Why do cats prefer certain people?
by Elisa Black-Taylor
(USA)

Annabelle is now my cat. Click on thumbnails below to enlarge
This article is discussion about why cats prefer certain people and the sometimes unpredictable decisions a cat will make on who (s)he chooses as that special someone in her life.
I'm sure most of you have experienced this. You've wanted a cat for a long time and paid a visit to the local shelter. Or perhaps one just wandered into your life from out of nowhere. You shower your new baby with love and affection. You feed it the best food, buy the toys you think kitty will enjoy, and basically become a servant for your new cat.
Then it happens. Your cat goes over to your spouse/roommate/child and makes itself at home on THEIR lap. This person who may even push the cat off the bed or lap and refuse to have anything to do with your kitty is now your cat's new best friend.
I want to tell the readers here who have had this happen that you are not alone. Please tell your own story at the end of this article. I've been hearing of many cases such as this over the past few months and want to assure you that it's unlikely anything you've done. It just happens.
My daughter and I are going through this with our deaf cat Annabelle. Laura was so excited about adopting a white deaf cat. She wanted her as her own personal cat to nurture and sleep with. Which Annabelle did for the first few weeks. Then without warning Annabelle decided she wanted to sleep with me. She also sits on the sofa arm by my side whenever I'm in the living room. Her cat carrier is now on my bed since she made her decision to make me her human. Annabelle sleeps in her carrier until I get out of bed, then she follows me to the living room.
Laura has cats who are partial to her. Tom and Jasper are the main ones. And of course Lola. Even Furby seems undecided these days on which of us he prefers. Lola and Jasper even go with Laura when she visits family in another town and leaves me with a cat colony to manage single-handed.
Furby also has a new lady friend named Marley whom he enjoys sleeping beside.
I could read up on cat psychology until I'm blue in the face and never truly understand the reason a cat will choose one person over another. Let's face it. Only the cat knows the answer to this dilemma.
One article I read suggested male cats prefer women and female cats prefer men. Which may be true to an extent except in my household there's only my daughter and myself. Most of my cats have never even met a man except for the vet.
We even share our home to a few cats who don't care for human company at all. These cats sleep with the other cats and seem happy with that situation. Every so often one of these cats will come over for a head rub. Otherwise, they choose other cats as their companions rather than a human.
In the past I was very partial to male cats. They always seemed to enjoy sleeping in my lap more than the females. Now I have as many female lap cats as I do males. I don't know if cats have changed over the years or if I'm the one who changed.
Cats also get a little vengeful toward those who discipline them or have to give them pills. They will often go to another person in the household as if to say "Ha, I'm not going to have anything to do with you until I decide to forgive you." Which can take from a few hours to several days.
I'm not going to suggest to the readers here to buy more treats, toys or cat furniture. Apparently cat's don't determine who they want to spend time with by the money spent on them. Cats, by nature, are independent and have their own secret philosophy.
Please share how your cats choose their favorite people in your household. I think we'll all find ourselves on the ignored end of a cat relationship.
Elisa
P.S. From Michael (Admin). It seems to me that as cats have their own personalities it is not impossible to say that the domestic cat has preferences for certain people just like humans. It's probably a combination of factors such as voice, smell, demeanour etc..Then there is the obvious factor: familiarity. Cats get to know us and vice versa. A relationship grows and then friends of the person who is close to the cat become favourites of the cat too because the cat knows that these people are friendly and non-threatening.
Comments for | ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
|