Are cats nicer than people?

For many people, the answer is, yes, because cats do not have unkind thoughts and because they are always there to greet you with love and affection when you get home. These are two of the reasons why cats are nicer than people. However, we don’t know for sure that a cat does not have unkind thoughts about their owner. Actually, I am sure some do, but only because the owner deserves it.

Picture bottom right is bought from iStockphoto. Picture bottom left is in public domain. Top picture: I have sadly lost the author’s name. Please advise.

Quite obviously, not everyone would agree that cats are nicer than people. But these people don’t know cats. If they could overcome any prejudices that they might have, and learned to understand cats, they, too, would discover that a relationship with a cat has many advantages over a relationship with a person.

If you want to try and get to the nub of the matter, cats add positively to people’s lives because of their honest reliability and affection for us. You always know what you will be getting and dealing with. Life with a cat is predictable. Predictability is comforting, in, what I consider to be, an almost chaotic world. Chaos brings unpredictability and that brings anxiety and anxiety brings unhappy.

Cats like routines and so do we. Cats bring routine to our lives. Routine brings a comfort zone. Sometimes I feel that all of us live in varying degrees of stress and anxiety. We often don’t recognise it and it can be very low level. Cats bring comfort to many people living in “quiet desperation”. Relationships with people can add to anxiety and disharmony.

The better you know cats the more you see a cat, and all his or her characteristics, as a different species. Then you are able to understand cats and then you are able to communicate with them. The language barrier is surmounted. With that potential problem out of the way combined with the beautiful simplicity of the cat’s mentality, you can find harmony in a relationship that is rock solid. This is something that, for some, can be difficult to find in a relationship with a person.

So, cats are nicer than people for the reasons I have stated. For me that does not mean that I do not want a relationship with a person. I simply realise that I can almost guarantee a successful relationship with a cat but not with a person in the long term.

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I wish I wasn’t so pressed for time these days – I read this last night, what a great topic – but it was late and I had to go to sleep so I wouldn’t be all tired today. I can’t wait for the weekend!

I find cats are just amazing. If you spend time with them in their terms there is just no end to how much they will love you and how they will express it. It’s all about adapting to them in my opinion. I really doo believe that they can be very fulfilling. They know me well, and they know I will never ignore them but they don’t abuse the fact either. They talk to me – Gigi tells me in her own words when I won’t hurry up and release her catnip mouse for the evening. You are right, it is all about routine but thats a very good thing to have as a human. Lately I have been working alot and I have totally missed my routine with my cats for a start but I also have been forgetting things I always remember and generally its making me forgetful and busy and unfocused. Other people tell me its fantastic that I have this second quite fance design job going on and it all sounds like a very ‘successful’ and right track to be on and yes I am getting paid alot more but I am unhappy. Success is personal and I am not the kind of person who will give up my whole life to the cultural definition of success. I can see my cats are sad when I get home late and then have to do work on my computer. I always make sure to play with them for at least 45mins or an hour but that, in my opinion, in a whole day, for indoor cats, is just not enough. I don’t like to see them asleep on the couch next to me while I am working. I’m going a bit off topic but it is all about love and how cats love and what their terms are. They love me so much because I give them so much of my time in their way which they want. They decide when its play time or relax time and I am happy to adapt to that. I think its a compromise. They live in my place and eat the food I give them and accept me and I also compromise to be with them. If you do this then there is no end to how much a cat will love you and care about you if you dont feel well and so on. Cats are probably nicerthan alot of people just because alot of people don’t compromise and love them enough to do what they want to do sometimes or often. I think its totally natural and fair for a cat to feel left out if nobody pays attention to him or her and the cat’s intention is to love and nothing more. No cat wants to dislike you. Humans can be satisfied with negativity whereas cats aren’t built for that. If they feel left out thewn they are sad and confused. You can’t possible say a human is nicer than a cat because humans are capable of things which cats are not. In my opinion anyway. If a cat seems angry its because the human has pervered the relationship knowingly or unknowingly but either way they have left the cat in a situation where the onyl way they get any attention is by swiping out and such. If cat can adapt to human ways and learn to enjoy and appreciate those ways – like coming to bed at bedtime and snuggling and saying thank you for food and pets when you give them then it would be totally normal for humans to do the same – to adapt to them and learn to enjoy it. I must say that I enjoy playing with my cats now and I don’t feel so good if I don’t get to in a day. I have gotten addicted to it and I have learned the fun of it and it makes the relationship fine and balanced. They are indoor cats and this is a factor but it’s also proof that if you make an effort for those who you love then it will be very much worth it – thats how humans need to hear it, “worth it” but actually it shouldn’t come into question in my opinion. If you take responsibility of another life there are no questions, only actions.

