Question: Why are cats so independent?

Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

Great question! I absolutely love cats! I think Carrie is right in that cats haven’t been domesticated in the same way as some other companion animals but i think even if you completely domesticated a cat (if that is even possible!) they would still be the same – self righteous killing machines! I always feel like my cat tells me when she should be fed, and when she should be picked up. The relationship is on her terms, and always has been with my other cats too. I think that is part of their charm though!

I just spoke to the girls in the office and they said that actually a few years ago (2007) it came out that cats chose to be domesticated – we didn’t even choose to domesticate them unlike we did with dogs! I just googled it and sure enough there was an article published in Science which shows that tabbies, Persians and Siamese cats went into Near Eastern settlements when agriculture first came about (12,000 years ago!)… and apparently they did it in the search of food not friends! Doesn’t surprise me one bit – it started on their terms and it is still on their terms 🙂 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/06/29/DI2007062900911.html

If you get chance have a read of this amazing article that was published in 2015 https://phys.org/news/2015-09-cats-independent-dogs.html – cats do love their owners really – sometimes they even miss them when they are gone!