cats come into a bowl
Are you familiar with the film Being John Malkovich ? It's a beautiful film with a very original plot. It all revolves around the fact that, in a house, there's a door that allows you to enter the mind of the famous actor John Malkovich and see the world and things as he sees and experiences them.
I don't know about you, but one of my greatest wishes would be to get inside my cats' heads to see the world through their eyes, but above all to feel things as they feel them.
In short, what do your eyes perceive?
Cat eyes
The colors: see cold tones
The colors , shapes , and lights that a cat sees are very different from what our human eyes see. Let's start with colors: the world cats see is much less colorful than ours because their eyes cannot distinguish warm colors, such as red, brown, and orange.
The whole is covered by a gray patina , with the composition dominated by cool tones of blue, violet and light yellow.
However, it is not true that they see in black and white: they also see, only they are much more dim.
The night view: the world in the dark
On the other hand, cats can see better at dusk and at night because the anatomy of their eyes is capable of capturing more light. This ability is not only due to the significant dilation of their pupils in darkness, but also to the very structure of their eyes.
Why? Because the cat evolved as a crepuscular predator and it is vital that it can detect its prey in the dark.
In practice, it's as if your cat were permanently wearing night-vision goggles, allowing it to see shapes and movements where our eyes would only see darkness. However, there's a price to pay: as a wonderful article in Focus explains, " what we see clearly at a distance of 30-60 meters, for cats to see clearly at a distance of 6 meters . "
The visual cone: wider but…
End of the differences between cats and humans? No. The visual cone is also different, wider in cats, giving them greater peripheral vision. A very interesting aspect is linked to the perception of movement: cats perceive fast movements, but not slow movements that would capture our human attention.
How so? The reason is always linked to evolution and, specifically, to hunting: when a mouse or a bird sees a cat, they don't leave calmly, but flee at full speed trying to save their feathers.
Does a little mouse have to stay perfectly still to survive? Not really: besides seeing differently, cats hear differently . Their eyes are merely the support for extraordinarily more developed senses: smell and hearing. The world of cats, though grayer than ours, is made up of amplified sounds and smells that we can't even imagine.
How do our cats see us?
What I would most like to know, beyond the simple visual data, would be to find out how my cats see me "emotionally" and what feelings they have for me.
In a word, who am I to my cats?
I confess that this possibility fascinates me, but it also worries me a little… what if I'm disappointed? In fact, all cats share the fear of being just kibble dispensers for their friends. Being a cat means living with a certain abandonment complex!
Although we haven't yet discovered the little door that magically leads to a cat's head, we do know a lot about how cats perceive humans , and in particular those people we commonly call "owners"—a word I don't particularly like. Let's take a look!
Our cats see us as a great mother
First of all, we're kind of like a mom.
In fact, our cats expect many of the same things from us that they expected from their real mother when they were kittens. FOOD, FOOD, and FOOD above all else!
All cat owners know how our feline friend reminds us—and that's putting it mildly—when it's feeding time . A moment that, for some mysterious reason, seems to arrive earlier and earlier each morning!
A particular meow, a certain "disdain" like nibbling at our feet while we're still in bed or starting to knock things off the nightstand: the best alarm clock ever! For example, I know that if I get up late, I'll find the toilet paper roll destroyed by the Irish Cat.
the need for affection
Then there are the behaviors that are, let's say, almost universal : in the vicinity of mealtimes, researchers have discovered that cats increase their interactions with their owners, increasing their rubbing , seeking more contact and… purring.
Just as puppies purr while suckling their mother's milk, our cats purr to ask for kibble.
However, they don't see us as mothers just for food, but also for their need for affection . Contrary to common prejudices, cats are very social animals, especially with humans.
It's enough to consider that it's been observed that the desire for human affection and pampering is stronger, under normal circumstances, even than the desire for food. Ultimately, we are truly mothers to our cats.
And like many good mothers, especially Spanish ones, we give our furry children all the food they need ... but also with lots of love.
Our cat sees us as the dominant member
You are the leader of the pack
For the domestic cat, man is also the dominant member of its social group.
Although they are not animals that live in packs, spending most of their time alone, cats always seek contact with other cats or with humans.
This is perhaps the most relevant difference between the domestic cat and the wild cat.
It's a myth that our domestic cats are solitary animals! On the contrary, they have a great need for social interaction . And that's why both can share space—but only if it's suitable and under the right conditions—along with other cats, and benefit from human companionship.