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Comments

Are cats nicer than people? — 12 Comments

Leah on February 17, 2013 at 8:51 pm said:
This is the thing isn’t it cats don’t hold anything against us do they? Yet they know fear they sense when we are sad, they feel pain yet they keep quiet I love and admire cats like I could never love or admire some of the people I know. I appreciate my cats like I appreciate no other person because that don’t have the frailty of Humans; cats are perfect in my eyes.
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Rose on February 15, 2013 at 1:53 pm said:
Cats are much nicer than people,they don’t go behind your back,what you see is what you get in fact.
If a cat doesn’t like you they don’t bother with you and what makes me angry is that people do things to their cats,such as getting them declawed and the cat doesn’t know the person they love betrayed them.
How can someone who pays to have a cat mutilated ever look in that cats eyes honestly?
It beats me.
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- Ruth aka Kattaddorra on February 15, 2013 at 4:56 pm said:
  Yes Rose and it makes me mad when someone who had their cat declawed says ‘My cat is fine and as loving as ever with me since being declawed’
  It’s as well cats don’t know just who paid someone else to put them through agony and leave them disabled or their lives would be even more miserable knowing the person they loved and trusted was an animal abuser.
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  - Michael on February 15, 2013 at 5:41 pm said:
    Nice point, Ruth. Cats don’t blame or hold grudges. If a veterinarian declaws a cat, the cat doesn’t blame his owner for telling the vet to do the operation. The cat just gets on with life. And the cat’s owner says everything is fine. But it is not.
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- Leah on February 17, 2013 at 8:45 pm said:
  I totally agree with you Rose how can they live with themselves?
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Ruth aka Kattaddorra on February 15, 2013 at 10:11 am said:
Yes I agree cats are nicer than people, they accept us as we are and the more love we give them, the more they give back.
‘The language barrier is surmounted’ is exactly right as we don’t need words between us and our cats, if we treat them as they should be we are able to read by their actions and expressions exactly what they are thinking most of the time. Not all the time of course and I love that cats have an air of mystery and we will never know everything about them.
I do like people (most of them anyway) but we all have one fault…..
we are only human lol
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- Michael on February 15, 2013 at 2:10 pm said:
  Nicely said. We all have one fault and that is; we are human. And my God I wish humans could look at themselves more objectively. We don’t do very well do we? It seems the bad guys are in charge because there are billions of good people on the planet so why isn’t the planet a bit better? There are no bad cats. There are abused cats who fight back. There are nervous cats because their owner made them nervous but there are no malicious or inherently wicked cats. That is the domain of people and I think it is the point that you are making Ruth.
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  - Ruth aka Kattaddorra on February 15, 2013 at 4:51 pm said:
    Exactly Michael!
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Marc on February 15, 2013 at 9:04 am said:
I wish I wasn’t so pressed for time these days – I read this last night, what a great topic – but it was late and I had to go to sleep so I wouldn’t be all tired today. I can’t wait for the weekend!
I find cats are just amazing. If you spend time with them in their terms there is just no end to how much they will love you and how they will express it. It’s all about adapting to them in my opinion. I really doo believe that they can be very fulfilling. They know me well, and they know I will never ignore them but they don’t abuse the fact either. They talk to me – Gigi tells me in her own words when I won’t hurry up and release her catnip mouse for the evening. You are right, it is all about routine but thats a very good thing to have as a human. Lately I have been working alot and I have totally missed my routine with my cats for a start but I also have been forgetting things I always remember and generally its making me forgetful and busy and unfocused. Other people tell me its fantastic that I have this second quite fance design job going on and it all sounds like a very ‘successful’ and right track to be on and yes I am getting paid alot more but I am unhappy. Success is personal and I am not the kind of person who will give up my whole life to the cultural definition of success. I can see my cats are sad when I get home late and then have to do work on my computer. I always make sure to play with them for at least 45mins or an hour but that, in my opinion, in a whole day, for indoor cats, is just not enough. I don’t like to see them asleep on the couch next to me while I am working. I’m going a bit off topic but it is all about love and how cats love and what their terms are. They love me so much because I give them so much of my time in their way which they want. They decide when its play time or relax time and I am happy to adapt to that. I think its a compromise. They live in my place and eat the food I give them and accept me and I also compromise to be with them. If you do this then there is no end to how much a cat will love you and care about you if you dont feel well and so on. Cats are probably nicerthan alot of people just because alot of people don’t compromise and love them enough to do what they want to do sometimes or often. I think its totally natural and fair for a cat to feel left out if nobody pays attention to him or her and the cat’s intention is to love and nothing more. No cat wants to dislike you. Humans can be satisfied with negativity whereas cats aren’t built for that. If they feel left out thewn they are sad and confused. You can’t possible say a human is nicer than a cat because humans are capable of things which cats are not. In my opinion anyway. If a cat seems angry its because the human has pervered the relationship knowingly or unknowingly but either way they have left the cat in a situation where the onyl way they get any attention is by swiping out and such. If cat can adapt to human ways and learn to enjoy and appreciate those ways – like coming to bed at bedtime and snuggling and saying thank you for food and pets when you give them then it would be totally normal for humans to do the same – to adapt to them and learn to enjoy it. I must say that I enjoy playing with my cats now and I don’t feel so good if I don’t get to in a day. I have gotten addicted to it and I have learned the fun of it and it makes the relationship fine and balanced. They are indoor cats and this is a factor but it’s also proof that if you make an effort for those who you love then it will be very much worth it – thats how humans need to hear it, “worth it” but actually it shouldn’t come into question in my opinion. If you take responsibility of another life there are no questions, only actions.
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Rudolph Andrew Furtado on February 15, 2013 at 1:58 am said:
The main reason why most people keep pets which include cats is because your cat is non-judgmental unlike humans who are always judging you on various parameters.Agreed, a pat can never totally replace human companionship but it can provide great companionship and solace in times of depression, sorrow or happiness, always non-judgmental to whether you as a human are right or wrong.Modern science has now also proved that pet owners have less psychiatric problems than non-pet owners . As for me, the definition of returning home means being with my cats and parakeet and my human house care-taker.
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- Michael on February 15, 2013 at 8:38 am said:
  Nice one. Non-judgmental is a very important point that I could have added. Thank you Rudolph. It is very relaxing to be with a companion who never criticises you.
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