Are housecats aware of how much bigger people are?

I’m wondering if cats think of us kind of like how a person thinks of a friendly bull: aware that they could easily kill us, but not necessarily afraid of them; or more like a large Dalmatian: they could fuck us up, but most of us don’t really think about that unless they’re being aggressive.

I grew up with dogs and feel like I understand them a lot better than I do cats as a whole. I adopted my cat almost four years ago and I feel like I get her pretty well, but I don’t really have an idea of what she thinks about me. I also don’t really know any other cats, though I’ve gotten along with strays and friends’ cats a lot better since I got mine.

Cat tax:

multicolorKnight,

I am sure they are aware of it. I think it’s like us and horses: yes, this creature is much larger and could hurt or kill me if it wanted to, but horses are basically cool and friendly and we trust them.
I’ve been with my SO for more than 4 years, and I often don’t understand her motivations either.

tygerprints,

My cat is my best friend and I get the feeling she sees me as what she is going to become one day - a full grown cat that can walk and talk and drive a car. I don't think she sees me as something to she could or would kill, but as a sibling that one day, she will grow up to be like.

She does imitate some things I do, like sitting up to watch TV with me on the couch or squatting over her litter box like she was sitting on a toilet.

Cats are pretty smart and also quite capable of being very close and loving. They just have to express it on their own terms.

Vej,

My cat makes up for it by sitting on my shoulders. I specifically have several canvas or thick jackets I wear around the house to protect me from his claws (we do trim them) because he just hops on me like a Taxi.

Worx,

When I got the bus to college, there used to be a guy I’d see a couple of times a month who’d have a shoulder-cat riding him on the bus

Vej,

My cat is afraid of breezy weather. It probably won’t work. But I wish it did. I would try to take him to work.

mulcahey,

Yes: cnet.com/…/scientist-cats-think-you-are-just-a-bi…

OmgItBurns,

I like how the link makes it look like scientist cats are being talked about.

FriendBesto,

Yes. And they know you won’t do shit about it. After all, if they stick around, from their perspective, they think you are theirs.

RunawayFixer,

My last cat had 100% faith that he would be completely safe when I was near, basically trusting that nothing bad could happen to him. If he was lying on the leather couch, stretched or turned and started slowly sliding (more like flowing like a liquid) out of the couch, then he’d not react, he’d just continue sliding until I caught him and put him back on the couch. The kind of trust that a toddler can have in the infallibility of the parent to catch them. As long as it never gets betrayed, they don’t lose that trust.

I imagine that if I had been clumsy around him: tripping over him when he was standing in the way or not always catching him, that he would have lost that trust.

The cat before that only was adopted when he was already older and more world wise, he was always attent and seemed aware of the size difference and the possibility of accidents if we were to trip over him.

TIMMAY,

lmao my orange boy will jump onto my lap and then go limp and if I dont catch/support him then he will flow off of my lap (50/50 chance he will grab my thigh with claws at the end)

azura,

Hmm interesting. I have terrible eyesight so I don’t always see my cats when they’re somewhere I don’t expect them to be. But they’re not afraid of me. They’re still very affectionate with me and they do seem to trust me a lot. One of my three cats has figured out that if she makes any kind of noise I’ll notice her but the other ones don’t, but still don’t seem to get too mad at me when I do accidentally run into them. I do love them very much though and I’ll spend as much time with them as I can or they let me. So maybe they have internalized that I don’t do it on purpose. Might also just be how I react to when it does happen though. I genuinely feel bad every single time. That same cat also figured out that if she stands on her hind legs and knocks on the glass door I will always hear it. Scared the crap out of me when she did it for the first time but if only I could get my other cats to do the same…

RunawayFixer,

So cats are ok with us tripping over them, as long as we profusely apologize afterwards, interesting :)

It sounds like the 2 cats count on the smart cat to get the door open for them. They have no reason to learn as long as the present system works.

captain_aggravated,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

My Izzy (cat tax:)

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/72554203-8dc8-46bb-bb47-14e80699d2c0.jpeg

