My cat, Gabriel, doesn’t recognize me, initially, when we are both in a room of the apartment with which he does not associate me. Then he’ll smell me, after which, he’ll recognize me and associate the place with me. What is going on, and what do I mean by being associated with a certain room?
I spend a lot of time with him in the main bedroom and the living room. When I am in bed or sitting in a certain chair in one of these rooms he’ll immediately recognize me. If this is not the case, he is more cautious, initially.
This implies that cats recognize people partly by the circumstances under which they find themselves. We become part of the whole and whether we are judged as friendly depends on whether the cat recognizes the whole scene and remembers it as non-hostile.
That is how I read this behavior. It is interesting also that when he comes into the kitchen to eat he does not see the new food in the bowl. I have to point to it and he’ll only use his sense of smell to find food in the kitchen. This is from a few feet away.
I don’t believe this is significant but it may indicate an eyesight problem, which may be linked to what I have described as his way of recognizing me.
However, I have a feeling that all cats recognize a person as friendly or not partly based on the circumstances and environment in which they find us.
If I am correct, why should this be?
Well, I am not sure. However, I believe it is linked to hard-wired behavior concerning home range and territory. The cat has a good memory for his territory. He can spot changes and strangers within the territory. The memory is: stranger + my territory = trouble.
There is a natural link between the environment and who is in it. This linkage between animal and the background results in the cat less able to isolate the animal or person from the background.
However, over time a domestic cat associates the whole home with his/her cat caretaker and therefore the condition fades.
As Gabriel had a semi-feral early life he may be more sensitive to friendly versus hostile animals and so this interesting behaviour is more pronounced.
This is just a theory. Have you experienced this?
Interesting article!
Jozef’s father was feral and his mother a farmhouse cat and he’s always been a mixture of them both. In the house with us he’s as loving and domesticated as any cat can be, but outside his feral side must appear.
If he has been out hunting over on the embankment for a good while, when he comes home he sometimes looks at us as if he doesn’t know us, it’s as if he needs time to adjust from his ‘other world’ Once he’s been welcomed home and fed he’s again his loving domestic self.
This is a nice story Ruth which shows how domestic cats can almost throw a switch and become wild again. They revert to wild cat tendencies quite easily. There seems to be a default defensive status which the domestic reverts to when he/she is unsure. It shows us once again that the world the cat lives in – from the cat’s perspective – is very different to the world we see and feel.
Boozer. Ha, ha. Best cat name ever.
Monty encountered just the problem situation you described a few weeks ago– a stranger in his territory. He chased the other cat away.
When I came out the other cat was up a tree next to the fence, Monty hanging on nearer the base of the tree. The top cat jumped over the fence at my approach. Both cats were black. The cat near the base of the tree jumped down and attacked me, hissing and growling. I had jeans on so he didn’t hurt my legs when he attacked. He mostly got my shoes. He started making strange moaning, howling meows I’d never heard from Monty. If I approached he snarled.
So was the cat before me Monty or did Monty go over the fence, something he’s never done before? The cat was all puffed, seemed wild and was fearful and aggressive toward me. He did not recognize me. I wasn’t sure if I recognized him.
I walked to the house and called out “treat” and eventually he approached and cautiously came in. I still wasn’t sure. A stray cat once used to humans might enter a house. But then he ran right for Monty’s room where he gets fed. Ok, only Monty would expect to be fed there.
So in that situation, for awhile, neither of us recognized the other. It was weird.
I realized later that Monty would not jump over the fence at my approach and a stray cat would flee, not attack me. Also, no cat left to his own devices would be as fat as Monty is. The girth of the lower cat alone was the clue.
But he was Monty and yet he wasn’t in that moment. He was wild toward me. Until he got his treat. Then it was all as if nothing had happened.
Yes, it does. Good point. Perhaps that can be modified to say that at night or low light conditions the cat’s sight plays a bigger role and also the cat’s sight is sensitive to movement.
It makes sense that cats rely on their sense of smell, hearing and vision in that order, because this mirrors their development stages as a newborn kitten.