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Dec 2, 201OWOMEN IN FUR

Dr Shamim Ali 1

TO MY ALL WOMEN IN FURAUTHOR: Dr Shamim Ali

ABSTRACTThis article of mine looks at feline feelings. In

places it compares or contrasts human and feline

responses or makes references to other animals

for illustrative purposes. Felines display a range

of feelings including pleasure, frustration and

affection. Other feline behavior is attributed to

jealousy, frustration and revengefulness. Owners

base their answer on observation of feline

behavior, but without an understanding of what

makes a cat tick, they risk crediting a cat with

emotions it does not feel as well as recognizing

genuine feline emotions.

KEY WORDS: Feline, Emotions, Human"Emotion" is the term we use for feelings, some of which are

instinctive and some of which are learned from those around us as we
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conform to society's expectations and norms. Human emotions range

from "primitive" feelings such as disgust, rage, fear and lust to

"complex" emotions compassion and jealousy. - Anyone who has lived

intimately with a cat knows: a feline has feelings. Those feelings are

more muted than those of a dog (no tail wagging or facial expressions

of guilt) and are less fraught than those of a human. But they are there

nevertheless, expressed in a flick of a tail, a blink and, of course, a

purr. That means we humans have a responsibility to think, treat and

talk about cats as living creatures deserving of respect. "I sometimes

make the mistake of calling a cat an 'it,' but it really is a he or a she," Ifocused my attention towards cats after hearing disparaging comments

leveled at them - that cats were aloof,shallow, unfeeling - usually by

those who were unexposed to their idiosyncratic kind of charm. I

started my research by adopting few cats to live with them and

their family in the backyard of my house.For a year I observed

these furry and beautiful creatures - how they behaved,

interacted with one another and with humans. From that I

determined there are nine emotions that play the greatest role in

the life of the cat; narcissism, love, contentment, attachment,

jealousy, fear, anger, curiosity and playfulness. My research

article illuminates these feline feelings. "I learned one particularly

amazing thing: We are important to them," Cat admirers need no

scientific evidence that the creatures they love return that

affection. Cats express emotions, but they are not necessarily

easy to discern. "Cats have very complex emotions. Recent

studies, especially in fields such as neuropsychology, show that

the more "primitive" or basic emotions have a physiological basis


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and may be caused by chemical stimuli or visual stimuli. Basic

emotions appear to cause chemical changes in the body in

response to a stimulus. Cats and humans are built much the same

way and share many of the senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste,

touch - as well as having additional "senses" which are

adaptations to our particular environments and lifestyles Though

humans have better vision, cats have better smell, taste and

hearing. Like us, cats feel heat, cold, pain and other physical

sensations. Physical stimuli may lead to physiological responses,

some of which are termed emotions. If humans and cats have

similar responses to, for example, the smell of enticing food, they

may share certain emotions e.g. happiness at the prospect of a

satisfying meal. We interpret their instinctive behaviors according

to our own wide range of emotions. We credit them with feelings

they do not have. Many of people living around me deny that

animals, including cats and dogs, are anything more than flesh-

and-blood "machines" programmed for survival and reproduction.

Some of them credit animals with some degree of emotional

response. Those who deny animals any feelings at all may do so

in order to justify animal experiments which others consider

inhumane. This denial of animal emotions allows them to conduct

experiments with little regard for their subjects' physical or

mental wellbeing.

Laboratory animals and animals in a wild (or domestic)

environment behave differently. They have different

surroundings. Their interaction with other animals and with


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humans is very different. Laboratory animals may have little

opportunity for social contact with others or their responses

may have been impaired through

Some animals are selectively bred for specific traits and

they may not exhibit "typical" or representative behavior.

Emotions cannot exist in a vacuum - they are (in part) a response

to external factors. Scientific methods do not like to have too

many variables. Scientists prefer to measure one variable at a

time. Unlike inanimate properties such as temperature or pressure

which are individually controllable in laboratory conditions,

emotions cannot be isolated. Environmental factors must be

manipulated in order to produce an emotional change. Individuals

may react in different ways to the same environmental change.

This makes the study of emotions in laboratory conditions

frustrating. To properly assess animal emotions, scientists and

animal behaviorists must study animals in the field or in the home.

