#mapletaiga

Well, I don't know if that's a stereotype that really has ALL that much truth to it; for example I know a married couple with 17 cats and a single older man who has 9 cats. I think people who tend to collect cats mostly happen to be either very kindhearted people living near feral cat colonies or very disorganized people living near feral cat colonies or BOTH.

I also think the 'nurturing' desire applies pretty equally to both men and women (and in between and sideways), as well, so there you go. Plus, if people really want babies, they tend to be able to get them; people who collect cats probably just want cats.

However the REASON many people want cats is likely due at least in part to this nurturing instinct that humans have, as cats, like many other domestic pets, have emphasized their neotonized traits so that they look and act more like juveniles throughout their lifetime. (You could argue that this makes them in a sense quite a bit more 'nurturing-fulfilling' than a baby as babies tend to grow up.)

But yes, both dogs and cats have definitely evolved to exploit this part of human nature!

It's interesting you should ask this because I actually did a small study on it at one point! And of course it was inconclusive. But based on what I did find and on available literature I suspect that when you and your cat meow at one another in a call and response fashion, it is related to what mama cats do with their kittens, like so. (Be careful that video is dangerously cute).

This behavior has been documented often in mother cats and kittens. Part of it is related to finding one another in feral situations (a mama cat will leave very young kittens hidden somewhere while she hunts, and the kittens might wander). However, as in the video, mama cats and kittens also do it when they're all together and safe. Researchers aren't sure why but I suspect it's just a way of bonding/getting to know one anothers' voices.

So, when you and your cat do this with one another- and it's kind of funny how so many cat owners do this!- you're behaving like mama and kitten.

There are a couple of theories about this. The jaw motions cats make when they do this "chattering" are very similar to the motions made when performing the killing bite on prey. Some people speculate that cats do this as a form of frustration because they can't catch prey. I've also heard a theory that the cats make these noises as a form of mimicry to lure prey down to the ground, but I don't know how much stock I place in that.

I've never heard of wild cats doing this, but then again wild cats probably aren't often in a situation where they can't directly go after their prey. And of course they're so secretive that it's a bit hard to study their behavior in the wild anyway.

Unrelated, but here's a video of an African wildcat catching birds in midair.

This is tricky because many cats can NEVER safely be around rodents, regardless of the effort you put in to introduce the two. The instinct to hunt is simply too strong. In fact, even if your cat behaves very nicely you should absolutely NEVER EVER leave them in a room together unsupervised.

That said, guinea pigs are pretty big and can be bold, so kitty's instincts may be tempered by this. My pig also grew up around both cats and dogs and was afraid of neither, so when my cat came towards him he never ran. (In fact, he absolutely ADORED my dog and followed her around everywhere wheeking and popcorning... I have to see if I still have a video of this. He actually rumble-strutted for her too, so I think he was a little species confused.)

Regardless of the fact that my pig never ran from my cat and even sometimes chased her, my cat would still occasionally bat at him and move towards him in a mock-stalk. We never left the two alone together. If your cats are young and not experienced hunters and your guinea pigs are young, you might be able to convince them to hang out peacefully under supervision. See how your cats act when they first smell/see the guinea pigs- are they batting at them, are their tails lashing, are they trying to break into the cage? Is the guinea pig trying to hide? If so, I'd definitely keep them apart, as once a cat is convinced something is prey you're just not going to change its mind.

(Here's a couple pictures of when my cat and my guinea pig were first introduced; you can see he went right up to her. Not one survival instinct left in this poor animal.)

(Climbing into bed with a cat is clearly the smartest thing to do, Figwit. She looks so happy to have you there.)

(But then you realize that this was his goal all along.)

Thank you! One of these days maybe I can make a living with this type of thing, haha...

Hoarding behavior in cats is pretty well documented, though people don't really know why it happens. Your cat might actually be trying to teach you how to hunt if she's specifically bringing these things to YOU, however even so the only thing you would need to worry about is if she picks up something that might be harmful if she swallowed it. You probably don't need to do anything- I guess you could bring her things, but she probably wouldn't recognize the gesture as you showing her you can 'hunt.'

Interesting side note of cats that have intense hoarding behavior- some cats like to collect certain types of objects and hide them in a 'nest,' researchers are split on whether this is related to prey behavior or the instinct mother cats have to keep all their kittens in one place. Extreme forms of this actually manifest as feline compulsive disorder, similar to the compulsive side of human OCD. For that matter, your dog can have the canine version of this too. There's actually a theory that living in the same kind of environment as humans for such a long time has caused cats and dogs to develop some similar mental illnesses or mental symptoms- for example, some dogs are also diagnosed with canine ADD.

Thanks! She is a lovely-looking kitty, isn't she? :D

For the record, the reason many cats have similar markings like this has to do with the way pigment spreads away from the neural crest during an embryo's development. The spotting (S) gene controls how much white is on a pigmented cat (as I explained in an earlier ask), and in piebald cats it can stop pigment from migrating to certain specific areas. 

I should stop and explain that in embryonic development, pigment in skin is formed when pigment-carrying melanocytes migrate away from the neural crest (the pre-spinal cord, basically) to cover the skin. The S gene blocks them from migrating to cover certain areas, depending on which version a cat has (a cat with ss would have no blockage, while a cat with S4/S4 might have no pigment apparent at all!) An S1s cat will probably just have white socks and a white bib, suggesting that these areas are the last to be filled in in the embryo... With 'stronger' variations of the gene, a cat will have more and more white coloration.

