I don’t think this is quite right. Cats might do something you don’t want them to do for the sole purpose of pissing you off, but I don’t think they understand stealing any better than other animals. My dog won’t steal things just to make me upset, but she will for another reason. She stole a rag from somewhere when she escaped one time, but she did it to show off to us, not to make us mad. Dogs certainly don’t like it when you take something they’re eating, and probably understand that we don’t like it either. Cats differ from other pets in that they piss you off for fun, not because they understand naughtiness or ownership better.
Many animals have an understanding of ownership and territory that’s not dissimilar to our own. If they intend to eat or use an object, they’ll protect it with violence. Animals won’t let other animals into their den most of the time, might guard food or water sources, and predators will protect their territory with violence. Modern human ownership simply passes most of the duty of protecting property to the state, while pet owners are in charge of keeping our pets from taking things we don’t want them to take through physical force. That’s all ownership is: protecting things we want the exclusive ability to use through violence.
Wrong. Cats understand us perfectly. They’re the only pet animal that move in with us on their own volition. An apex predator (for their weight class) one day decides to humour us and allow themselves to be called Mr. Mittens. What are they really up to?
Wild dogs in certain countries may choose to move in with humans or leave when they feel like it. That’s been true for most of their history. Hell, the main reason dogs in most English speaking countries don’t roam free and join humans at will is thanks to a concerted effort to eradicate them because they hunt livestock and can hurt humans. Dogs are apex predators in their own right thanks to superior social abilities over cats. Dogs mostly chose to live with us, and many have the ability to survive without us.
Other common pets like rodents and parrots can also exist in nature just fine. Parrots are exceptionally intelligent and while rodents aren’t, many are powerful enough to be a major pest to us humans. Cats are awesome, but they’re only more autonomous than other pets in the modern era. Most other pets aren’t allowed that level of freedom for their own safety and for ours.
If wild dogs or coyotes are common in your area, it might not be a good idea to even let them roam. Where I live, roaming cats have short life expectancies thanks to coyotes and cars.
Dogs mostly chose to live with us, and many have the ability to survive without us.
Wolves did, or whatever mutated variant it was, and then we created a whole bunch of different breeds. Some of them might be able to survive. Some of them can’t even breed on their own, because humans are idiots.
Cats understand “naughty”. In fact I think they’re the only animal who understands it. Dogs know “good” and “bad” but not Naughty. Same with theft. Cats know what theft is. They know when they are thieving and you can see it on their faces. Squirrels are thieves but they don’t know that. They know “take” and “have” but they don’t comprehend what it is to steal. Nor do raccoons or coyotes or any species of rodent. They may participate in theft but they are ignorant of the weight of what they do, the full meaning of it. Cats know what crime is and they do it on purpose.
I left out a crockpot of mostly eaten mac and cheese on the counter. I was on the couch half-asleep when I heard my keys (which were next to this crockpot) jingle. I didn’t say anything, I just turned my head and saw my cat running for cover as if it had just tripped the alarms during a heist gone wrong. How do I interpret this in any way other than my cat knowing what it was doing was naughty?
I can sometimes hear my cats jumping off of something in the kitchen and they then look at me guiltily while I investigate the countertop to make sure they didn’t do anything.
If I give a boiled egg to our cat it might eat it if she’s hungry. If I leave a boiled egg on the table, she’ll stalk it, steal it and run under the couch with it.
To be fair, raccoons give (and take) gifts. I think they consider anything shiny or colorful you leave out accessible to them a gift. My wife was attempting to feed neighborhood cats and we did get some, but we also got raccoons. They took a bright red bowl we were feeding them out of. In return, we’ve received several shiny rocks and a spoon.
But when it’s 1:30am and two of them jump out of a dumpster at you as you’re taking out the trash after a night with friends it feels more like a standoff and your trash is a mafia-style bribe
Volunteered in a wildlife shelter with two foxes. When I brought in the meals, one of the foxes would wait at the door, and as soon as I laid down the food he would take his choice piece of the meal, walk somewhere and hide it for himself.
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