If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat.According to TraciSkene.com (that would be me), cats only control humans who are pussies.
Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.
This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.
I've owned two cats in my life (yes, PETA I said owned... I wasn't their companion, I was their owner) and I had no problem picking them off my face at 5 AM, opening the door and tossing them into the hallway.
Oh sure, one of them would take revenge by using the bathtub as a litter box but I attributed her bad behavior to stupidity rather than malice. Mostly because she would use the bathtub as a litter box even if she was fed on her preferred schedule. In fact, she thought I was the idiot for showering where she liked to go to the bathroom.
Dogs, on the other hand, will drive you nuts if they don't get their way. Canines have much more control over humans than felines because of their incredible talent for barking. I can ignore the plaintive purrs of a kitty but if a terrier yaps at me for ten minutes I will do anything-- anything-- to make it stop. Suddenly, I become the bad parent in the check-out aisle who buys a toddler a candy bar just to make the screams go away.
Most people are either cat people or dog people. I'm both... and neither. I love animals but I also love to wear black clothing that isn't covered in fur. Someday, when I stop traveling and start wearing baby blue polyester pants, I will own another pet. But I'll also own earplugs because no animal is the boss of me.
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