Complex Numbers

The Cat's Meow

Yes, this article is basically an ad for books. But it was like catnip for me.

    The big idea: Are cats really domesticated?  

Guardian link, so UK spellings ahead.

Few people would mistake a wolf for a dog. But if you saw the ancestor of the domestic cat in your backyard, your first thought would likely be “What a cool-looking housecat!” rather than “What’s an African wildcat doing in Manchester?”

I'd be like "Hey, when did I get a house in Manchester? Cool! Where's the nearest pub?"

What about behaviour, then? Which of the traits we commonly associate with our furry friends are the result of domestication, and which do they share with their wild relatives?

This is why the article is interesting to me, though much about cat behavio(u)r remains a mystery—as it should.

Let’s start with the classic cat sound.

Yes, let's. What I find fascinating is not so much the meow itself, but the different interpretations of the sound across cultures. Oddly, this article spells it meow, when proper British cats go miaow. French cats say miaou—not so different (I suspect, but I'm not sure, that the plural is miaoux). Japanese cats say something like "nyan," which is the source of a popular meme from a few years ago. Most meows in other languages are at least close to onomatopoeic, though.

I had always assumed that cats talked to each other by meowing, and that they were just including us in their social circle. However, detailed behavioural observations of unowned groups of cats living in southern England have revealed that they rarely meow among themselves.

This appears to be borne out by other observations. I have a cat who almost never vocalizes. She'll purr when you expect her to, but I think I've heard her meow twice in eight years. I got her as an adult, and apparently she wasn't well-socialized with humans as a kitten. You'd never know it now, though, because she doesn't act feral at all.

Domestic cats are thought to be like other felines: solitary, aloof and asocial. But that is not always the case. When unowned cats occur in large, dense populations – as happens when people provide a lot of food – they do live in groups, composed mainly of related females.

Whoever thinks that doesn't know many cats. No, they're not always up in your face like those other animal companions are; to me, this is a feature, not a bug. But when they do want to hang with you, they won't leave you alone.

Why, then, do we consider domestic cats to be loners? Remember that the key aspect of lion and domestic cat groups is that they are made up of female relatives. But when multiple cats are brought together in the same house, they often arrive at different times, from different families. Not surprisingly, they frequently don’t get along.

My two (female) cats come from different places, and they have, at best, a wary armistice; at worst, a howling fight. Well, one of them howls. The other is silent, as usual. But they both get along well with my housemate's cats.

And as for the disturbing claim that your cat would eat you if you died at home and your body weren’t discovered: don’t believe it. Research shows that dogs are the culprit much more frequently.

I did want to address this libelous slander. Even if it were true... so what? What do you care? You're dead. And at that point, there is only one way for you to continue to fulfill your contractual obligation to your feline overlord.