Our cats enjoy our company. They love to hang around, getting their ears scratched and generally being the center of attention. However, cats, unlike dogs, are solitary creatures. No, we would never leave our cats for more than a couple of nights without someone to check on them, but when we do, I think they rather enjoy it—not unlike people. They have the house to themselves, with no one to bother them when they’re not in the mood. I may be wrong. They can be a bit stand-offish when we return, as if offended. I’m never sure if it’s because they were left or because we came back.
30 responses to “Animal Instinct”
When you return, the cats probably think you need permission to enter their house.
They’re probably disappointed you didn’t bring them something. When they go out they at least bring you some small gift, sometimes. But who brings back a fish from the beach, or a chipmunk from the camping trip?
That’s one of the differences between cats and dogs – if you leave extra food for dogs, they think they’re getting a big bonus meal and eat it all up . . .
Dogs (domesticated wolves) are pack animals by definition, while wild cats both small and large are generally solitary hunters.
Cat owners know that cats like affection, but only part of the time and only on their terms. I think cats definitely get lonely when their people aren’t around for days on end and show it when they return, but to a lesser extent than dogs, who have earned a reputation of “You were gone five minutes! I thought you’d never come back!”
Not our cats. They are often waiting at the door for us and as soon as we sit down they are head-butting us and rubbing against us. As soon as I wake up in the morning and uh, multitask in the bathroom, the cats are rubbing against me and purring loudly. After I leave and my wife is eating breakfast one of the cats lay will lay it’s head on her arm and act like she can’t leave.
We took in 2 brothers about 11 years ago. When we had them fixed the Vet said that one of the cats stuck it’s paw out of the cage and touched the brother’s paw. We have very sweet cats.
Just got back from a week on the road. All three cats delighted to see us.
The trick is, in our case, cats that get to go outside all the time are stuck inside with the catbox, plus, feeding and care by less adequate friends, so when you come back, they’re like, “Oh, thank the Cat of Cats that you’ve returned! Feed us right!“
Have we seen “mindful” before? Lovely handle. Lots of cat people here.
Ray has said it well; believe lions are the only extant exception to the lone hunter trait, and domestication has selected for greater tolerance for other cats among those Felis catus that deign to accept human company.
Peace,
My cat was as addicted to me as I was to him.
I gave away all my beloved vinyl 33s this week. Pity, but I admit they were inconvenient to use (since the player accepted only one at a time). I found a local chap with similar tastes in music and he also took the associated multi-talented player, cabinet, and two large free-standing speakers. Decluttering. Types of music would not seem to interest most of the Villagers, but ran from the complete organ music of Bach played on period instruments through several operas [“Aida”, “Barber of Seville”, “Die Fledermaus”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, etc.] to comic operas [several Gilbert & Sullivan] to the eminently collectable singles of the Kingston Trio. One or two Abba and Olivia Newton-John and Bing Crosby crept in, too. I will miss them, even though a lot is on line.
In a totally different matter, I just today found the maiden name [& parents] of a greatgreatgrandmother. Now I wish I knew just where in northern Germany the family lived, so I can search more efficiently.
ahhhhh it is hard to let go of music! Congratulations on adding to the family tree. I bet you’ll find out “where” in time, and then that will lead to more stories and then more questions. 🙂 Fun stuff.
today’s strip “Sure, I planned it that way!!!” 🙂
Current Pibgorn would have been disallowed yesteryear.
https://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2018/08/24
Peace,
All Arlo needs to do now is put Luddie’s name and a date there.
Smart dog!
https://www.ksl.com/article/46381185/have-you-seen-this-trampoline-fetch-is-best-fetch
TruckerRon, check this out: https://mymetanoia.co/products/moon-lamp
They also have Earth and Jupiter lamps.
Those are beautiful lamps… and my 10 year-old self would have greatly preferred a moon lamp to the PJs and socks I got for my birthday that year! Of course the far side of the moon was still very much a mystery in 1963; the few pictures that orbiters had taken up to that time were very grainy. The first truly good photos weren’t taken until 1965.
OF scheduled to erupt in a half-hour….
?? = ?? is something I left in wet cement during grad school. I wonder how many recognized it over the decades.
The missing part is H(psi) = E(psi). Apparently Greek letters are not usable here.
I hope this image opens. I couldn’t begin to do the math anymore, but the concept he’s describing comes down to the most astounding idea of all: Matter and energy aren’t what we think they are in our normal, human-scaled vision of reality.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c094d183b5c1de8fa375665c08e7c9b0
Ron,
http://www.gocomics.com/perry-bible-fellowship/2018/05/28
For some reason, it occurred to me today that Phil Dunphy looks as if he could have been inspired by Arlo.
David, that was a good one, but this one made me laugh out loud:
https://www.gocomics.com/perry-bible-fellowship/2018/06/11
Because I use Macs at home, I also like this one:
https://www.gocomics.com/perry-bible-fellowship/2018/06/06
curmudgeonly ex-p, https://www.gocomics.com/sunshine-state/2018/08/27