The environment can be manipulated, but cannot be controlled

absolutely. What is important is how the animal behaves in its own

environment and how it interacts with its environment and with

others. The observer must interpret the behavior and decide

whether the subject is fearful, apprehensive, angry etc. To ensure

a consistent approach, the animal's behavior may classify

according to a shortlist of likely emotions or on a sliding scale for

a particular attribute e.g. fearfulness or curiousness. Similar

methods are used in assessing the behavior of very young

children. A growing number of farmers, particularly those in the


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organic sector, are recognizing the need for animals to express

instinctive behaviors. Although some stress is unavoidable in

farming, animals which suffer minimal stress may be more

productive, have better immune systems, be less prone to disease

and have a lower mortality (wastage) rate. This is even more

apparent in zoos and wildlife parks where environmental

enrichment and encouragement of natural behavior has led to

"happier" (less stressed) animals more likely to breed successfully

in captivity. THE FOUR BASIC BEHAVIOURS Animal behaviorists

recognize four basic behaviors which are found in most animals.

These are termed "The Four Fs". These are the four basic

instinctive responses which aid survival. Fight Flight (or hide)

Feed (predation or foraging) F*** (mate or reproduce) - the

crudity helps psychologists with the mnemonic.The hormone

adrenaline is a key player in these reactions. On encountering

someone or something, the most immediate instinct is "Do I run

away from it or stay and fight it? This is a self-preservation

reaction. If neither of those reactions is triggered, the next instinct

is "Do I eat it? Do I mate with it? If none of the 4 Fs applies the

animal may exhibit curiosity or simply ignores the stimulus as

irrelevant. These behaviors can be modified through learning or

conditioning. Cats will often ignore one another to avoid conflict. A

cat raised alongside a rabbit may no longer have a "feed" response

to that particular rabbit or to all rabbits. Pavlov demonstrated

conditioning (learning) in his famous experiments where dogs

were taught to associate a sound with the presentation of food.


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After a while, the dogs reacted to the sound even when food was

not presented. In humans, and probably in cats, these responses

have two parallel routes through the brain. The "quick and dirty"

route gives an instinctive, almost instant reaction. The "thinking"

route takes slightly longer and modifies the animal's reaction. Four

basic responses are sufficient for primitive animals. Humans, cats,

dogs and other more advanced animals need more than four basic

instincts if they are to cope with a rich and varied environment. A

complex environment requires a greater complexity of response.

THE BASIC RESPONSES In humans, there are basic responses

especially emotions which are rooted in our physiology. These

cause an instinctive response in our brains and bodies, not just in

our minds. These emotions are linked to particular brain areas in

humans or to hormonal or chemical responses. They are survival

responses to protect us from adverse conditions and to make us

seek out favorable conditions. Most are linked to our perception of

comfort and discomfort. It is likely that cats have equivalent

physiological responses to the same, or similar, stimuli. FEAR A

self-preservation instinct. Fear leads to alertness, caution and

possibly to flight. It prepares the body for flight or defense. Fear

is the recognition of a potential danger rather than the instinctive

(and possible energy wasting) flight from potential (rather than

actual) danger. Fear allows the animal to assess how real or

immediate the danger is and to take appropriate action (flight,

freeze, hide, disregard etc).

DISGUST


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In the human context, originally this prevented us from

eating contaminated food or coming into contact with filth. In

modern humans it is also applied to other stimuli (the thought of

doing something, an image or a situation). It is an avoidance

mechanism. In cats, whose livers are not good at dealing with

toxins, the avoidance of stale food is probably caused by a similar

mechanism. Cats rely on smell, taste and "disgust" to avoid tainted

food. DESIRE Associated with the basic mating urge without which

we would not breed. Desire is associated with pheromones and

body language; and causes chemical reactions in our own bodies

when we experience it. It is associated with mate-seeking,

assessment of a potential mate's suitability and courtship behavior.

SADNESS A form of psychological discomfort experienced in non-

ideal situations; it helps us to avoid non-ideal conditions. Humans

have a wide range of sadness-emotions varying from grief,

transient upsets and some forms of depression (a chemical

disturbance in the brain) have symptoms like sadness. Cats exhibit

depression in some situations and some cats have been reported

as "inconsolable" when a close companion dies. Separation anxiety

in cats and dogs may be partly due to the sadness mechanism.