Isn’t even slightly afraid of me; I’m her favorite sleeping surface, she doesn’t hesitate to climb up on me, step on the most sensitive giblets she can reach, curl up and take a nap. I’m pretty sure she does know how much bigger I am than her, but she doesn’t seem to let it bother her. She’s not even afraid of getting stepped on, judging by how much she likes being underfoot.

pjwestin, (edited )

To be honest, I don’t think your cat thinks about things the way you’re thinking about them. Your behavior has shown your cat that you’re safe, so your cat isn’t afraid of you. If you start acting aggressive or scary it will treat you like a threat and fight or flight based on what it decides in the moment, but that’s about it. It’s not thinking, “this giant ape could kill me if it wanted, I’m glad it’s my friend,” it just has a positive association with you based on your pattern of behavior.

Also, cats social cues aren’t as obvious as dogs, but if you don’t know what you’re cats thinking, here are some clues: is your cat walking around with its tail up a lot, usually curled at the top like a little question mark? Your cat feels super happy and confident in it’s territory (AKA your house). Does it ever look at you and narrow or close it’s eyes and look away, sorta like it’s nodding off? Your cat is saying it trusts you enough to let it’s gaurd down, it’s basically a cat hug.

Edit: cat tax.https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/33e16b3a-f4ac-4cd1-96a8-ef92a090fc78.jpeg

Darkblue,

Got to love that picture: shares an insightful post about cat psychology regarding how to tell when a cat feels safe. Follows up posting a picture of a scared/triggered cat :D

pjwestin, (edited )

Nah, she’s just spazzing out over the baby bouncer she’s sitting on, it was new and she wanted to get her sent all over it.

pjwestin,

Oh, one more I forgot, cat-loaf! Cats put their paws underneath them to conserve heat. It also means they’re putting their primary weapons away, so they only do this when they feel happy and safe…or they’re very cold. If your cat is loafing a lot, it’s either very happy or you need to turn your heat up.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/4ce37494-2b41-498e-8fd2-59c14cde46f4.jpeg

EssentialCoffee,

I once saw a self-proclaimed ‘cat expert’ YouTuber say that a cat loafing was a bad sign. Like a sign they were being abused and scared or some other crock of shit.

I turned off their video when it got to that piece.

d00ery,

When cats square up to each other they arch their backs and their hair stands on end, to me, that’s an effort to make themselves look bigger. Therefore they know bigger == more dangerous.

Cat tax: https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6fbbe36d-70cf-498c-9a9a-35a13bb548b7.jpeg

Mr_Blott,

Fuck me is that Boris Johnson? That’s animal abuse 😂

d00ery,

😂 on his behalf I’d like to say it’s really just an unflattering angle!

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6b490942-19cd-454b-a0fc-687512520634.jpeg

intensely_human,

I have fought an angry cat before and I’m not certain I could kill it with my bare hands. Maybe if I got lucky and had both hands around its neck before the fight began, but I’m not convinced a cat couldn’t sever my hand tendons to get out of that.

Cats are fucking insane when they’re in battle mode. Maybe if I got lucky with a spine breaking hit before it got my eyes. Maybe.

I don’t know if I could be in a room with a fully loaded Glock 19 in my hand, and win a fight against a cat. It would do some Trinity shit up the wall and still scratch my eyes out.

Trollpakk,

If cats are that crazy, then dogs are even worse. My neighbours dachshound killed off an adult cat a few years ago. Apparently the cat didn’t stand a chance.

Gabu,

Mate, there’s a reason why felines took over the world at a time giant dino-birds and enormous wolves were commonplace. You don’t mess with cats.

Trollpakk,

Tell that to my neighbours dog. It clearly doesn’t care.

proudblond,

The dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals. The miniature dachshund was bred to hunt small animals such as rabbits. >

Yeah, I think dachshunds are gonna have an easy time with a cat if they were bred to take on badgers. Ultimately, hunting dogs were bred for the purpose, whereas house cats and feral cats weren’t bred for anything beyond looks, even if they were utilized for their mousing skills. Dachshund /= mouse

Trollpakk,

Tough little creatures they are.

pjwestin,

This sounds like pretty aggressive dachshund and a very complacent housecat, and I doubt things would play out this way most of the time. Short legged dogs like dachshunds and corgis are bread for going into holes and burrows and dragging whatever lives down there out, while cats are climbers and jumpers that like to find a high perch. Plus cats are better sprinters than dachshunds with reflexes better than most snakes. I’m not saying that a cat would, “win in a fight,” with a dachshund, that’s a pretty human way of thinking about things, but the average dachshund would be lucky to get anywhere near an adult cat, much less kill it.

