| For cats, life in close proximity with humans (and | | | | or inscrutability as well as aloofness and |
| other animals kept by humans as pets) amounts | | | | self-sufficiency. However, cats are not generally |
| to a "symbiotic social adaptation" which has | | | | as asocial as that stereotype, and indeed can be |
| developed over thousands of years. The sort of | | | | very affectionate towards their human |
| social relationship cats have with their human | | | | companions, especially if they imprint on them at |
| keepers is hard to map onto more generalized | | | | a very young age and are treated with consistent |
| wild cat behavior, but it is certain that the cat | | | | affection. Some breeds like Bengal, Ocicat and |
| thinks of humans differently than it does other | | | | manx are known to be very social by instinct. |
| cats (i.e., it does not think of itself as human, nor | | | | Regardless of the average sociability of any given |
| that humans are cats). This can be seen in the | | | | cat or of cats in general, there are still any |
| difference in body and vocal language it uses with | | | | number of cats who meet or exceed the |
| humans, when compared to how it communicates | | | | negative feline stereotype insofar as being poorly |
| with other cats in the household, for example. | | | | socialized. Yet with proper training and |
| Some have suggested that, psychologically, the | | | | reinforcement of positive social behavior, poorly |
| human keeper of a cat is a sort of surrogate for | | | | socialized cats can become more social over time. |
| the cat's mother, and that adult domestic cats live | | | | Older cats have also been reported to sometimes |
| their lives in a kind of extended kitten hood. | | | | develop aggressiveness towards kittens, which |
| The typical negative stereotype of a cat | | | | may include biting and scratching; this type of |
| describes a "solitary" animal, prone to opaqueness | | | | behavior is known as Feline Asocial Aggression. |