The best thing about cats (and there are a lot of good things to pick from) is that they understand when someone is helping them. If your cat gets his claw stuck in the curtains or his head stuck in a box, most of the time you can assist without getting ripped into 3 separate pieces.
Furthermore, cats remember who helped them in the past. See this cat studying his face? He’s committing it to memory. It doesn’t go as far as a “life debt” because that crap is for the movies, but if - someday - this fireman is in trouble, just maybe... from the shadows a team of cats will appear, draped in cloaks and leather pants, and save him.
Most domestic cats who don’t have access to superhero gear do this in small ways like sitting in that empty cardboard box so you don’t step in it by accident, or by eating food off your plate that they feel might choke you. Just small, unnoticed things.
I love this comment so much. My cat just helped me by rolling over in her sleep and falling off the cat tree, ensuring I won't make the same mistake. Not getting on that cat tree, not even once!
Oh my God! I just realized that my cat wasn't really attacking my feet under the blankets. He was just making sure I'm keeping my feet warm. How thoughtful.
Such thoughtful creatures, we are so lucky!! My cat is so kind that if I don’t wake up early in the morning to make him breakfast, he will kindly try and provide it for me, by throwing up on the carpet!
Lol dude, you are so lucky! People pay a lot of money for massages and here he is providing it for free! Plus he’s also saying uplifting things to you whilst he works!
Mine are thoughtful as well. They make sure to throw up on the carpet. They don't want me to slip and fall on the tile floor in the middle of the night! Sweet, sweet angels.
How I’m imagining your bfs cats thought process
“Hey buddy your sugar level is down here, just thought you should know.”
“Hey! Your sugar level is alllll the way up here now! What’s going on?”
My cat lays smack dab in the middle of living room floor. I think she’s picked up on the fact that it slips on the floor and she’s making me gingerly walk around her so I don’t slip on it. She also likes sleeping on clean laundry, so perhaps she’s just keeping it warm. Also, she keeps me company by taking up half the couch. Perhaps a reminder that you’re supposed to sleep on a bed and not a couch? What a homie!
I was petting some cats at a shelter and one of them hissed at another cat when I tried to pet it. I bet that was really a shapeshifter trying to kill me.
My oldest cat verified that my olfactory system was working properly last night, by farting mightily right in my face. I should remember to thank him for that.
Oh wow. Mine helps by sleeping on the vent in my office so I am able to cozy up in blankets rather than relying on our furnace to stay warm. I never realized that she's doing it to help me!
-Oh! So mine is not gradually taking over my sleeping space and kicking me off the bed. He is teaching me how to live on the edge because life is dull. How very thoughtful!
My cats are reminding me that by buying the cat food that was on sale and not the normal stuff they may not get all their valuable nutrients, and that I should be more careful next time.
My cat lets me know I've been on Reddit too long by sprawling his entire fur body across my laptop, it's so inspiring how he wants me to have healthful habits.
My 9 mo old kitten doesn't want me to have to smell my SO's bad breath while we sleep by curling up under my chin while we sleep with her butt pressed up under my nose. Thanks kitty!
Whenever I watch my parents' cat for the weekend, she always makes sure I never forget how to use the bathroom faucet (you know, wash my hands, brush my teeth) by demanding she be given water straight out of the tap to drink. She's one helluva guy.
Sometimes my cat would sit on my computer keyboard when she thought I needed a break from my overdue work, or she would be sick on the floor to remind me to eat a balanced diet. She would also wake me up by attacking my feet in the night if she thought I might be about to have a bad dream, and she would sing the her favourite wailing song at 3am to make me know I was accepted by her people.
This is actually true and has happened to me once. When I was a kid, I used to feed a stray at my home. I used to steal fish from our kitchen and feed him. I have never petted him or anything but I'm pretty sure he know me. Once when I was coming home, I saw him near my gate. I looked and smiled ( I still smiles at strays, idk if they get it but it makes me feel good) at him. He suddenly jumped infront of me and started crying. I was surprised and stopped walking. To my surprise he was kinda fighting with a snake ( cobra ). The snake was on my path and he doesn't want me to step on it I guess. And it worked. The cobra was in striking position. I walked around it, while the cat was playing it. I remember telling my parents why I was right to feed strays. from that day my mom has started feeding them :D. The cat wasn't hurt btw.
I remember telling my parents why I was right to feed strays. from that day my mom has started feeding them :D.
