Will you still need me, will you still feed me: Yes, your cat bonds with you

This video shows a seven-year-old male cat exhibiting strong attachment. Courtesy Kristyn Vitale/Oregon State University

It's a common stereotype that dogs bond strongly with their owners and are highly dependent on them, while cats are aloof and independent-and therefore exhibit weaker attachment to their humans. Cat lovers would beg to differ, and now there's some science to bolster our case. According to a new study by scientists at Oregon State University, most kittens and cats show a marked attachment to their owners or caregivers, especially when stressed, on par with prior studies involving dogs and human infants. And that bonding ability is likely one reason cats have flourished in human homes.

"Like dogs, cats display social flexibility in regard to their attachments with humans. I think a lot of people don't think about the fact that the majority of cats use their owners as a source of security when they're stressed," said co-author Kristyn Vitale. "We have this stereotype that cats don't depend on their owners. But it makes sense [that they would], because they are still living in a state of dependency in human homes."

There have been a number of attachment studies on human infants, primates, and dogs, usually involving tracking how the subjects respond after being left alone in an unfamiliar room for several minutes, followed by a reunion with their caregivers. Vitale designed her feline study along similar lines. She recruited local cat and kitten owners to bring their pets to OSU's Human-Animal Interaction Lab. They used both kittens (between 3 and 8 months old) and cats in the study, because they wanted to verify that attachment behavior persisted into adulthood.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments