How Does Your Cat Get Your Attention?
by Michael
(London, UK)
Poll results from Dr. Jon’s PetPlace.com
Thank you Dr. Jon for this poll. I have provided a link back to the poll results.
This page is intended to promote a discussion on the poll results.
I think the answer to the question depends on the circumstances. Most cats will meow to ask us for something, which is usually food or to go out, if the cat is an outdoor/indoor cat.
A number of the catching attention behaviors in the poll is actually not designed by the cat to catch attention but is alternative behavior.
An example is the rubbing against our legs. This is a scent exchange greeting. It does get our attention but usually the cat already has our attention when doing this.
Laying down on papers, I think is just about companionship. Our cats like to be with us, near us or on us. Jumping on our lap is the classic example.
Knocking things over can, I agree, be a subtle form of attention seeking but usually comes after the usual meow.
Cats tend to escalate the way in which they make demands, just like us. The first method is to ask; meow. The next stage is to tap us on the nose, if we are asleep and they want to get us up. The next stage is to maybe knock something over or anything that they know will annoy us! Yes, I do believe that cats learn this. They don’t reason that a particular action will annoy us but they do know it gets our attention and it gets our attention because it annoys us.
One of the last and most effective attention grabbers is to bite us gently on the nose. This happens when we are asleep. Unsurprisingly it is very effective.
The last two forms of behavior in the poll, jumping on places they shouldn’t and running around are obviously not intended to get our attention. But clearly cats do make purposeful decisions to get our attention sometimes.
What do you think about this interesting poll. And how does your cat get your attention?
