Cats

A programme on TV the other day talked about the bond between dogs and their owners. It argued that although dogs evolved from wolves, they had been domesticated genetically for 1000's of years, which made them uniquely synergistic with humans, and that no amount of taming of a wolf cub would enable the grown wolf to interact emotionally with humans and in the same way as the domesticated dog. This led me to thinking  about the bond between domestic cats and their owners. As dogs are proved to be able to communicate with their owners (through their bark and other actions) and visa versa, so do cats in my opinion. Nelson has a variety of meows. The most pathetic is a tiny squeak when he wants attention, other times it can just amount to cat talk, responding to my chattering. He is now clever at indicating, not just that he wants to go outside, which is usually by jumping on me in the morning, or by scratching the side of the bed, which he has learnt gets me out of the bed, but now he even goes to his cat tray and scratches in his tray without any intention of using it. he did this the other day, so I just ignored him for 5 mins before I let him out. He went out for all of 30 seconds and changed his mind because of the snow. He came back in again and went straignt to the litter tray and this time did his business for real. The other noticable reaction from him is when I talk to him in a really affectionate way causing him to arch his back in anticipation of a stroke from me. Finally,  he has now developed a neurosis and refuses to go out of the cat flap if I am anywhere near him. He waits unil I have left the kitchen and then ventures out. Why? Because he learnt that sometimes if his spot treatment is due, I have been able to catch him (just as he goes out of the flap), in order to treat him, and he has never forgotten it. Apart from ignoring me, if I have upset him (by going away for a weekend) or by not letting him out when he wants, he also shows his affection, only when nobody else is around and he can feel free to head butt me, crawl onto me and knit to his hearts content on me.