Cat Sense Quotes

“Thus, the Church of Rome gave its official sanction to cruelty toward cats. Anyone coming upon a cat after dark was justified in killing or maiming it, on the grounds that it might be a witch in disguise.”
― John W.S. Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“By accepting our petting, cats are doing more than enjoying themselves: in their minds, they are almost certainly engaging in a social ritual that is reinforcing the bond with their owner.”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“Most cat owners nowadays expect their cat to live wherever the owners choose. Perhaps not fully understanding the cat’s need to form an attachment to its physical environment, owners assume that it is enough to provide food, shelter, and human company, and that if they do, the cat will have no reason not to stay put. In reality, many cats adopt a second “owner,” and sometimes migrate permanently.22”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“Mark Twain lightheartedly acknowledged that a purring cat might be conning him when he observed, “I simply can’t resist a cat, particularly a purring one. They are the cleanest, cunningest, and most intelligent things I know . . .”7 To say that cats are cunning probably overstates their mental abilities: they do not deliberately and consciously deceive their owners and each other through purring. Rather, each cat simply learns that purring under certain circumstances makes its life run more smoothly.”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“Feral cats are remarkably silent compared to domestic cats (except during fighting and courtship, notoriously noisy activities); in particular, such cats rarely meow at one another, whereas the meow is the pet cat’s best-known call. The meow is usually directed at people, so rather than being an evolved signal it’s more likely to have been shaped by some kind of reward. Cats need to meow because we humans are generally so unobservant.”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“Operant conditioning is not confined to deliberate training; it is one way that cats learn how to deal with whatever surroundings they find themselves in. Cats have not (yet) evolved to live in apartments; their instinctive behavior is still tuned to hunting in the open air.”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“If a cat falls out of a high-rise building or a tall tree, it has another trick available: forming a “parachute” by spreading all four legs out sideways, before adopting the landing position at the last minute. Laboratory simulations suggest that this limits the falling speed to a maximum of fifty-three miles per hour. This tactic apparently allows some cats to survive falls from high buildings with only minor injuries.”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet

“the male cat’s penis is equipped with 120 to 150 sharp spines, designed to trigger her ovulation (cats, unlike humans, do not ovulate spontaneously, but require this stimulus).”
― John Bradshaw, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet