Many people wonder whether a cat can love or feel love. This is a well-founded question, as it is true that cats are not insensitive beings. They feel indeed almost all kinds of emotions: fear, joy, curiosity ...
Can a Cat Fall in Love?
But can we say that a cat is capable of love and therefore, can fall in love with his master or a fellow cat? We have examined the question for you ...
Love a human and indescribable feeling
In the vast field of feelings, love is considered the privilege of humans. In other words, only men would be able to feel and live love. However, the feeling of love remains one of the most mysterious and difficult to understand because it is impossible to describe with precision.
Nevertheless, it is conceived as a feeling of deep and lasting affection which, beyond the simple attraction, the physical feeling or the attachment, rests on mental and chemical constructions. It therefore necessarily implies a state of emotional awareness, an ability to perceive the world other than through one's senses or to appreciate things independently of the usefulness they may have.
This emotional state often goes hand in hand with more or less intense emotions such as joy, excitement, tenderness or attachment... which can be found in certain animals such as cats, but which we associate more with instinct. In fact, we consider that love is an emotion too complex for a cat to conceive it as such and, finally, to feel it.
It is sure that cats have a form of affection for their master
For the moment, it is difficult to prove that a cat can feel love for anyone. And so to say that a ball of fur is in love with its human would be more of an exaggeration or a metaphor at best.
What is quite certain, however, is that cats manage to develop and maintain a particular form of affection for their owner. A feeling of tenderness or warm and unconditional attachment that would be identical to the one that a dog can feel for its owner.
A disinterested affection that is not necessarily due to a physiological need.
Depending on the personality of the cat and the relationship it has with its human, this affection can be more or less marked, and some cats can even prove to be hyper endearing. Stories show that some cats who are strongly attached to their owners can travel thousands of miles just to find them, while others are so heartbroken after the death of their owners that they let themselves die.
Love between cats, instinct above all
If one considers that love is a fundamentally human feeling and that a cat cannot obviously fall in love with its master, it is not possible for this small being to feel love for one of its fellow creatures. Basically, there would be no love even between two cats.
Thus, the phenomenon of mating that could have been assimilated to the feeling of love or affection is in reality only an act dictated by their natural instinct. However, this is not unique to cats. It is generally considered that the sexual impulses present in all animals are primarily related to a need for reproduction and perpetuation of the species.
All the more so as the act of mating seems to be circumscribed to a very precise period, the so-called mating season or reproduction season. This corresponds to the moment during which the females are in heat or in rut and ready to be fertilized by mating with a male.
Contrary to popular belief, cats are not such lonely animals
While they are affectionate, our feline companions are also perfectly social. Whether living in the wild or in a domestic environment, cats exhibit well-developed social behaviors.
Cat Sociability in the Wild
In the wild, cats generally live in organized and structured groups. They bond, groom each other, may even share the raising of their young, and usually sleep close together. They do, however, tend to hunt alone.
The sociability of the cat in the family
The sociable temperament of our little felines is more perceptible within the framework of family life and is easily perceived in the emotional exchanges that they can show towards their masters or the different members of their family.
You will see this in signals such as the fact that he rubs his body against you to soak up your reassuring scent, or licks your body, his tendency to follow you everywhere and suffer from your absence, his ability to play with you or your children and many other signs expressing his well-being with you.
That said, his sociability is not limited to the humans who share his daily life, but extends to his ability to tolerate the presence of other animals in the family, and even to be friendly and welcoming to your guests.
Leave a comment