Unlike dogs, who were mostly domesticated by humans, cats are subtle when expressing how they feel. Hundreds of years of self-selecting for independent traits has left them with a language of love that\u2019s so mysterious, you could literally blink and miss it. Here\u2019s a little help for interpreting feline emotional behavior.<\/p>\n
Those meows are just for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ever noticed that dogs bark at other dogs, but cats only meow<\/span> at humans? That\u2019s right, your little introvert may not always want to interact, but cats went out their way as a species to communicate with you. Now that\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n They want you to smell like one of the gang.<\/strong><\/p>\n Cats have scent glands all over their body, including their head, and they make good use of them to create a group scent<\/a><\/span>. That means that everyone smells a little bit like each other, including you.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n They could pick your voice out of a crowd. And still ignore it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Just because they don\u2019t come running when you call doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t care. According to research<\/a><\/span>, cats looked more alert when their owners called them than they did for strangers. That\u2019s reassuring for the next time you try to coax them out from under the bed.<\/p>\n They actually do value your opinion.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a study<\/a><\/span> where cats were exposed to something unfamiliar, they looked to their owners to see how to react. The result? If your cat sees that you\u2019re not afraid of the scary vacuum, they\u2019re more likely to be ok with it too.<\/p>\n They\u2019d pick you over food. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s true. 50 adult cats, half of which were pets and half from a shelter, were given the choice<\/a><\/span> between food, a feathered toy, a scent or socializing with humans. And in the face of every cat stereotype imaginable, the top choice was time with their favorite human. Take that, tuna.<\/p>\n