CWe consider pets as part of our family. Furthermore, dogs and cats are like our children, to the point that we go into crisis over their ailments as if they were children. But how do they consider us?
Call us Pet parent. Those who “my cat is like a son”
A survey conducted by OnePoll of 2,000 pet owners found that 61% consider their pet as their child. Detecting that the average “pet parent” has something like 231 micro panic attacks per year caused by dog or cat disorders. From irregular intestinal movements (47%) to the food consumed (47%) to the consistency of the feces (46%), in short, one is as alarmed for a pet as one is alarmed for a child.
And it’s no coincidence: four out of ten pet parents admitted to having welcomed their fur baby into their home as a test to understand if they were ready to become parents of a puppy… without hair. In short, the four-legged friend in “starter child” function.
Birthday parties (29%), coordinated outfits (24%) and TV programs to watch together (21%) have now become part of the habits of many “pet parents”: it really is appropriate to call them that.
But do cats reciprocate so much love?
It is not surprising that many hope to see their feelings reciprocated. But while dogs are open books and explicitly reciprocate the love of their owners, happy to show affection to their human companions, cats are harder to read.
But some indicators suggest that cats also know how to form loving bonds with their owners. He explained it to Newsweek the doctor Jo Myers, veterinary surgeon at Vetster, a veterinary telemedicine platform. «Domestic cats do not maintain long-term relationships with their feline parents but instead form strong and lasting bonds with members of their human family.”
Proof of this is in a 2019 study published in the journal Current Biologyin which researchers conclude that yes, the relationship between owner and cat is similar to that between parent and child.
The 3 signs that a cat considers its owner like a parent
Dr. Myers said a good starting point for learn our cats’ “love language”. it’s seeing how they use body language to communicate with each other. From here she assumes three potential indicators to understand whether a cat sees its owner as something similar to a mother or a father. In short, three behaviors to be noted and taken as “proof” of the correspondence of human-feline loving senses.
First, it’s important observe the “greeting rituals” of the cat. Cats greet each other by approaching each other and touching each other when they get close again. And in the same way our cat can demonstrate that he is attached to us by approaching and touching us. Maybe with your nose. Maybe jumping on his lap or in bed, or simply rubbing against his legs.
The second clue to consider is the “olfactory marking”. By rubbing on its owner, as well as on objects that are part of their territory, the cat deposits the secretion of the sebaceous glands present in the temporal region, near the mouth and at the base of the tail. That is, the familiarization pheromones, which transform the marked objects into objects, accepted, familiar, one’s own.
For the third clue you have to look at the cat’s eyelids. Cats tend to focus on unfamiliar objects, people and animals and peer at them with a fixed gaze. If they open and close their eyelids long and slowly while looking at their owner, they are communicating trust and affection.
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