Trollpakk,

The dog and the cat lived together for years and the cat was bullying the dog all the time. Shit happens sometimes.

pjwestin,

There it is, cat was complacent and let it’s gaurd down. No offense to your neighbor, but if they had two animals that were fighting for years, they should have re-homed one of them.

DragonTypeWyvern,

These conversations always seem weird to me. I realize the modern human lives a sheltered life, but cats weigh ten pounds, if you don’t think a toddler could no diff them if it needed to you’ve never been in even a schoolyard fight and it shows. Mass matters in a fight. It matters a lot.

Honestly, the weirdest thing is people will say these things and then go upvote comments about endurance hunting and adrenaline being a super power.

jjjalljs,

I always think of my cat as a lovable idiot little brother. Sometimes he wants to be like me. Sometimes he thinks I’m a huge idiot and wants to go his own way.

Thorny_Insight,

I have no idea if it’s true but I remember someone saying that animals don’t understand the concept of bluffing so if you get charged by something that’s a lot bigger than you but you stand your ground then there’s a good chance it turns around because it assumes that there’s a reason for your confidence.

I doubt it’s that simple however. After all animals bluff too.

intensely_human,

I doubt it’s that simple however. After all animals bluff too.

If animals bluff it’s because their bluffing ancestors survived to reproduce. There’s something to it.

I think the thing is a fight is costly, even if you win the fight. So sometimes it’s not a bluff so much as a demonstrating of fighting spirit, and killing even a weaker animal is more costly when it displays fighting spirit, ie the willingness to fight even if it’s a losing battle.

CitizenKong,

They use the same communicative signals with us as with their young. To cats, we are overgrown, clumsy kittens that never learn to hunt but know a mysterious way to get food.

Fedizen,

this makes sense as the ownership model is that cats own people not the other way around

amio,

Cats can be pretty enigmatic and have a lot of individual differences in personality. At least size can't be the whole picture, based on tiny tiny kittens squeaking terror into the hearts of giant four-ton beastly hounds, bears, what have you.

Maybe we humans are just size queens, as nothing stops a chihuahua or something from doing the same.

Some people have suggested that cats get to see you as a "pack member" - dead birds and mice and stuff are gifts because you're just too incompetent at this hunting stuff, so they graciously help you out.

Lemmeenym,

Making fight decisions based on “could I kill it” is a convenience of human technology. The ability to seclude ourselves during healing and medicine allowing us to avoid infection, heal faster, and heal from more serious wounds has skewed how we think about fighting. Most animals make fight decisions less on “can I kill it” and more on “how badly can it injure me”.

Sure a human can kill a house cat, absent technology can the human do it without having the skin on an arm or leg shredded? Will the injuries be significant enough to make you unable to protect yourself from other predators? Will the injuries set up infection and kill you?

Cats are basically the perfect land predators. Even with their small size domestic cats are the most deadly and destructive hunters on earth.

scientificamerican.com/…/cats-kill-a-staggering-n…

They are ambush predators. They are really good at evaluating prey, identifying strengths and weaknesses, figuring out how, when, and if they should attack. Cats know whether or not they can win a fight. Cats will sometimes charge into fights they can’t win, like attacking the bear, because they know that they can inflict damage and that the other animal is making a similar fight decision. The hyper aggression of a 10lb claw tornado flying toward a 200lb bear is usually enough to convince the bear that the fight isn’t worth it.

Kyrgizion,

10 pound claw tornado… I’ll be stealing that :p

isolatedscotch,

this is 3am rabbit hole material… very interesting, thanks for the writeup

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