Is there a serial killer in your home? Or is your cat just an extrovert? | Celia Haddon

I assumed all cats liked to hunt, but there's growing evidence of a wide range of feline personalities

Seeing the happy face of my cat, William, at the catflap used to make my heart sink. Usually, a limp body would be protruding from his mouth. Worse still, sometimes the corpse was struggling, resulting in William chasing the luckless mouse or young rat around my kitchen for half an hour or more. For me, this was the dark side of cat ownership.

Yet, apparently it was also a sign that I had a cat with an extrovert temperament, with confidence in the safety of his home territory, according to a new study. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that cats have different personality traits, just like humans.

Celia Haddon is the co-author, with Prof Daniel Mills, of Being Your Cat: What's Going on in Your Feline's Mind

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