Look…nibble, crunch, crunch: Fluffy wants you to do WHAT?

Cats are amazing creatures whether you love them or hate them. Undeniably they have interesting and diverse personalities. So why is it that they vie for our attention to watch them eat? I don’t find it all that interesting… nibble….crunch… crunch… then a head turns to check to see if I’m still watching… Yes… I’m still here. So, it’s ok to go back to eating. What’s the big deal with Fluffy anyway? I love my cat (and many of you cat lovers know what I mean when I say mine are my fur babies).  I don’t mind watching them eat, except when I trying to get the laundry done, make supper, or I’m done peeing and I want to leave the bathroom. There are a couple schools of thought I am going to share (and no it’s NOT to have YOU watch them eat).

When cats eat, they are vulnerable. They are giving their nibbles their full, undivided attention. If we go looking back over the evolution of the domesticated cat, we’d see that their predecessors had to be on guard for predators (hyenas and such) that might come and steal their dinner. To some degree this may have been bred out of the common housecat but just how would you breed cats over the years to purposely eliminate this seemingly instinctual quality. You can breed for different colors and qualities (such as long hair, no hair, etc). Look at the Goldendoodle which is a growing trend among designer dogs. They don’t shed (which they got from the poodle side), they have the body of a Golden Retriever, and seem to have a laid-back attitude.

We have managed to tame cats to coexist with the family dog, but I don’t think our ancestors all the way back to the Pharaohs said “Hey, I want to breed cats to make them want to have us watch them eat.”  If they did, well… I’m sure there was a special place for them 😉 because everyone would have laughed.. or at least thought them crazy.

To some degree, this is a cat’s instinct to want you to “have their back” while they tend to chowing down on some measly morsels. I take that as an honor that my little furry friend would trust me enough to protect them and keep them safe while their guard is down for chow. But not all cats need your guard services – not even in the same house, litter, or cat clan. I don’t think instinct is the all-encompassing answer. There has got to be more.

Some would think that having you watch your little kitty eat is due to loneliness. I know several cats that travel independently and some wish for me to watch them eat their nibbles from the bowl in the barn, while others run when I get near their bowl. They aren’t the elusive cats that don’t crave human interaction, they just don’t want me to watch them eat. So could loneliness that some cats feel become a trigger to vie for the attention of their owner to observe their dinner? I don’t know. But if this is the case, again, I don’t think it would be the all-encompassing answer as my fur-babies shouldn’t (in my observation or opinion) need to feel lonely.

I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of humans to animals in science.

Yes, animal psychology is REAL and it’s AMAZING.

When a kitten is born, it is fed off the teat of its mother. Mom then shows the young kitten how to play, how to kill, and what is better to eat. Cat socialization is much like human socialization in the fact that our parents raise us and by providing the clues to how to be a ‘good person’. So how to be a good cat is taught by mother cat and instinct. So as wild cats (you know… the really BIG cats) kill and feed their clan off the carcasses of the dead wildebeest, a house cat doesn’t always eat in company. So we can say to some degree that cats may have accepted us as part of their clan and dinner time for some is a shared experience (even if you are only the observer).

Any school of thought could be true but not the only answer. I looked through the annals of animal psychology and specific experimentation and observation on the subject eluded my query. We may not all agree that it’s the cat’s vulnerable state, a feeling of loneliness, or animal socialization. One thing that we can agree is that as a cat owner, it doesn’t happen at the most convenient time.

Love for our cats and the way we somehow become ‘momma/pappa cat’, we in turn bond with our pets like family. So we end up gladly watching, petting, and reassuring our furry loved ones that no matter how interesting and diverse their personalities are, we are there to protect and to ‘have their back’. It is the least thing we can do to increase the quality of life for them, since they do SO MUCH to increase the quality of ours.

Thanks for reading. I’d LOVE <3 to hear YOUR cat-tales….

~Sue 🙂