Cat Behavior - Why Do Cats Favor People Who Hate Them?

By Brian E Hill
It is hard for us humans to understand cat behavior which can seem very strange and weird. Like all animals, they want food and water, and all cats like a clean litter tray and will try to get our attention when they have a need, but why do they do so many other weird things? For example, why does your cat always want to jump onto the lap of a friend who hates cats, even when there are lots of cat lovers in the room who would just adore for it to be fussed by them?

The reason is linked to another typical aspect of cat behavior. Have you noticed your cat rubbing up against furniture and pushing its head inside things like cartons and spaces? When cats go into a new place for the first time, or into a room that has just been redecorated, they will brush along the walls and go all around behind and under everything as if they are curious to see what is in all the hidden spaces in your room.

In fact they are not being curious at all. What the cat is doing is putting its saliva on the objects in the room, so that its scent is on them. This makes it clear to it and any other cats that the room is your cat's territory and those objects are part of it. In cat terms, your whole house and everything in it belongs to the cat. So why don't you see the cat licking everything? Because it doesn't need to. A cat spends so much time licking its fur, that rubbing its body against something is enough to transfer its saliva and scent.

For the same reason it will rub against any strangers who come into your house, and do the same to you if you have been out any place where there were other cats. It seems like it is welcoming you home, and it is, in a way. It is making you its property again. You may sometimes feel that your cat owns you instead of the other way around. Your cat would agree wholeheartedly!

This is why cats seem to target people who have pet allergies or don't like cats. Your cat wants to make all of your visitors belong in its house by giving them its scent. Most people will happily let it rub around their legs as soon as they walk in the door, or stroke it or let it lick their fingers, and its job is done. Those people have been accepted and it can ignore them for the rest of their visit, unless they wash or change their clothes. But people who are allergic will avoid the cat, and so the laws of cat behavior require that it keeps on trying to get close to them!

That is the reason that cat seem to love people who hate them!

Brian Hill is a life-long lover of animals, and having had cats as pets for all his adult life, he is particularly knowledgeable of them. His last cat died a few weeks ago after a long (20+ years) life, and by caring for all the cats that he has had, he is very familiar with their habits, and especially of how to care for them. He has a website http://mycatcarestore.com where he has a variety of items that are especially geared towards the better care of cats.

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