Cats feel five basic emotions: Fear, Grief, Jealousy, Anger and Love. This is being proved by neurobiologists and behavior observationists in current research studies. What does this mean for the cat owner? As cat owners, we experience these kitty emotions first-hand. Science is just finally proving what we've always known.
When there is a storm or our cat awakens suddenly, she experiences fear. When a stranger comes into our home, when a dog chases our cat, she experiences fear. Every time the carrier comes out, Princess used to run for cover. She had such a traumatic trip to me, that she was totally traumatized each time she has to go to the vet. It's still hard to take care of her medical needs, but she is a lot better than she used to be. While a visitor cat was here last week, the carrier was in the living room in case he needed a place to hide or to find solitude. He never used it, and Princess stayed in a chair the whole time he was here. I'm sure she ate, used the litter box and such, but she wanted nothing to do with that cat or the carrier, so she hid. When I found her, I stroked her and scratched behind her ears while saying soothing, loving things to her. She still wouldn't move. She was afraid. She is afraid of thunder, fast moving feet, my recliner, strangers or friends who come to visit, being in the kitchen with me and many other things. She is terrified if I pick her up. She was damaged both physically and emotionally during her trip to me. I don't know all the things that happened, but I know enough that I give her a lot of space to heal.
A cat I know is grieving for his deceased person. That person was quite elderly when she passed. The cat seemed to do fine for a while, and then stopped eating; seeming to will himself to die. He is grieving. Cats become very attached to their person, and that person is as unique to the cat as the cat is to the person. There is a bond between them that is not duplicated by the best possible care. Cats grieve.
When I brought Princess into my home, Beasley was extremely jealous. He still is. Since my last trip out of town, he seems to be better, but he used to leave whenever she was getting scratches and cuddles. It even got so extreme for a while, that if he was on the bed and she jumped up, he would immediately leave. Now, he just turns his back so he doesn't have to watch. I think it has to do with a visitor cat we fostered for a few days on his trip to his new home. Beasley and Princess now know that we will occasionally have other cats come to visit, but that they are my family. They also missed me a lot, since I left with that cat, was gone overnight and came home late the next day - without the cat. In fact, the carrier is still in my car. I see no reason to bring it in.
Beasley and Princess feel love. So did Napoleon, Oscar, Squeaky, Simone, JinJin and Curious, Toni, Midnight, Scunch, Cabbit, Capone, Fatty Cat and Rugrat. These are just some of the cats I've known in my life, and they all loved me in their own way. The hardest to lose for me was Oscar, because he had been with me for thirteen years, and was so sickly his entire life. The other one I really miss is Squeaky. I felt such a responsibility to him because of what his life had been like before he came to me, that I really hated to give him up. In some ways, it was harder to give up Squeaky than to put Oscar down.
Cats get angry. They get vengeful and get even. Cats think. They are possessive, territorial, very emotional beings. They are usually pretty smart. I've met some not-so-smart cats, but they all survived kittenhood and made it into cathood. They learned how to eat, use the litter box, fight their littermates, clean themselves, and cajole humans into providing all the cuddling they wanted. So cats have some pretty neat mental skills. They are hard-wired and soft-wired to do some amazing things.
I know that cats have emotions. I know that you as a cat lover, know that they have emotions. Cats also dream. They whimper, hiss, twitch and growl in their sleep. I think that science hasn't caught up to this, yet. But, in all fairness, they have to satisfy objective empirical tests; and as cat lovers, we do not. We can take our subjective experiences and proceed as if things were the exactly perfect the way they are. I, for one, prefer my way to science in this instance. While I do like being validated by science; with cats, it is not really neccessary.