HAPPINESSA form of psychological comfort/satisfaction experience. It

helps us seek ideal conditions or repeat beneficial behaviors,

chemical reactions are involved feel good chemicals are released

in the brain. In cats it is most often seen as "contentment" and is


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also evident in cats and kittens during play. Play is a self-fulfilling

behavior which produces "happiness" by release of feel good

chemicals.

ANGERA reaction to a non-ideal situation when we intend to fight;

chemical reactions occur in the body as part of the fight or flight

response. It can also result in displacement activities such as self-

mutilation. Cats which are handled against their will exhibit

obvious anger. Most vets are familiar with sheer feline fury though

it is hard to distinguish "anger" from the "fight" reaction. "Fight" is

relatively transient; anger (a bad mood) does not pass so quickly

(a cross cat will stay angry even when the stimulus is removed).

SMELL

A cat has an excellent sense of smell and can detect foodwhich is stale or contains medication. Though the sneer looks like

disgust (humans wrinkle their noses when disgusted), it is simply the

way the cat's mouth is set to pass scent molecules over .Cats show

fear and lust in response to the appropriate sights, sounds and smells,

but love requires a degree of abstraction which cats probably do not

possess. Lust is the mating urge, love is the emotional baggage which

surrounds and tempers that urge in most humans. Humans have a

wider range of emotions and the emotions which we share with cats

are more refined in the human species.

FRUSTRATION


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Frustration is what happens when a basic emotion cannot be,

or is not, fully expressed. It is generally viewed as an emotion in

itself rather than a displacement of the initiating emotion. The build-

up of physiological effects demands some sort of outlet. In cats there

may be displacement activities such as shrieking, stamping, tearing

vegetation (humans may cry in frustration) etc. These give alternative

outlets for pent up energy. Frustration is what we feel when we

cannot fully express ourselves or when the situation makes full

expression impossible, impractical or unsafe. For a cat living in a

human world there are many frustrations which it resolves as best it

can. Many are resolved through modifying other behavior through the

learning or conditioning process. Cats are highly adaptable but they

retain many wild instincts which need to be expressed e.g. hunting,

territoriality. Frustration is often associated with a state of agitation

or high emotion. Feline frustration is obvious when a cat watching

prey from behind a window chatters its teeth. The teeth chattering

are a frustrated form of the neck bit the cat would have used to kill

the prey. A cat which has lost a fight to another cat may lash out at

its owner or may flee from a familiar person. The cat's body is still

full of adrenaline and primed for fight or flight. Any approach from

even a familiar person may trigger a fear or fight response. Similarly,

it may attack other cats in the household. Female cats with a

frustrated maternal instinct may abduct and protect another cat's

kittens, other small animals or kitten-like inanimate objects such as

slippers. Cats are wild creatures at heart, designed and programmed

for outdoor life. In modern indoor cats, an owner must provide a


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stimulating environment to reduce feline frustration. Playing provides

an outlet for predatory behavior and produces satisfaction in return.

EMOTIONSThere are a number of other basic emotions which are

recognized in humans and in cats. These produce physiological

responses and are varying degrees of, or combinations of, the six

basic emotions. These include (but are not limited to):

STRESSStress results from continued unhappiness where there is no

escape from the stimulus. It affects the immune system, reducing

the immune response. Continued elevation of adrenaline adversely

affects other organs. Different animals have different stress levels.

Some cats are nervous and more easily stressed than others.

DEPRESSIONAlso a form of continue unhappiness including unhappiness due

to pain. The chemical effects in brain can lead to withdrawal to the

point where the animal loses the will to live. Depression can

override survival instincts.

EUPHORIAIt is hard to think of euphoria in cats unless you have

witnessed the effect of catnip. Not all cats are susceptible to catnip

high, but those that are exhibit a sort of drugged euphoria due to its

effect on the brain.


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ABSTRACT AND COMPLEX EMOTIONSAt present, the more abstract emotions are believed to be

human only. However, what we define as altruism, relief etc, may be

our rationalization of an emotion or a mixture of one or more basic

emotions. When owners say their cats are jealous, they are trying to

rationalize a feline emotion into human terms. Feline "jealousy" may

be a response to any number of stimuli - the cat seeking to better

its place in the household hierarchy or an opportunist or stronger

cat competing for food or attention. The cat does not rationalize it in

terms of "I am jealous of the other cat" or "I covet what the other

cat has"; its feelings will be more along the line of "I am stronger or

fitter than the other cat, I deserve to be dominant cat around here."

