General Chat

Strikes me these 'animal behaviourists' didn't have cats as pets :-D

well my giddy aunt
both my cats wont leave us alone till we
stroke kiss and cuddle them <3 <3

rubbish - my cat adores being stroked

Dogs have owners.

Cats have slaves.

Immediately my cat comes in from outside she is on our knee pawing you every time you stop stroking her .... she thinks she should sit all night getting petted :-S

I find it hilarious, and am glad it was funded by an animal health firm rather than public funding.
For a start:

"the scientists examined cats living alone, in pairs and in groups of three or four in the home"

So, there were strangers present. Though usually friendly, my cats are initially wary of strangers. One will even go so far as to hide under the bath! Once they get to know you, there's no stopping them, you can't get away from them especially 'Bath Betty'.
The scientists were also:

" assessing levels of stress hormones"

How were they 'assessing' the hormones? Through blood samples?
So, wouldn't that stress the cats out? Once these relative strangers had come in and taken bloods, the cats would be wary of, and stressed by, their presence ever after!!

I write this after trying to hang washing out on the line. Whilst reaching down to get the washing out of the machine, Betty jumped on my back and started nuzzling my neck.
In the garden, Mister was obviously trying to desperately stress himself out by winding himself between my legs, then getting on the garden table, grabbing my hand and pulling it towards him. As I type this, George is trying to sit on my lap, has failed and is now stood with his feet either side of the keyboard, his face in my face.!!

Goodness me - how stressed out they must be!!!

My sister's cat, on the other hand is a miserable mare who will look lovingly at you and bite your hand as you attempt to stroke her.

Any cats I have had were very quick to tell me when I did anything to them that they did not want, got the t-shirt and scars to prove it :-D

What they are saying is just let your cat(s) do their own thing and they'll be ok. I would have thought that anybody who has co-habited ( nobody "owns" a cat ) with a cat for any length of time had worked that out without any need for research.

I let ours do whatever they want and it works out just fine. We too of course do what we want ... result cats come in round midnight of their own accord, soft things don't like a night on the tiles no nosh all that much lol. Quite how they realise that breakfast will be later at weekends I don't know.

Cats are very affectionate creatures but they are not dogs. If they want contact they'll make it clear enough.

If anybody knows how to get a well paid job researching the id of cats, making tv shows about the secret lives of domestic tabbies and so on please post and I'll stand in line.

:-D

I had two cats. One you couldn't stroke but Kitty loved it and very de-stressing for me. But time to stop when she began to want to get away. Not sure why It needed a study to prove that.

Vera

I have a friend Maggie, who like you, has cats. I told her of this and she had a fit of laughing.

Even I, who is allergic to cats, know that cats do their own thing, they allow you to share your dwelling with them and that if they did not like being stroked they would be up and away.

Wonder how much was the grant allowed in order to come up with such tripe?

Apparently, according to a new study by an international team of animal behaviour specialists, stroking your cat could be stressing them out!!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131007094326.htm

What are your views?
Do you force your attention on your cat by stroking them when they don't want to be petted?

Or is there an elephant in the room in this study?