How To Have a More Social Cat

I believe that the best thing to do for a cat to help it be more social and friendly to humans is keeping the cat as a strictly indoor pet. This has the added benefit of keeping them safe from dangers that lurk outside. But I admit that while I like not worrying about whether they will get into bad things outside, I keep my cats as indoor cats because I am selfish. I want my cats around when I want to pay attention to them. As a result of this, I am awarded with having cats that actively seek out my company and attention.

This makes a lot of sense. Cats are more social creatures than their interactions with each other might seem to indicate. If the cats are kept inside, their human will become a much bigger part of their lives, and they will seek out their human for more interaction. They are naturally curious creatures, and if they are kept in the house, they will have more chances to be interested in the things you are doing.

I have three cats right now, and they follow me from room to room. One, named Monkey, is quite vocal, especially in the kitchen. My big tomcat, Braveheart, likes to talk to people when they are standing and he is on the ground, like when walking together in the hallway, if I reach down to scratch his back he will purr and frequently give me a meow or two. The third, a black selkirk rex named Bear, is rarely vocal, but even she will sometimes vocalize in the middle of a back scratching, or occassionally to receive food, if none of the other cats are around.

They are all good at purring, although the most vocal cat, Monkey, has the quietest purr, only barely audible, I usually need to feel near her throat or chest to see if she is purring. When cats are in groups, they often seem distracted by keeping track of what the other cats are doing. So I make sure that everyday I spend time to give each of them private time and a good reason to purr for a while. They will usually start purring just from my talking to them. Braveheart seems to really like when I go up to his cat tree, when he is at the top, and congratulate him on being such a good kitty and king of his cat tree. He likes this, he purrs very loudly in response. His expression really seems to say "Ah, respect! This is the life."

Cats are definitely keyed into the tone of your voice much more than the actual words. I was having problems the other day with a bank, and was having a heated discussion with them over the phone. I try hard not to get so upset with the customer service people, but what really took me aback was the scared look that Braveheart gave me as he was trying to look out a window that was next to me. I realized I needed to tone it down, and I spent some time reassuring him that he was a good kitty, he didn't do anything wrong. So just like with small children, we need to be careful about the unintended messages our tone of voice may be conveying to our cats.

Because of this extra attention, they reciprocate, and seek me out. When I wake up in the morning, they can't wait to come and get attention. Bear cat never likes to be held, but she enjoys laying on top of me in the early morning and purring at me.

I also spend a lot of time to throw their cat mouses to chase, and the most vocal cat, Monkey, will even play fetch with her mouse, since she learned if she brings it back to me, I'll throw it again for her to chase. In the course of playing this game, she has learned the word "toy", and gets very excited and vocalizes excitedly when I repeatedly ask "Where's your toy?". Many times, when I am in bed reading or working on my computer, they see me with my toys, and they will bring their toys to bed too.....

But I think the key to all of this is that they are always kept indoors, and given lots of attention on the terms that each of them likes. As a result, they are all quite bonded to me, and Monkey cat, who I raised from a kitten, is so bnded that she regularly tries to eat out of my bowl, even if I am eating vegetables, or vegeburger. It seems crazy to me to have a cat that likes corn, or a cat that likes vegeburger! She really seems to think if I am eating things, they must be good for her to try. Of course I probably got this started when she was a kitten by bringing home chicken mcnuggets where I would eat the breading, and let her eat the meat.

Most visitors to my house are impressed with how my cats will seek them out. They don't respond to visitors in the aloof way that visitors usually expect from cats. Monkey cat even likes to curl up in the lap of visitors and take a nap. I've had more than one visitor say "Wow, I don't really like cats, but your cats are really cool."