Cats are not as strictly hierarchical as dogs, but where several cats

live in a single household, they will establish a pecking order.

AFFECTIONCats show obvious pleasure in company of a familiar person,

often a modified cat/kitten relationship. The presence of a

companion/caregiver (surrogate parent) produces happiness (a basic

emotion)... In the domestic setting, most cats adopt a kitten role,

allowing us to groom them, play with them and provide food and

warmth.By demonstrating their happiness (which we term

"affection") they reinforce the cat owner bond and ensure a

continued supply of companionship and care. Mother cats show

affection towards their kittens. This is part of maternal care. Male

cats have been known to show affection to their mates and towards


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their own kittens this is similar to the behavior of lions towards

their own cubs (but not towards unrelated cubs).There is little doubt

that most pet cats enjoy the company of their humans and give

affection in return. Those who deny that cats can be affectionate

should analyze exactly what it is that makes humans affectionate.

The underlying causes of affection are actually very similar! GRIEF

Cats are aware that a familiar person/cat is absent and may search

for that person/cat. It may change an established hierarchy as well

as being the absence of a familiar companion. It is not grief in the

human term, but the sudden absence of something familiar is

distressing to many cats. The absence of a familiar part of the

environment causes sadness. The continued absence of that person

or thing can lead to stress. In the context of bereavement, this

stress is termed grief. As with affection, humans must analyze

exactly what causes and sustains human grief before arguing that

animals do not feel a comparable emotion. Grief is a reaction to the

sudden absence of something or someone which caused

happiness/satisfaction. The major difference is that cats show grief

for someone who has been a close companion while humans show

grief for a distant relative or at the death of a public figure. Cats

simply lack the abstraction (and the memory capacity) which allows

humans to grieve for someone we have never met or who has been

absent from our life for a prolonged period of time.

COMPREHENSION OF DEATH (BEREAVEMENT)


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Cat appears to comprehend a state of someone not being

alive body temperature changes, smell changes etc. Whether they

make the link between a corpse and someone previously alive is not

certain, but many cats stop looking for an absent companion after

being shown the body of a deceased companion. Therefore cats

probably have some comprehension that something dead cannot

become alive again. The display of grief in cats is due to the

absence of someone familiar. In humans it is, in part, due to the

realization that we will never see that person alive again i.e. to our

understanding of the permanence of death.

PLEASUREPleasure appears to be an abstracted form of

happiness/satisfaction which persists after the original stimulus has

gone or which is felt in anticipation of an event. In many contexts,

pleasure is a synonym for happiness/satisfaction. Pleasure can also

occur through memory and through anticipation.

SENSE OF HUMORThis is a tricky topic. The "smile" on a cat's face is due to

conformation of its muzzle. A cat "smiles" with its eyes and with its

tail. Observant owners soon learn to distinguish a cat's "happy face"

from its "sad face". Cats do not tell jokes (certainly not that we know

off) but they do engage in clownish behavior. A cat can suspend its

adult behavior and revert to kitten behavior. Scientists used to

believe that a cat playing with its own reflection in a mirror or with a

TV image is unable to distinguish an image from reality. Many still


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think that way. Pet cats learn very early on that reflections and TV

are "not real". This doesn't stop them making use of them as play

objects. Batting a moving object is instinctive. Batting a picture on a

TV is a safe outlet for hunting behavior, but the cat doesn't expect to

catch the object (unless it has never encountered the TV before).

Inexperienced cats and kittens expect to find the reflection cat behind

the mirror. When the image puffs its tail and hisses (albeit silently)

back at them, they may become startled. After a few unsuccessful

checks behind the mirror (and the lack of any scent of the "other

cat"), they accept the image as a plaything. Even experienced cats

will occasionally search behind a mirror or TV in case the pretend

prey has emerged from it. It doesn't really expect to find anything,

but it is always worthwhile checking just in case! Suspension of

disbelief in this way is sometimes considered to be the feline sense of

humor. It is an outlet for predatory behavior and it results in

happiness. Whether it is genuinely humor is debatable. Some of the

play tactics are interpreted as a sense of humor e.g. jumping out of

hiding at the owner or onto a cat companion. This is play and is

practice of the cat's ambush hunting technique rather than a practical

joke. cat which engages in clownish behavior has learnt that its

behavior results in a reward from the owner - food, attention,

physical contact etc. This reward leads to happiness/satisfaction for

the cat, therefore the behavior is repeated. If it is a sense of humor, it

is one which has been conditioned (albeit unwittingly) into the cat.