In a shared space , cats are usually structured in a hierarchy, although not a very rigid one. In our homes, we are at the top of the hierarchy.
In this sense, ethologists—the scientists who study animal behavior—believe that the rubbing and headbutting that cats do to their owners, in addition to being gestures of affection, are also a way of recognizing humans as the dominant member of their community.
Training and cats? It's almost an impossible mission!
However, this "importance" should not make us think that it is possible to behave with the cat as it is correct to behave with the dog.
Despite our superior hierarchical position, it is not possible to make the cat obey our orders.
The cat -it must be repeated- is not a gregarious or pack animal, and therefore it is incapable of linking the role of dominant member that it attributes to its "master" with the idea that we can tell it what to do.
In other words, you can never train a cat.
We must also realize that with cats, unlike with dogs, the punishment-reward scheme does not work.
The cat is not capable of understanding that if it does something it will receive a reward, and it will be difficult for it to understand that the punishment that we are inflicting on it derives from its bad behavior. So be careful with punishing your cats, it doesn't work!
Above all, don't think it's helpful to punish them when they do things that are natural to them, like scratching furniture or a carpet, or when they don't do their business in the litter box.
Punishing a cat almost never helps. However, it's much more helpful to understand the reasons behind these behaviors.
Our cats see us as a playmate
It is a role that sometimes we tend to forget, because we let ourselves be fooled by our cat's love of sleeping and resting.
Our furry friend is not always lazy… a cat is not lazy!
In fact, he spends most of his waking hours hunting or playing , and therefore, jumping around, running after the beloved computer cables or wires, or setting those friendly ambushes that we all know.
If it has access to a nice garden or if we live in the country, the cat will tend to focus its energies on hunting mice, birds, etc. When you return home, you won't need to play much.
However, if the cat lives in an apartment and therefore, apart from a few ferocious flies, has no way to hunt, this is where we owners become important for another reason: we are called to be its playmates!
simulate hunting
For our cat, playing essentially means simulating a fight or simulating a hunt.
Obviously, the cat will hardly be able to pretend that we are mice and hunt us, nor will it be able to play fight with us as well as with its four-legged friend - although sometimes it forgets that our skin is not covered - in the skin and they take out a little too much nails!.
how to play together
This explains the attacks on our feet or the bites he gives us while we're hugging him , which can leave us a little surprised. "Why are you biting me, you idiot, when I'm petting you?" (we all think that...). In truth, in such a situation the cat isn't showing aggression; on the contrary, he's so relaxed that, even though he's old, he becomes a kitten for a while and plays with us like he used to play with his younger siblings or his mother cat.
Aside from "sleight of hand," we can be their playmates in other ways: simply by swinging an old cable or throwing them socks…
What's really important is to dedicate time to interacting and playing with your cat . To do this, I suggest you imagine that you, too, become a cat.
We are responsible for our cats
The necessary attention
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, we are responsible for our cats.
Quickly I will tell you a personal experience. I had adopted Sorra about a month ago and took her to the vet to get her vaccinated.
Until then Sorra had been very affectionate with me, but extremely fearful with others; and when she was afraid she became quite aggressive (as is common in tricolors).
Therefore, I was afraid that at the vet he might get angry, making the visit difficult and possibly hurting either me or him. How wrong I was! Sorra was very disoriented and very scared—who knows what she thought of all the cat and dog smells she inhaled in the surgery!—who, once out of the carrier, literally squished into my arms.
She didn't try to escape, but she was trembling like a leaf from stress and had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius. The vet visited her and gave her the vaccine while I held her in my arms and she hid her little head in my armpit.
When she looked at me, Sorra made me understand that she was placing all her hopes of surviving that experience on me: I was her only refuge from fear. That's when I understood what we are to our animals.
The cat guardians? Us
We are, I would say, the guardians or Jedi of your well-being and safety.
Cats, although more independent than dogs, show above all in difficult situations that they are perfectly aware of our role.
Therefore, those who have animals have the wonderful possibility of being a good Jedi for them, but one must be careful... because one can always turn to the dark side, becoming a bad Jedi.
Let's strive to be good Jedi , avoiding selfishness and ignorance ! Instead, let's try to be good mothers, good Jedi, and responsible, dominant members of our cat families... in return, our feline friends will choose us as their favorite playmates ! I assure you, it's a truly precious honor.