I've gone on quite a bit (you didn't even ask a question, haha), but basically, that colored spot on the lip is probably a tiny area where a certain form of the spotting gene doesn't block pigment. Not sure why it's asymmetrical, though- there are probably other genes interacting as well.

I talked a bit more about genetics (well, how ontogeny is affected by genetics) above. Your cat is likely heterozygous Oo, leading to the orange spotting, with some dominant variant of the spotting gene for the white parts. The gray fur is probably caused by a homozygous recessive dense pigment gene (dd), which would affect a black fur allele by making it deposit less densely, hence the paler color. I'd be willing to bet that the orange fur on your cat is pale as well!

(You may certainly submit a picture of your cat to me, I highly enjoy looking at pictures of cats.)

Actually, not all cats hate the water. Here's a video of a cat that seems to be having a good time in the bathtub.

The reason many cats don't like getting wet is because they've never experienced it before, and it is kind of scary, and cats do not like new experiences/scary things when they are grown up. It is also probably pretty uncomfortable to have heavy wet cat hair on you making you cold, especially as cats like to have a good balance of the right oils and smells on their fur.

Including this story because I highly enjoyed the telling of it.

Sometimes cats eat plants because they have an upset stomach (it can induce vomiting or act as a laxative for them). Sometimes they do it as a compulsion (see my comment on compulsive disorder above) or as pica, which is when a cat obsesses over eating/sucking/chewing certain nonfood items. It can be an aspect of compulsive disorder just like hoarding. But don't be too quick to diagnose your cat with anything- these are only really for when behavior is problematic to the cat's health.

Your cat might simply like the texture and movement of spidergrass, as it's long and thin and good for batting at and playing with, and he might not like the smell and taste of basil by comparison.

Some people call this a bunny kick or rabbit kick, and from what I have heard, it is a move they might use to disembowel their prey. Though I would think it's more related to play and play-fighting, as cats will frequently use it then- and you don't see too many cats flipping upside down while holding actual prey.

That's an interesting theory, and I'm not too sure. I know nearly every young mammal expresses some play behavior, mostly related to behaviors they will need as adults- for example, young goats head-butting each other, wolves and dogs play-fighting, and of course cats play-killing. So, it's for practice- wildcat kittens will also engage in object play. The reason such behaviors might continue so much in adulthood is likely again related to the neotonized nature of domestic animals (though some adult wild animals will play too, often as a social thing.)

It's hard to say what a cat knows or doesn't when playing, although they certainly seem to have a play-mode versus the serious mode they have while hunting. However, some cats overlap these, probably due to inexperience... that's a bit of a digression though.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know if I would go so far as to say the cat is attaching a secondary value to an object- a lot of times cats are attracted to objects like feather toys because they have movements/sounds/smells similar to those of prey and the cat's instincts are drawn out. However the play-mode in cats does seem separate from hunting mode, like I said, so cats may make an emotional distinction between 'play' and 'serious.' It's definitely something that would be hard to prove, though- I'd be very interested in the sorts of studies you'd like to do!

It could be that you just broke the ice, so to speak, with your cat in a way your family didn't. If your cat was feral for a while as a kitten, that might explain it- a lot of times feral cats have to get used to people as individuals rather than as an entire group because they haven't been exposed to them enough during that sensitive period.

However it might also simply be that your cat picked you as her chosen person- a lot of cats do this, and it's just a matter of who they decide they have the most attachment to. For my cat, it's definitely my dad, and if he's in the room she refuses to sit with anyone else. It's hard to say why this is... there's just something about my dad that my cat found more pleasant than everyone else. Your cat definitely seems to adore you and want to bond with you, so treasure her!

The way feral cats interact is largely dependent on the resources that are available in the area. If there is a lot of food- as in a city, with dumpsters and a large concentration of people, there's not too much of a need to fight when mating because everybody has a lot of energy, and the females will give birth to lots of healthy kittens, and there's probably a higher density of females to go around because of this. Basically, everybody is less territorial. When there are less resources, that's when the fights start and cats begin eking out their territories with the best resources.

Even domestic cats can get territorial, even when they are well fed, possibly due to lack of socialization with other cats as kittens and possibly because of hyper-territorial behavior due to living in human houses. (i.e., the longer a cat goes without seeing another cat, the more extreme of a reaction it will have when it sees one.)

Maybe the cats were fed less in that neighborhood, or fighting with local feral cats; it's hard to say. A lot of American suburbs also keep their housecats in at night, or try to, so maybe that could also be a factor.

Pets don't ALWAYS want to be petted, but when they do, I have no doubt that they enjoy it. It's pretty easy to tell when your cat isn't enjoying something; he probably lets you know by biting or scratching you or even leaning away/not responding. When a cat IS enjoying something he will try to get more of it, by rubbing against you, purring, even choosing to sit with you or on you. Touch is a very powerful sense for most mammals, cats included, and petting your cat releases the same bonding chemicals that a hug or a good massage releases for humans. Positive touching feels VERY good, and even has health benefits for you and your cat! Blood pressure, pulse, and cortisol (a stress hormone) are lowered in both of you during a petting session.

So yeah, if a cat is acting like it wants to be touched, it probably does. If it is acting like it doesn't want to be touched, don't touch it unless you have to- because then the touch is scary and not pleasant. Same with people, really.

I guess I'll end this Q&A with a photo of my cat-she's been pestering me for the whole second half of the time I've been writing this, and she even hopped up on the table I was sitting at to ask for cuddling. I documented this with my webcam.