{"id":1111,"date":"2016-03-14T04:09:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T12:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2016-03-14T04:09:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T12:09:43","slug":"mindful-monday-can-cats-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1111","title":{"rendered":"Mindful Monday\u2014Can Cat\u2019s Think?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lily

Lily talking up the Klepto Cat Mystery books<\/p><\/div>\n

Just how does a cat\u2019s mind work? Do they think things through or do they rely totally on instincts? Are they a thinking being or is it all conditioning? When they take action (stalk a bird, go out through the doggie door, playfully attack another resident cat, climb up into your lap) is it thought-driven or impulse? Do they operate from thoughts or instincts? Is there a difference? And what does it matter?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how much time scientists have spent studying the cat, but in the articles and reports I\u2019ve read, researchers often admit they don\u2019t really know much about the domestic cat. Maybe that\u2019s because cats are complex.<\/p>\n

Think about it, they know how to calculate distance before leaping up on the counter top or leaping when you toss a paper wad. They know when it\u2019s meal or treat time as if they have a built-in clock. Do they get cues from us\u2014they know that when you walk in the door from your workday it\u2019s time for a treat? Ours seem to take clues from the TV. When the news comes on, it\u2019s close to dinner time and they start preparing us so we\u2019ll remember to feed them. Our cats don\u2019t embrace the daylight savings time thing, especially this time of year. They tend to want their meals according to the old time.<\/p>\n

Most cats figure out the routine in a household. They notice that the people get up at a<\/p>\n

\"Lily

Lily Meets Her First Balloon<\/p><\/div>\n

certain time most days and that they get fed shortly after. But what if their person sleeps in? If a cat owns you, you know darn well what happens. The cat won\u2019t stand for you to get extra Z\u2019s. She demands that you stick to her routine. If her sweet prrrts and gentle face nudging doesn\u2019t get her what she wants\u2014breakfast\u2014she might resort to dive bombing, clawing, and a little noise-making. Lily, for example, bats the blind cords so they clink against the wooden blind slats. Or she\u2019ll knock something off the dresser. Crash!!! Yeah, that\u2019ll wake me up. For those of you who are new to cats, beware of what you set on your headboard. If you do something that doesn\u2019t please the cat\u2014like try to sleep in\u2014he\u2019s liable to knock that antique lamp or heavy alarm clock onto your head.<\/p>\n

\"CoverCats have been known to save their families from a burning house. Some have alerted another family member when someone\u2019s in trouble. Is that an instinct or does the cat actually know more than we give them credit for? Our cats seem to understand what we say; or is it what we think? I\u2019ve had some incredible experiences using mind-talk with animals. I included these stories in my first cat book\u2014a book of true cat tales, Catscapades<\/em>. Available at Amazon.com or here, in case you\u2019re interested. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are a couple of new true cat stories I\u2019ve heard lately. Gumby is a huge cat belonging to a friend of mine. He lives with a couple of smaller females who tend to fight a lot. Lately, when he\u2019s had enough of their carrying ons, he\u2019ll break up the fight and walk one of the cats away\u2014to cool off, perhaps.<\/p>\n

I read a cute story on the Internet just yesterday. A gentleman adopted a cat from the streets. He already had several cats in his home and this one, we\u2019ll call Tommy, eventually adjusted and even figured out how to get more of what he was enjoying. Every morning, the cats lined up for petting. Well, it didn\u2019t take Tommy long to learn that if he went to the front of the line, he\u2019d be petted first. It worked for him. But pretty soon, that wasn\u2019t enough for Tommy cat. He was an observant guy and he did love the petting ritual\u2014so much so that he started a new routine. After he received his petting at the front of the line, he\u2019d move to the back of the line and get even more attention. At this writing, who knows, he might have figured out a way to slip in between each pair of cats for triple or quadruple the affection.<\/p>\n

Do cats think? What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just how does a cat\u2019s mind work? Do they think things through or do they rely totally on instincts? Are they a thinking being or is it all conditioning? When they take action (stalk a bird, go out through the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1113,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}