Cha Noir

Basically, there are two ways that cats bond with their colonymates (and if you own a cat, you count as a colonymate): grooming, and play. Grooming is self-explanatory; play mostly means means wrestling, because cats are hardcore like that.

A cat who wishes to engage in bonding - whether grooming or play - is going to do one of two things: either she’s going to initiate bonding, or she’s going to solicit bonding. A cat who wants to initiate bonding will just walk up and start licking or wrestling with with you; conversely, a cat who wants to solicit bonding will indicate, in some fashion, that she wants you to be the one to start grooming or playing with her.

Now, here’s the trick: because play for a cat typically means play-fighting, one of the most common ways for a cat to solicit play is to deliberately adopt a vulnerable position, thereby communicating that her prospective partner should mock-attack her in order to begin a wrestling match.

Sound familiar?

Basically, if your cat rolls over onto her back and looks at you really expectantly, like she’s anticipating some action on your part, and you go in for a belly rub and get your hand shredded, it’s not a kitty prank. Rather, you misinterpreted a solicitation for play as a solicitation for grooming.

You’ll save yourself a lot of blood loss if you learn to tell the difference!

Learning by teaching others is extremely effective – a new study tested a key reason why

By Christian Jarrett

The learning-by-teaching effect has been demonstrated in many studies. Students who spend time teaching what they’ve learned go on to show better understanding and knowledge retention than students who simply spend the same time re-studying. What remains unresolved, however, is exactly why teaching helps the teacher better understand and retain what they’ve learned.

For a new…

Deer God <3