Comedian Ed Byrne once observed we are nicer to cats than people, telling the story of how he found a cat by his garbage and now he lives with them, which most people would never do with a person. But what he didn’t observe is that it goes the other way as well, as cats tend to be a lot more friendly with people than other cats.
This is, naturally, inspired by a cat, a big fluffy black one that was found unaccompanied in a parking lot. We naturally took it in, because it was cold and hungry but also very friendly. We also had to put it in a tent inside the house, because we already have a cat, and that cat did not like the idea of having a new roommate. The stray cat itself wasn’t all that keen on my cat either, and after a few hisses and some attempted chases up went the tent in an effort to keep them separate and safe from each other. Eventually, the new cat went off to live with a friend of ours.
Now my own cat isn’t the most social animal in the world, she was born the only cat in her litter and that’s how she likes it. Introducing her to new people tends to take a few visits before she’s comfortable with the idea. She’s not too receptive to anyone entering her domain.
The stray cat, on the other hand, is a big fan of people, and quickly endeared itself to everyone it met. It also didn’t much like being far away from people, and would follow you from room to room most of the time. That did make it fairly easy to keep the two cats apart, because you could just avoid the room where my grumpy senior was sitting and they usually wouldn’t get very close.
The affection towards people didn’t extend to other cats, and my own cat being as grumpy as possible didn’t help, but the new cat would try to chase it around. This didn’t endear them to each other. Hence the tent, to make sure that they were protected from each other.
But, as we were setting up a tent to ensure the cats didn’t hurt each other, I did wonder about the cat’s perspective on each other. Did they think they were threats to each other? Did they worry about the other cat’s motivations? Of course, the new cat did eat my cat’s food, which probably didn’t help her opinion very much. Did she think this new cat was some sort of thief?
Did the cats have suspicions like people do when meeting a new person? After all, I know plenty of people who won’t meet someone from a classified ad without a friend, just in case. Is this also the case with these two cats? Are the cats thinking the same things about each other that people think about people they don’t know? And, do we not notice, entirely because to us they’re small, cute, fluffy and harmless?
I think that might be the core of it, cats are harmless to us, and are cute and fluffy, so we always feel safe around them, even if they’re ill behaved cats. Another person isn’t harmless, so we don’t feel safe. And to the cats, they don’t know if they’re safe either, they don’t know who this other cat is, the one that made a beeline to their food dish.
They’ve just got to realize, like we do, they’re all fluffy and adorable, not giant scary tigers.
