

Cats Adore, Manipulate Women - guyr
http://news.discovery.com/animals/cats-humans-pets-relationships-110224.html

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orangecat
Cats are tiny hackers: curious, nocturnal, not fans of authority. The one
purring on my lap right now has figured out how to open every door that it's
physically possible for her to, and has trained me to throw rubber dice down
the hall on demand so she can chase them.

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rdtsc
> has trained me to throw rubber dice down the hall on demand so she can chase
> them.

That's just the first step in the process. Next step is for her to throw
rubber dice down the hall and train you to chase them ;-)

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jacques_chester
The final step is to get him to both throw and chase the rubber dice by
himself, with occasional side-trips to open tins of tuna.

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RyanMcGreal
As the Crazy Cat Lady of my family, I can attest to this.

> Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later.

The reverse is also true: an affronted cat will hold a grudge.

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groby_b
Yes, yes they will. And an "affront" includes leaving the house for longer
than the time to the next feeding :)

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lkozma
Isn't that a contradiction? Or the cats can feed themselves, they just hate
eating alone? :)

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dan_netwalker
Preciselly. It's like they enjoy the background noise.

Either that or they hate opening cans of food by munching them :P :D :D

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moe
_If owners comply with their feline's wishes to interact, then the cat will
often comply with the owner's wishes at other times._

I would change that to "might generously consider".

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araneae
Funny, but this point is actually quite interesting since it's an example of
inter-species reciprocity:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(evolution)>

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Umalu
I wonder how much of the cat/woman attraction is fueled by the transmission
from cat to woman of the toxoplasmosis parasite? There's been speculation that
the "crazy cat lady" is really manifesting symptoms of toxoplasmosis:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html)

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araneae
Probably not much at all. Toxoplasmosis wouldn't explain a sex-biased result.
Additionally there's no good evidence that the parasite affects human
cognition.

Something much more simple is likely going on. In all likelihood cats are more
like brood parasites (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite>).

They're about the same size as a human infant, have faces with juvenile
features (i.e. are "cute") and mine wakes me up at 2 hour intervals at night
asking for food.

Basically they're furry babies.

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Alex3917
"Toxoplasmosis wouldn't explain a sex-biased result."

Then why does Toxoplasmosis affect men differently than women?

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hanshasuro
"cat aficionado women" has to be the euphemism of the year.

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Evgeny
A link to the original study: "Factors influencing the temporal patterns of
dyadic behaviours and interactions between domestic cats and their owners"
[http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uploads/tx_ttmedienportal/f...](http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uploads/tx_ttmedienportal/files/Wedl_et_al._2010_Behavioural_Processes.pdf)

