Do cats have friends? It may seem like a foolish question, especially if you have one (or more) at home and you are used to always having them on you looking for cuddles and attention. Nevertheless Felines also have the fame of lonely and split animals: Where is the truth? This piece on The Conversationwritten in six hands by three experts of feline behavior, summarizes everything we know about the matter.
The best friend of man? First of all: as regards humans, there are a huge number of studies that show that cats are our “friends”, although obviously the definition of the term is a little vague. But we know that they are looking for our companyThe physical contact And they even develop a specific language to communicate with us. There is no doubt that cats can become our friends, in short.
Peer. The question is complicated when you are dealing with Two cats: the greater probability of making friends say several studies, exist When the felines are two females, they grew up together and share the spaces.
Things change a bit if we talk about sterilized cats: in this case they are The males who tighten the most lasting friendships, while females rarely get along.
Friendships outside the house. What has been said so far applies to domestic catsboth those who live exclusively at home and those left free to circulate. Those wildInstead? In this case, friendships are rarer, and cats they tend to avoid as much as possiblealso because in their body language there are few signs that serve to dilute the tension: if there are problems, the felines prefer to get away and avoid an escalation.
as a dog and cat. One last question that will be very close to a lot of people: and as far as Does it concern dogs and cats? The situation is less complicated than the stereotype wants: if you grow together, a Dog and a cat have excellent possibilities to develop a form of friendshipsleeping and playing together.
A bond that develops more often when the cat lives only at home: those who are free to circulate tend to have a more prudent relationship with dogs, who often meet outside the house and who do not always have friendly intentions.
