My moggy Larry is the easiest of cats. Affectionate, loyal, endlessly affected person – even when my child son whacks him with a hairbrush, or yanks his tail, he by no means swipes. Sometimes, when my son is crying in his cot, Larry reaches a paw by the bars, to consolation him. Beautiful, in fact. Clever inexperienced eyes, and a pink button nostril. I consider him as a form of honoured home visitor. He actually is the easiest of cats.
The two kings of the pet world, dogs and cats, encourage determined tribalism from their respective camps. In the cat arbour: Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln and Florence Nightingale. But what’s it about cats that makes somebody a cat individual? And what can our love for these animals educate us about ourselves?
The social psychologist Samuel D Gosling of the University of Texas has studied the character traits of self-identified “dog people” and “cat people”. He discovered that cat lovers rating greater on neuroticism and openness to experiences, whereas canine persons are extra extroverted, agreeable and conscientious. “I wasn’t surprised by the findings,” he says. “If you think about the role that dogs and cats play, they afford different types of interaction. If you like to go walking and get out and about, a dog is a more obvious choice. But if you are more introverted and like to sit in a chair and spend time at home, cats demand less social interaction.”
But this isn’t to say that cat homeowners aren’t on this planet round them. Far from it. Rather, they ponder nature’s ineffable mysteries not on a muddy trudge by the park, however from the consolation of their very own houses. “Openness,” says Gosling, “is about ideas and intellect. People who are high on openness tend to be more abstract thinkers, and more creative and imaginative and philosophical.” Not for nothing is the thinker with a cat on their lap a beloved web meme.
The Turkish-American film-maker Ceyda Torun documented the rambunctious avenue cats of Istanbul in her award-winning 2017 documentary Kedi (“cat” in Turkish). Among the native individuals who beloved and cared for these cats, one high quality stood out: “Their capacity for philosophical thought and introspection,” she says. “It didn’t matter where they were from, or what level of education they had. You could see it in their eyes. They had that flicker of light. The light was on.”
It is the wildness of a cat – how distinctly non-human they’re – that attracts us in. Unlike people, who’re social creatures who dwell communally, and dogs, which likewise dwell in packs, cats “are solitary hunters”, says the thinker John Gray, creator of Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life. “Female cats are deeply attached to their kittens. But that’s about the limit of cat attachment. Cats can grow fond of the company of particular humans. But they don’t need them.”
Gray believes that “if you are the kind of person who wants to see the loyal, loving, trustworthy part of yourself in an animal, you will look to dogs. If you want to see out of the human world, into another world, where a different animal lives without these defining human needs, you will love cats.” In different phrases, loving a canine is like gazing into a very flattering mirror. Cat individuals look outwards, by a window into nature.
What cat lovers derive from their interplay with cats is “a lesson in the relationship you can have that is non-human”, Torun says. “We feel these non-human relationships in bits and pieces when we go out to a forest, and sit under a tree. But they’re often harder to describe or hold on to, because it’s not an actual animal that can sit on your lap. It feels one-sided. But with a cat, it’s that nature experience that keeps getting validated.”
While cats recline on the apex of the animal kingdom – not for nothing had been they worshipped by the traditional Egyptians – their homeowners are maybe probably the most despised of all pet homeowners. We all know the stereotype of the loopy cat woman who lives alone in a home that smells of stale litter. But how unjust is it actually? If anybody is more likely to know, it’s James Buzzel, writer and editor-in-chief of Your Cat journal, the nation’s solely specialist cat journal.
“They do exist,” Buzzel says gravely. “There are a number of people with multiple cats [in their] households who tend to live alone. They adore the magazine and write to us frequently.” His readership, he acknowledges, skews feminine. But, he caveats, “anyone can be a cat person … men appreciate cats too. Maybe they won’t admit it as much. They won’t have the jumpers, or the matching umbrella. But they do.” What unites the cat individuals who subscribe to Your Cat, or Cat, as Buzzel abbreviates the journal, is “a deep admiration of their independence and arrogance and aloofness. They know who is boss.”
If you search a toadying proxy-human (a canine), a cat shouldn’t be the pet for you. A cat does what it desires. It can’t be skilled to catch, or carry, or sit, or fetch. “When a cat is tired of a human being,” says Gray, “they don’t recriminate. They don’t try to change the human being. They just leave.” A cat’s affections should be earned. “They aren’t desperate to please you,” says Buzzel. “So when they do come and sit on your lap, it’s an absolute honour.”
Cat individuals select a lifetime of service. We are prepared handmaidens to our luscious-furred associates, and in return are rewarded handsomely, with nibbles, purrs and licks. If both of Buzzel’s two cats, a ragdoll known as Binx and a Russian blue known as Uma, deign to sleep on his lap, he’ll stay nonetheless till their nap is full. “You’d never move or disturb a cat,” he says, appalled.
In this, Buzzel evokes the Islamic legend that tells the story of how the prophet Muhammad reduce off a part of his gown, in order to not disturb a sleeping cat. Cats are notably beloved throughout the Muslim world, partially as a result of they’re thought of ritually clear, and might roam as they please. “I think the fact that cats are indigenous to this region is a big factor,” says Torun. (Cats are believed to have been domesticated within the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years in the past, in what’s modern-day Syria, Iraq and Egypt.) “Coupled with the Muslim element, that means that cats are allowed greater access into the family home, more so than any other animal.” As a half-Turkish Cypriot individual, I agree: I’ve by no means met one other Turkish one that wasn’t dedicated to cats, and if I did have the misfortune to fulfill one, I wouldn’t belief them. (Turkey is even famend for its cat homes, the place strays can shelter throughout the winter months.)
