home. This was supposed to reduce the level of stress that affects the results of the experiment.

Through social networks, cat owners in different countries were invited to take part in the study. Volunteers had to make an ordinary square out of paper, a Kaniz square and a figure similar to it, but not creating an illusion. Then, daily for a week, the owners laid them out in front of the pets, recording everything on camera.

Unfortunately, only 30 out of 500 animals performed all the stages of the experiment - although, most likely, the reason is not in the intelligence of the experimental subjects, but in the laziness of their owners. But even this was enough to understand: cats do recognize optical illusions. So, the majority chose the usual square and the Kanizsa square, and only one was interested in the control figure.

So, the researchers decided, cats see illusory contours in the same way as real ones. Moreover, they perceive two-dimensional objects as real shelters. That is why if you draw the contours of a square on the floor, the animal will sit in it.

The authors of the work want to test other representatives of the cat family - lions and tigers. If it turns out that they do not perceive optical illusions, it will be possible to "talk about the influence of the domestication of animals on their vision."

The subtleties of relationships

In 2019, scientists from the University of Oregon (USA) proved that cats are just as devoted to humans as dogs. The deep bond between an animal and its owner seems to be formed in early childhood and remains throughout life.

However, this attachment is not so noticeable. As researchers from the University of Kyoto (Japan) found out, the point is not in the indifference of animals, but in the fact that they are not able to understand the nuances of interhuman relationships. The experiment showed that cats do not care whether a person shows friendliness or not in relation to the owner. Dogs in such cases are more intelligent.

There is a contact!

Although cats do not go into the intricacies of relationships between people, they will never refuse to communicate with a person. According to the work of American zoologists, the majority, choosing between food and human affection, will prefer the latter. And we are talking about both pets and animals from shelters.

In addition, judging by the article of South Korean biologists, it was for the sake of communicating with people that cats began to meow. The fact is that ordinary domestic cats use a high plaintive "meow" to negotiate with the owner. But their feral counterparts only hiss at a person.

However, as British researchers recently found out, an equally effective way to communicate with cats is blinking, moreover, slowly and with a squint. So you can establish contact even between the animal and a stranger to him.

Previously, scientists have already proven that a cat's squint - or slow blinking - is a sign that the pet is comfortable and likes the person. Now, two experiments at once have discovered: cats almost always respond to the same blinking from a person and thereby show affection. 

In the first experiment, 21 pairs of "owner - pet" took part. Each volunteer waited for direct eye contact with their animal and at that moment either blinked slowly or did nothing. If a person closed his eyes, the cat most often followed his example and squinted, and this did not depend on her age and the number of pets living with her in the same house.

In the second experiment, 24 cats and several volunteers took part - not the owners, but people unfamiliar to the animals. The task was the same, and the results were very similar: in response to a slow blink, the cat almost always made contact with a person.

Reflection of the host

However, we can also communicate in a more familiar way - with words. As Japanese zoologists have found out, domestic cats distinguish individual words in speech - in particular, their names, and distinguish them from the nicknames of cats that live nearby.

They are able to understand some human signals: they go where they are directed, they are sensitive to human emotions.

In addition, it is communication with a person that largely shapes the character of a cat and even affects its health. Observations of three thousand pets have shown that, in general, they behave in the same way as their owners.

So, pets of neurotics often suffer from health problems, and those who live with good-natured and full owners are overweight. Pets of extroverts weigh little and spend a lot of time outdoors. They tend to be friendlier to those around them.

Aggressiveness is most often characteristic of cats whose owners are nervous, and unsociableness is most often characteristic of those whose owners are introverts.