EMBARRASSMENT


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At first this seems like another tricky abstract emotion. A cat

which clumsily falls off a shelf and acts differently according to

whether the owner is watching or whether the owner is believed to

be out of sight is thought to be showing embarrassment..

Embarrassment in humans is associated with potential loss of face,

loss of status or loss of respect (these are all related, but modified by

culture and circumstances). The loss of status may be permanent or

temporary. A cat is not only a predator; it is also prey for larger

animals. In addition it is programmed to fight other cats for its

territory and for mates. If it shows any indication of weakness, it may

be challenged by a younger or fitter rival and ousted from its

territory. For this reason, many cats hide signs of illness, injury and

pain. A cat which has fallen off a shelf in plain sight will pretend the

event has not happened i.e. that it has not shown any weakness. A

human may make excuses for why a similar human mishap happened

(the ledge was icy or slippery); this is simply a human way of saving

face. Cats speak with their bodies and an "embarrassed" cat will most

often sit down and wash nonchalantly - cat speak for "nothing has

happened"!

JEALOUSY"The cat will be jealous of the new baby and harm it!" "My cat is

jealous of the kitten and keeps urinating on the bed!" Jealousy and

sulking are human emotions. A cat is protective of its territory and

defends it. Unless a newcomer is carefully introduced so that it is

accepted as a "family member", a territorial fight/flight response is


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triggered. Few cats respond to a new arrival with enthusiasm. We

must understand how a cat views the world about it and to understand

how it is responding rather than interpreting feline reactions as

human-like emotions. When a newcomer arrives, the owner's

attention is suddenly divided. The cat receives less attention. The

newcomer may receive a disproportionate amount of attention. There

are new smells and sounds and a bewildering change in routine and

environment.Its relationship with the owner changes. Things become

unfamiliar or stressful and the cat may become unhappy or

depressed. Urination on the bed (or elsewhere) is an attempt to scent

mark territory in an attempt to repel an intruder. By mixing its scent

with the owner's scent, the cat is saying "My clan owns this

territory". When a child gets scratched it is rarely an attack by the

cat. Most often the child (who is unable to read cat body language)

has made a "threatening" move (grabbing fur, pulling tail) and the cat

has responded to the perceived threat. After one or two such

encounters the cat usually gives the child a wide berth until the child

learns to behave more considerately. The owner's reaction confuses

the cat. The child has molested it. The cat has swatted the child. The

child cries. The parent consoles the child and chastises the cat. The

child's behavior is reinforced; the cat's behavior is punished. In feline

terms, the newcomer is ousting the cat from its territory. The

"defeated" cat may remove itself from the situation; this is

interpreted as sulking or the result of jealousy. Some parents are so

over-protective that a curious cat which sniffs a baby is interpreted

as a jealous cat about to attack. With a little consideration for feline


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behavior and emotions, introductions can be managed carefully to

avoid these cat/human misunderstandings. Cats respond to the

situation according to their more limited range of emotions; jealousy

and vengefulness are human, not feline, emotions.

CONCLUSIONCats and other animals have feelings. However their feelings

must be interpreted in the context of their own physical needs and

their own environment. They have a more limited range of feelings

than humans and their reaction to environmental stimuli is different to

humans, but they show many responses indicative of emotions.

Although I have used the term "programmed", to reduce cats to little

more than pre-programmed machines with a finite set of available

reactions would be wrong. Those who deny that cats, or other

animals, are entirely lacking in feelings do this to justify their own

treatment of animals rather than through any true understanding of

those animals. Rather than attribute full human feelings to cats, it is

better to understand how cats perceive the world and to adjust our

behavior to accommodate their physical and emotional needs as best

we can. Cats have deep emotional lives and get lonely and nasty if

they don't get what they need.

What people are opening up to is how fragile are the emotions of Cats


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