Who's the better companion: cats or dogs?

[AlephZero]

If they would do that, they would rarely come back at all as the world is huge.

A cat-tracking experiment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22821639
Some results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567526

 

[ShayanJ]

Strange, the only one who voted for neither is me!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Strange, the only one who voted for neither is me!

Ban him! :D

 

[ShayanJ]

Ban him! :D

Does CatDog count? I assure you I like it!

 

[zoobyshoe]

If they would do that, they would rarely come back at all as the world is huge.

The tracking collars in AlephZero's link demonstrate most cats aren't comfortable going more than a few block from their home base.

Also:

For example, we saw cats going into houses other than their own.

Over the years I've had many visiting cats who are clearly not feral (well fed and people friendly) come into my place and check it out. One or two seemed to want to move in. I really think that if the food, accommodations, and company are more to their liking, they'll relocate without regrets.

 

[micromass]

The tracking collars in AlephZero's link demonstrate most cats aren't comfortable going more than a few block from their home base.

Which is exactly mfb's point.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Which is exactly mfb's point.

I'm pretty sure his point was that they're loyal to one owner.

 

[AlephZero]

Or, they have territories, and the size depends how many other cats are around.

I've seen a situation where two cats living in the same house had split it up into weirdly complicated territories with boundaries that are invisible to humans. Their owner had mapped out some of the boundaries, following the observation that moving one of their food dishes a small distance across the kitchen floor was guaranteed to start a cat fight.

 

[mfb]

I'm pretty sure his point was that they're loyal to one owner.

And the tracking data show several examples of that, at least within the precision of the GPS data.

 

[zoobyshoe]

And the tracking data show several examples of that, at least within the precision of the GPS data.

How does the data show loyalty? It shows them going into other people's houses.

 

[epenguin]

I was attacked by a pride* of cats once. Wel actually they went for my dog first. But I don't hold it against them. They are very nice in ones or twos, but a but snobbish, you never quite break into their world.


*i guess this must be the word since lions are cats, though I have never heard it used nor any other word for a bunch of cats.

 

[micromass]

How does the data show loyalty? It shows them going into other people's houses.

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human. Furthermore, they spend most of the time near of in the house of their human. So they do acknowledge that it is "their home". I would think that is loyalty.

 

[AlephZero]

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human.

You could argue that is selection bias in the experiment. If you set up an experiment by asking the humans who live in a village about their cats and whether they want to participate in it, you are excluding any cats in the area which no humans consider to be "their cat", or cats that have stopped visiting "their human" for a while for reasons known only to the cat (like the cat in my previous post that went AWOL for a year).

 

[zoobyshoe]

It shows that their territory is around the house of their human. Furthermore, they spend most of the time near of in the house of their human. So they do acknowledge that it is "their home". I would think that is loyalty.

Camping out in the vicinity of, and never straying too far from, an extremely reliable source of food, water, and shelter, shouldn't be confused with loyalty to a human. The fact is, cats always seem to be checking out alternate sources of necessities as well.

 

[mfb]

How does the data show loyalty? It shows them going into other people's houses.

If that would rule out loyalty, no human would ever be loyal.

See micromass.

You could argue that is selection bias in the experiment. If you set up an experiment by asking the humans who live in a village about their cats and whether they want to participate in it, you are excluding any cats in the area which no humans consider to be "their cat", or cats that have stopped visiting "their human" for a while for reasons known only to the cat (like the cat in my previous post that went AWOL for a year).

No one questioned the existence of cats without an owner (as seen by the cat or by humans). The discussion is about "do loyal cats exist".

 

[epenguin]

Camping out in the vicinity of, and never straying too far from, an extremely reliable source of food, water, and shelter, shouldn't be confused with loyalty to a human.

True - nobody says mice are loyal.

 

[zoobyshoe]

True - nobody says mice are loyal.

Right. Having a territory, for cats, is a matter of familiarity with the relative benefits and dangers of an environment, not a matter of loyalty to people. As a cat "owner" I have never been able to induce one of my cats to follow me more than three blocks from the house. They freak out and become fearful as the environment becomes unfamiliar to them, and eventually turn around and head back. Whatever affection they feel for me is over-ridden by their need to understand and be comfortable with their environment. A dog, on the other hand, will pretty much follow its owner into hell. A dog's territory often seems to be defined as some radius around their owner. A cat's territory, not.