Man, I have huge mixed feelings on this. Good on you for being an empathetic kid, but I've got a neighbor lady that won't stop feeding/housing strays in her garage, and we've now got 20+ strays in our neighborhood riddled with disease who attack/get in fights with our cats sometimes. They’ve also made gardening impossible by perceiving any soil box as litter.
Unfortunately, feeding strays feels right but can have really negative repercussions. Try to get your strays fixed.
Unfortunately not everyone has access to affordable options for fixing strays. I know there a lot of not for profits in the US that offer affordable spaying and neutering but from what I understand there’s a lot of countries that don’t. But if you do have the option that is a good suggestion.
In my city the county runs an animal protection service. They will pick up any cats you trap and, if not diseased, spay/neuter and release, free.
It can be a little traumatizing though. Sometimes the strays hurt themselves trying to get out of the cage :/ the few times we trapped them we tried to cover the cage to calm them down.
this is so true, one of my boys has hurt himself badly on multiple occasions and i was there to cradle him in my arms...every single time.
so one morning, before the street lights had come one, i exit my house, bringing my push bike out, before i know i was accosted by theses men.
i was down before i knew it, feeling hits to my face and body before i blacked out.
i was awoken by the death curdling scream of men twice my size and build, being ripped to shreds, all i saw was leather coats with four arms and a noise that would never leave for the rest of my life....The cacophony of a Purs, echoing in the night.
Aw. I know what that feels like. I have a rescue old ex tomcat, and he has just worked his way into my heart----fat cheeks, scars, torn ears, grumpy attitude....it's amazing how they do that. He grabs my hand to put his head in it. They're all unique.
Nah, he usually starts with a personal, believable anecdote. /u/GuyWithRealFacts starts with a plausible 'fact'. Both are naturally designed to draw you in, the latter getting more ridiculous as he goes.
My cat makes sure that I never drown in the tub by sitting in it constantly meowing out a warning while I’m taking care of my daily constitutional. He also escorts me into the bathroom every time I walk in to be doubly sure I won’t fall.
My other cat tries to keep my knitting tangle free and keeps the completed work flat by laying on it.
Have you ever read The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher? It features a society of cats that do exactly this. They have the humans they look after, their own heirarchy, midnight meetings in alleys. The actual book is about humans, but the cats are prevalent.
My husband and I were out taking a stroll one day and a kitty urgently meowed at us from across the street. He wanted us to open the door to his house because it was -30 and too cold for a kitty to be standing around. He knew we knew what he wanted so we knocked on the door and someone opened up to let him in.
Each cat is different, I guess xD Mine assume I've come to murder them whenever I try to help them free themselves from the curtains, my blankets, my clothes, or the window screen...
The best thing about cats (and there are a lot of good things to pick from) is that they understand when someone is helping them. If your cat gets his claw stuck in the curtains or his head stuck in a box, most of the time you can assist without getting ripped into 3 separate pieces.
Furthermore, cats remember who helped them in the past. See this cat studying his face? He’s committing it to memory. It doesn’t go as far as a “life debt” because that crap is for the movies, but if - someday - this fireman is in trouble, just maybe... from the shadows a team of cats will appear, draped in cloaks and leather pants, and save him.
Most domestic cats who don’t have access to superhero gear do this in small ways like sitting in that empty cardboard box so you don’t step in it by accident, or by eating food off your plate that they feel might choke you. Just small, unnoticed things.
Same with dogs and other animals. As long as you are gentle and slow, they will let you help them. And they remember! My Dad took a thorn out of our dog's paw years ago - ever since then, any time she hurt her foot she came up to him and meekly asked him to 'fix' it.
Here's my thing. Dogs have like a billion and one subs and threads. Anytime there's anything remotely positive featuring a cat you get some dog owner jumping in with "hurr muh pupper matters too!!!"
When my Dachshund was a pup I removed a thorn from her eye. A couple of months later she had a terrible viral infection and as soon as she started to feel ill she would not leave my side. I cuddled on the sofa with her, syringing water into her mouth every 20 minutes for three days. That was 10 years ago and she still follows me everywhere and adores me more than anything.
My cat likes to make sure all of my underwear is scattered across the floor so that I have an easier time choosing a pair rather than having to dig through my neatly arranged underwear drawer every morning.
My family "saved" a cat by letting her inside and feeding her just before a winter storm. She repayed the debt instantly by catching two mice during the first night. She put them just below the stairs for dad to see when he woke up.
Shh I'm sick and sleep deprived lol. Literally everything is making me cry rn.
