Do you have that X factor that cats love? I know some of you. And I know that you have it. It is something inside us that cats sense and warm to. They move towards it and love it. Cats know that you respect them. It may take a little while for them to pick it up. But on the other hand they usually sense it almost immediately. I don’t think it matters how long it takes. It will be fairly fast because cats are very sensitive. To use a human term, they get the “vibes”.
So what is this X Factor? At heart it is an empathy for other animals. I am sure cats pick up on this. It is just an innate ability to distinguish between friend and foe. I am sure cats have developed the skill to tell the difference. They have to be able to do that as is part of the survival process.
Do your cats like the way you smell? Do they smell you and then rub their head against your hand, your clothes etc.? I wonder sometimes whether empathy can be smelled?
That sounds like a ridiculous thing to say. There is no scientific research on the connection between how we smell and our empathy with our cat. Yet cats are very sensitive to scent. They identify people through their scent. And I think the domestic cat has a preference for a certain kind of scent that is on our skin,
No one has written about that. But my experience informs me that it may be something that needs to be investigated. What I am saying is that cats not only identify people through the scent of people who they know who are kind to them but they can also identify a certain type of scent that is associated with an empathy towards them.
Although, this is on the edge of credibility, the scent we give off may be associated with our emotional state. If we are emotionally friendly towards our cat, he or she can assess this from a range of factors including the scent we give off.
In fact I have discovered that the often used phrase “the smell of fear” is real. What I mean is that we emit chemicals in our perspiration when we are frightened that other people can pick up.
Bearing in mind that cats have a much more sensitive sense of smell than humans, I wonder if people who are even slightly anxious around cats for whatever reason – and I include many cat owners – give off a scent which their cat picks up and interprets as hostile to varying degrees. By hostile I mean even the slightest bit unfriendly. After all, anxiety is a form of fear and fear is an expression of an emotional state due to the immediate environmental circumstances.
This is something that have never been mentioned before as far as I know. I sense that there is something in this suggestion because my experience with my cats indicate that they are very focused on my scent. They really like it.
Does your cat like your scent? But as mentioned above, I don’t think it is just about scent. The X-factor that cats love is many things bundled together which send a signal to our cat that we are friendly.
I love it when our boyz rub their heads on me, Walter often gives me a featherlight kiss on my cheek too and Jozef goes into ‘camel mode’ turning his bum to me, which is a great compliment from a cat. He also puts a thank you on my hand when I put his food down to him.
Some people think I’m a crazy cat lady as I know the names of all the neighbourhood cats and always speak to them, I’m sure cats know who are genuine cat lovers, they know who won’t hurt them and who might.
Your cats know what you smell like too and they love it 😉 They know you are with them and for them. You’re one of the X-factor types.
Monty is always sticking his butt in my face. I didn’t know it was a compliment.
Oh it’s a huge compliment Ruth, Monty obviously worships you!
I believe we are all mostly vibrational. Animals have the sixth sense and can read the vibrations, as can small children, until we teach them away from it. Call it X factor or whatever you want, they can see taste and touch what we are blind to, most of us. Humans can read facial expressions and body language without knowing exactly how. Animals read something else.
Quantum physics may seem new-agey for conversation on PoC but I think it explains the X factor in scientific terms.
Agreed! Alot of small things most humans are not used to focusing on and an entire language or energy and movement we subconciously experience but don’t necessarily know how to use or channel. Cats know what I’m saying 🙂
If we weren’t so arrogant we could learn from cats and other animals.
Yes, they do know what you are saying. You can’t fake affection with a cat. They know, and will pull away. If you can’t have a ‘real’ moment with them say, before leaving the house, you are better off just saying ta-ta and leave it at that.
Hi Michael,
Yes, the X Factor exists and I do have it. Animals – especially cats – can sense it in me immediately.
It’s also been my experience that a cat can sense when a person has a general dislike for cats or if that person is hostile or imbalanced in general. Cats will shy away and avoid this kind of person.
They are strongly tuned into the environment and are good at picking up vibes from people. They can pick up “intent” very quickly.
Marc is right – animals can sense fear too. Cats can sense if a person has cat etiquette – a general good attitude towards cats as well as how to respectfully approach them.
