It is a photograph of a black cat sleeping on a couch on the Reddit.com website. The photographer said: “I found him outside the gym, kept following me, what should I name him?”
It’s a cool title to the photograph because he or she is saying that they adopted this cat without saying it. They just say that the cat followed them. Do you think a stray, unwanted cat follows a person because they select them as a human companion and caregiver for the rest of their lives? That’s a big question because it’s a big decision for a cat to make.
I’m not entirely sure myself although I would like to think that they do. Perhaps this little black cat was hungry and simply followed the person for food. Domestic cats need people. They are socialised to people. When they are separated, they migrate towards people to recapture what they had, a human lifestyle. It’s an interesting thought because it’s goes to another issue with respect to the human-to-cat relationship, namely separation anxiety.
Quite a lot of people think that domestic cats are fully independent, aloof and can be left alone all day every day while they are at work. I don’t believe this. They need their companion human around for them to feel whole. We call them domestic cats which means they are socialised to people which in turn means they need to be connected to people, not disconnected 10 hours a day. I’m stating the obvious perhaps, but when this little black cat went up to the person, they were trying to recapture what they had lost, that connection with a human.
Of course, sometimes domestic, indoor/outdoor cats want to interact with people on the street because they are lonely or very sociable. They have a home which might be yards away.
When a genuine stray, unwanted cat follows a person as this cat did, they seem to be asking to be taken in, to be cared for, the find security, have a regular supply of food and physical and emotional warmth.
The kind person who adopted the cat is Reddit user: u/CreditConsistent2878.
SOME MORE ON STRAY CATS:
In my experience, sometimes they want to get shelter and they find a door or car that they think they will be able to enter through. Sometimes they want food and associate the human with fulfilling that need. If they are lucky, the human responds. My feral came for food and because he was injured and was being abused by others in the colony. My heart goes out to both strays and ferals.