When she was rising up in Istanbul within the Eighties, says Torun, “cats were my best friends”. There was one cat specifically: a grey-and-white tabby with inexperienced eyes. Her title was Boncuk. “I was around six when she appeared,” says Torun. “I fed her and she stuck around. Even if I petted her too aggressively, she was never harsh with me. She adopted me and I was her human servant, fetching salami and bowls of milk.”
What this relationship taught her, says Torun, is that “it is possible to love something, but not want to possess it”. Boncuk was her personal creature, completely free – requesting Torun’s help, sure, however by no means anticipating it. They had a relationship that existed outdoors the servile ties that bind canine to grasp. “It’s about having that relationship with an animal,” explains Buzzel, “that chooses independence, but at the same time, chooses you.”
Torun believes that the attraction of a cat is even coded into their genetics. “We’ve messed with dogs too much,” she says. “We’ve bred them too much. They no longer resemble their authentic selves. That’s why people are so attracted to dogs that look like wolves. Because it’s that wild beauty that you don’t see in a chihuahua.” (Torun hastens so as to add that she has no specific animus in direction of chihuahuas. “Bless them,” she says.)
Cat faces are so engaging, says Prof Daniel Mills, an skilled in veterinary behavioural drugs on the University of Lincoln, and co-author of Being Your Cat: What’s Really Going On in Your Feline’s Mind, as a result of they resemble human infants. “The high forehead, big eyes and small nose,” he says. “These baby-like features at a subconscious level tap into our emotions and make us want to care. They have simple features that we find naturally attractive.”
You should squint onerous to seek out the wonder in an XL bully, or a Chinese crested. But I’ve by no means met an unpleasant cat. We can discuss their grace. About the excessive arch of their torso, like a ballerina’s foot. The fluid swish of their tails. How they stretch so prettily after a nap. The noiseless approach they enter a room, like a debutante descending ballroom stairs.
Cat lovers, Torun argues, are beauty-seekers. “There is something very aesthetically pleasing about a cat,” she says. “That’s why most artists are drawn to cats. Painters and poets tend to have relationships with cats, rather than dogs. Any feline of any size has this graceful athleticism, this prowess, this physical superiority that you can sense.”
And the contented purrs of a inclined lapcat are a type of pure ASMR. “Probably the best sound in the world is the purr in your ear of a cat,” says Buzzel. “I don’t think any sound works better than that. There’s a natural therapy about it.” Mills explains that purring “is a care-soliciting behaviour. Cats show it when they are very happy, but also when they are seeking help and assistance, which is probably why cats do it when they die.”
There is one much less interesting attribute of cat individuals: the an infection toxoplasmosis. It’s believed that 0.6% of the UK inhabitants is affected with toxoplasmosis every year – about 350,000 new circumstances. “Cats can be carriers of toxoplasmosis,” says Mills, “and they may show no signs of it. It’s of particular concern to pregnant women, because it can cause [miscarriage].” If you could have an outdoor-roaming cat, it’s attainable you have already got toxoplasmosis with out figuring out it. But if you wish to keep away from contracting the parasite that causes it, it’s finest to vary cat litter repeatedly, and put on gloves whereas doing so.
A small worth to pay, for all the enjoyment that cats convey their homeowners. “It’s pure love really,” says Buzzel, of the cat individuals he’s met over his 20-year profession on Your Cat. “They live for their cats. They lead a cat-centric life. It doesn’t mean they fit into the crazy cat lady stereotype, although some are proud to say they do. They’re always thinking of the cat. They buy the cat food and pay their vet bills before they buy their own food.” Cat individuals even have a way of humour. Your Cat runs an everyday column written by the cat sitter Chris Pascoe, during which he recounts his purchasers’ antics. “That goes down really well,” Buzzel says.
But even a vibrant and engaged cat group can not shield Your Cat from financial actuality. The December print subject of Your Cat will likely be its final. Falling circulation figures and decreased promoting spend have proved deadly. (The journal will live on on-line.) “We’re feeling a bit emotional about it,” says Buzzel. When we converse he’s planning their remaining subject. “I’m half thinking of a grumpy Sphinx with an Xmas hat on,” he says.
Buzzel has a singular perception into the canine and cat proudly owning communities respectively – in addition to working at Your Cat, he’s additionally the writer of its sister journal, Your Dog. “The sense of community is stronger in the cat world than the dog world,” he says. “The dog people are busy out with their dog. They like the fact that the magazine is more practical and about how-tos and travel inspiration. Your Cat readers love reading about cats. That’s the difference. If you have a dog, you love your dog. If you have a cat, you love all cats. You’re fascinated by everyone’s story about their cats.”
But in fact, the excellence between canine lover and cat individual is considerably synthetic. We all drink from the identical bowl. “Something cat people have in common with dog people,” says Gray, “is that they see something in the cat that they would like to have more of in themselves. Maybe they want to be more independent. More self-steering. Less needy of other human beings, and less dependent on their praise. So there is that in common.”
Torun identifies herself as a lover of all animals. “I wonder how much people make themselves believe they are a cat person or a dog person,” she says. “And part of that way of thinking is just a way to belong to a group. It’s tribalistic. It’s kind of unfair to cut yourself off from any possible relationship you can have with a dog or a cat by saying you’re a dog person, or a cat person. That’s limiting to me.”
She by no means knew what grew to become of her beloved Boncuk. Torun thinks she crept off, when the time was proper, and located a quiet house to die. She lived on her personal phrases, and died on them too.
“She taught me smaller lessons about boundaries,” says Torun, “attachment, letting go. But the bigger lesson was of knowing that I am not alone in this great big world. If you restrict yourself too much to human relationships, it’s very easy to feel alone.”
