I’m referring to those quite rare situations when a person nurses and raises a very young kitten within the first few weeks of life and then lives with that cat when they become an adult. Under the circumstances it is not uncommon for the adult cat to be extremely closely bonded to their human caregiver to the point where they follow their caregiver around the home and outside the home if they are allowed to go outside (a reflection of what happens in the wild when a mother trains her cubs to become independent hunters).
The process I am referring to is sometimes called ‘imprinting’. The caregiver is imprinted on the mind of the cat as their mother and that alteration to the brain never leaves the cat.
Adult cats under the circumstances desire to be very close to their human companion at all times except when perhaps sleeping in their den during the daytime which may be the case if the cat is an indoor/outdoor cat and is active at night.
The bottom line is that there is a unshakeable bond between the two. The reason is perhaps fairly obvious to many thanks to the education provided to millions through the Internet. There has been an dramatic increase in knowledge about domestic cat behaviour over the past 10 years thanks to the Internet.
When a person raises a kitten during those very formative and early years, the kitten regards their human caregiver as their mother for obvious reasons as they are their mother despite not being feline.
And in any normal home even if the person did not raise the kitten the relationship between cat and human is one of surrogate mother to kitten. It was Dr. Desmond Morris who first recognised the fact that adult domestic cats have the mindset of a kitten because they are kept in this false state of being a kitten through the relationship of intense caring provided by their caregiver.
And so, in the case of the person who raised a kitten, during those early weeks they are the mother to this kitten and then later on throughout the cat’s life they remain their mother but in a particularly intense way. This particular relationship is unshakeable as mentioned.
This happens to me. My cat follows me everywhere literally. Wherever I am in the home he follows me to it unless he is sleeping. He follows me to the bathroom. He follows me to the toilet. He follows me outside when I go to buy the newspaper in the early hours of the morning. There is danger there but he stops at his home range boundary and hides while waiting for my return.
He’s on my legs right now as I dictate this. He comes under the duvet cover at night to sleep right next to me until he becomes too hot when he leaves to sleep at the base of my bed against my legs. He’s glued to me and you get used to it. You have to be careful when you are walking around the kitchen because he’ll likely be under your feet. If you are an old person as I am you can be tripped up, fall over and break something which may be fatal at the end of the day!
In addition, you will upset your cat when you tread on their feet. You get used to looking at your feet in the kitchen if you are imprinted on your cat’s mind as no other than their lifelong surrogate mom.
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