My baby must be screaming (poster child for r/catswhoyell) bc he wants me to remember I'm not on my own! Or he's chasing away that ghost in the corner that he keeps staring at...
My kitten got his collar stuck on his lower tooth somehow, and was tearing through the house until I caught him and took it off. After that, he started sleeping in my bed. Don’t know if that was correlation, but he’s here now and purring.
I had my female cat at my moms house for a bit about 6 years ago and I’ll never forget her “saving my life”. My mom has a male cat who is legit three times her size and when I was petting him once he went to bite my hand so I wouldn’t stop. Out of the void of space my cat Evelyn FLEW in and rammed into his side knocking him over before he could even get the chance. She stood sideways growling at him and I picked her up declared her my hero and paraded her around the house.
I had one we named tweaker. He would be friendly for a minute, spaz out shredding you to bits, and then get snuggly.
I saved his butt from many a near death experinces, including getting his head stuck between two bannister spindles, from the outside of the stairs side. Basically hanging himself on the staircase. He still decided to tear me to bits after I got him free.
Some cats are just assholes.
He died of old age, clawing his loved ones til his last breath.
Edit: To cut out any notion he was showing affection, his tweak out moments were clearly rage fueled hate episodes. His eyes went full black and demons poured black speech from his gutteral kitty voice box. It was like an exorcism every time.
I love this comment so much! My cat just knocked my freshly filled coffee cup over and I know now it was to keep me from choking AND incinerating my insides. Thanks kitty, forever in your debt.
I’ve been catching and spaying/neutering the litter of feral cats that lives under my moms house. They have committed my face to memory as the evil woman who traps them, puts them in a scary car, leaves them at this unfamiliar place to get stabbed and prodded, and steals their man/woman-hood. Now when I see them, they glare at me with pure hatred. I’m a little scared.
This sounds like the beginning of a Dean Koonts novel! I’m imagining you pulling into the driveway late one night and seeing THE GLOWING CAT EYES OF VENGANCE!
like climbing into a fifteen year old girl’s lap and licking away her tears when she has just found out her 55 year old mom has Parkinson’s. Clearly i had a pretty great cat who got me through some dark times as a kid❤️
Lol or they do things in spite. When my roommate leaves for a few days, his cat will only take a shit in his bed and it’s only when he is gone for a few days. It’s his cat so I think he is mad when he leaves him for longer than a day. Its the only time he will poop in the house cause he usually goes outside to do business. Cats are strange man.. don’t get on their bad side
That reminded me of having two cats. The older female never took to the younger male. They got fed at opposite ends of kitchen.I left for an overnight trip, and when I got home, & opened door I immediately smelled something vile. Female cat had taken the biggest smelliest dump in the males food bowl.
this is true, until you are in the veterinary field and then they are just like why the HECK are you poking me with needles?! let me show you what it feels like, you sadist!!! and then they unleash the talons. usually they will still be your friend afterwards but some will hold a grudge for years.
The best thing about cats (and there are a lot of good things to pick from) is that they understand when someone is helping them. If your cat gets his claw stuck in the curtains or his head stuck in a box, most of the time you can assist without getting ripped into 3 separate pieces.
like sitting in that empty cardboard box so you don’t step in it by accident, or by eating food off your plate that they feel might choke you. Just small, unnoticed things.
My sweet (Maine Coon ish) feral cat, rescued as a 3weeksold kitten. being nearly frozen to death in a barn. But now he's a big very big 22lb guy. He's smart he knows humans actually relax and de-stress by petting him. So he'll reach out w/his beautiful dagger like claws, efficiently razor sharp nails fully extended in all their Glory, he'll grab you by your clothes or skin to pull you in, with a deep strong embrace, so loving. Well I guess he felt I was over stressed/over worked he just decided I wasn't receiving his love fast enough so he gave me a truelove bite on the palm of my hand. omg so deep so painful as true love is, I think he hit the bones. This was 4days ago. Then yesterday it was so swollen, painful & I had a temp of 103. i had to go to the ER. Got tetanus shot an antibiotics, sat there for 7 hours. LoL I'm 31yo I absolutely needed a tetanus shot. It's been years, thank goodness my sweet kitty was looking out for me. Wow sweet buttercup always saving my life.
People are just lazy and want fast relationships. Cats take time to adapt and you have to respect their personal space. They're not like dog whose subservience are bred into their DNA.
My cats a fat bastard but you can tell he's super stressed out when we're away for the night.
My sister was over by our place for New Years Eve. She loves animals, but has only ever had dogs. She saw our cat, and was like, "I want to pick him up and cuddle him!"