I know someone who is afraid of cats and when she goes into a cat household other than mine, she gets stalked by the cats and she feels like they want to attack her. She may be right. Her fear makes them uneasy.
They can smell the X Factor as well as feel it. It makes me wonder how psychic they are. Can they also see Astral bodies and interact with the Astral world? Or is it just physical instinct – a survival mechanism?
Good topic,
=^-^= Hairless Cat Girl =^-^=
I agree with the logic and generally everything you are saying in this article. And if animals can smell fear then there is no reason why they don’t smell other things too. Its more about humans in the sense that we would notice the fear part but not the other emotions just because we humans are so dramatic.
I’m sure otherwise we’d already have some sort of term meaning ‘smell empathy’. Since we humans are only just beginning to promote things like empathy then I guess we have all of these things yet to discover in the context of our relationship with animals.
I’ve always thought that although humans might be clever, intelligent or just think a lot – that is absolutely useless if we have no emotional intelligence to go with it. Since we are emotionally unintelligent all throughout history – it has resulted firstly in us almost destroying the planet we live on. It also mean people with power can behave like children. And of course it means our relationship with animals is very far behind. As obvious as it is that a dag knows when you are scared and barks at you, is as obvious as this article and what it’s about must be absolutely true.
I never have a problem making friends with cats because they sense my empathy. That is to say that I give them space and let them make the advances. Its simple really. But they sense it as good as a smell in the room. Humans often are not sensitive to the cat’s needs and will pick up the cat or whatever all too soon. Cats need space. As soon as you give them the space they need then they don’t need space anymore – duh – it’s obvious right, but I honestly think that is why they have this reputation of being independent. Because we treat them too much like we treat dogs or something. So they are always on the backing off mode – not the coming to mode. I’d say smell comes into it but of course its just also a general sense.
When you meet a cat for the first time you can’t just look it straight in the eye and walk towards it. That’s a total invasion. If you do this then cats will always seem like independent and slightly antisocial beings. But so many humans don’t know how to approach something any other way. Cats notice this and that’s what I think this article, in essence, is about. It might seem like a smell or x factor just because it happens before we know what it is – just because we are not used to the level they live on and what we are like for them. If one focuses on the small details then I guess it might no longer seem like something intangible, moreover it will become obvious to us as simple the energy we put out through the semantics and small actions we make they we are not usually familiar with or paying attention to. Great and interesting article 🙂
In future I will try to have the decency to do a basic spell check – argh!
Don’t worry about spell checking. You get the message across really well. And anyway I’ll can do some for you 😉
Very intelligent comment as usual. You make a nice point actually about human scent. People can like someone’s scent or not like it but we don’t refine that and judge a person’s emotional state from their scent. If we did, as you say, we would have some language on the subject. We are rather basic really although sadly we think we are terribly important and far more intelligent than all other animals. A lack of awareness and sensitivity about others including animals is a human failing. For example people who trap and kill animals in a brutal way are totally insensitive to the pain and emotional turmoil suffered by the animals they kill.
The X factor is probably a sensitive to the cat’s needs and behavior. It is part of respecting the cat. This is essentially a friendly approach. Cats pick that up. And I speculate whether our scent sends a positive message too.
One strange observation i have observed in my female cat Matahari, she loves clean laundry. as soon as anything new is applied in the house, be it a bed-cover, sofa-cover or a table-cloth, the first person to sit on it would be cat matahari.The term “COPYCAT” also has its origins in cats and i personally have first hand experience through my cats.Whatever Matahari does, her 3 1/2 years old kitten Matata has to imitate.After she sleeps on the chair or bed, tomcat matata quickly fills in the spot once she vacates, bizarrely hilarious to us humans.
Deer hunters don’t shower before they hunt because the deer are sensitive to smell. I imagine the Woodsman also kills deer. Hopefully the cats will smell him from a mile away.
I’ve rescued a lot of “strays” that smell of detergent and perfume. I feel the cats lay on clothes at home right up until the moment their person snatched them up and took them to the shelter. Furby and Lola love to lay on clean laundry. They don’t want anywhere near dirty laundry so I believe they can tell the difference.
Sealy lays on top of me and stares at me while I sleep. I must have something that attracts him.