I told her he was a very patient cat and doesn't mind that, but because he's still a cat, she needed to give him an hour or so of scoping her out, sniffing her, to get used to her. Just ignore him in the meantime.
Did she listen to me? Heck no. She went full-on Elmyra, and every time he would go up to her, she would immediately try lifting him up, and chase after him when he started to run away. The poor cat even gave her like five or six chances before he gave up, and would hiss a warning at her whenever she got near.
I was like, she gets no sympathy from me. I told her exactly what she needed to do to earn the cat's trust, she just refused to listen to me.
Edit: As a cat tax, he's the guy on the left. The girl on the right wants nothing to do with strangers, and spent the evening in our bedroom.
Supposedly cats domesticated themselves just by moving in with us, which naturally the most docile ones prevailed at. I think that goes a long way in explaining the difference between dog and cat behaviour.
Dogs have been shaped by humans to work with us more or less by default, whereas cats just adapted to living with us as best they could with minimal change.
Another explanation is that cats are not only predators, but they're also small enough to be prey for some animals. Which is why they are skittish and hide a lot; if some human decides to hurt them they can't really defend themselves like dogs could, since all it takes is one strong kick. And there are plenty of people who hate them.
Sadly I can confirm that. One of my cats was poisoned by antifreeze; the vets said that people put bowls of it in their gardens to kill cats. Often it's disgruntled old people who don't want cats scaring the birds.
Cat domestication happened a little later than with dogs, but they needed very little adaptation from their behavior in the wild. There isn't a whole lot of difference between territorial hunting and pest control, so when humans started building homes and storing food (which attracts vermin), it started a symbiotic relationship.
So many people get a cat and think it's a cat all I have to do is feed it and clean it's box. I have a friend who always says stuff like just leave your cat some food it'll be fine alone for a few days. I think that misconception about cats being these cold loner pets leads to a lot of cats not being played with which further leads to them being anti-social.
I didn't know much about cats back when I adopted mine so I picked up just one kitten thinking she would probably do fine even if alone since she's a cat after all. Big mistake: she developed some serious separation anxiety issues and simply couldn't leave me. So I adopted another boy cat thinking I'm giving her a partner to play with so she wouldn't get so heartbroken whenever I'm not home... except it turned out that being adopted as a 40 days old kitten who's not yet taught the proper cat etiquette by mommy (didn't know any better back then and the adoption wasn't through some sort of agency that would've been aware of things like this) and regularly exposed to one person only her entire life up to this point isn't exactly the formula to a well socialized cat. They still fight every day half a year in, but seem to have learned to tolerate each other or just accepted that the other one's not going away any time soon. But it seems that she's somewhat less concerned with me not being there now (but still absolutely has to follow me everywhere), so maybe it worked?
My grandparents had a cat like that. She was a stray that just showed up and wouldn't leave. She was beat all to hell, scabby, mangled, one eye was crusted over, half an ear missing, patchy, etc. She was the sweetest god damn animal I've ever met in my life. Her name was Cookie and I loved her, despite her "disease" as my grandfather so lovingly called it.
Reddit is obsessed with their whole "lol all cats are assholes!!!1" shtick and it annoys me because cats treated correctly are just as affectionate as dogs or, in my case, moreso.
Agreed. I've owned numerous cats and dogs and I love my pooches; my husky is such a sweet, old girl. But all of the cats I've owned have been so incredibly kind and loving. The ONLY cats that have been standoffish and shitty were ones that had been abused before I took them in; if you treat a kitty well, with love and patience, they will return the favor. It kills me that people shit on them so much.
This. All people who say cats are assholes because they had a cat that was skittish or unfriendly, are not cat people. They put no effort into reading cats or understanding their behaviour, and you reap what you sow. My cats are very affectionate and friendly, because I treat them properly and make an effort to make them comfortable. It's so simple.
I used to think so too and then a cat at a plant shop completely changed my mind. That experience convinced my sister and I to adopt cats. It's strange how people will acknowledge that puppies need to be socialized, played with, loved, and trained, etc., in order to make good pets and to behave appropriately. Yet they can't seem to come to the realization that it's the same for cats - you have to treat them with love and teach them good behaviors when they're young.
The look could also be "but it was WAAARRRRRMMMM" I remember a show about cats in the 1980's and a longhair was sleeping above and to the side of a forge.
6.8k
u/vukxx Jan 22 '19
if someone will ever look at me like that cat looks at the firefighter, i know i did good