They combine ceaseless curiosity with an ease about manipulating our mutual environment.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
The key to happy Alphas is enough. If we can provide enough attention, play, and diversion for our Alphas, they will be amusing and delightful comrades.
There are considerable advantages to Alphas:
Forever kittens. If we worry about “not enough play” and “they grow up too soon” we must consider an Alpha.
Endless fun. The status won’t be quo for long with an Alpha investigating.
Friendly and approachable. Guests love the Alpha, and the Alpha loves them back. While not as available for stranger-petting as a Beta, they are the most likely cat type to appear and do interesting things for the guests to enjoy. This line started as “temple cats” and continue in many countries to this day.
Demanding. We never wonder where we stand when an Alpha loves us; and loves us some more. Alphas have deep roots in Determination and Confidence, but this can backfire on us if we don’t handle it correctly.
This is why I think of them as the “monkey cat,” since they are so bright and dextrous. Delightfully mischievous and deliberately stubborn, they require more managing than other cat types.
That’s why there are cautions regarding Alphas:
Demanding. Alphas want what they want very much and they’d like it now. This works better for some things than others.
Wearing them out. We absolutely must wear them out. Again. This driving energy is lively and amusing, but must be channelled properly for the health of all concerned.
Keeping them amused. They like to watch what we are doing very closely. They want to press buttons themselves; and do. They like to take things apart.
We have to keep them busy and interested and satisfied.
Look for these breeds & breed characteristics:
Alphas are long and lean, with long noses, large oval ears, and pointy paws. Verbal and intense about whatever interests them. They come from hotter climates and are the most active cat type. They are the “mad scientists” of the Cat world.
Siamese is the core Alpha heritage, and all Oriental types express these traits.
Read more about the Alpha cat type.
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Hehe, my Alpha girl Coraline has been called “monkey cat” on more than one occasion. It’s amazing watching her observe things in the environment and then taking action to make stuff happen according to her wishes. You can just see her computing trajectories (lately her new stunt is jumping from the ground onto my neck-shoulders — which I don’t mind so long as she refrains from digging the claws in!).
But all that said…in my experience, while Alpha traits may indeed be statistically more common in kitties of Oriental ancestry, and while Cora (being from a feral colony) could very well have some of that influence, she’s definitely not *shaped* like a Siamese or similar. Here’s a picture of her; she’s actually quite moderately-built, with fluffy British-Shorthairish cheeks and a little semi-upturned nose. She does have the dark paw pads (like Tristan), though, so who knows. But temperament-wise she’s totally Alpha, right up to the “showing off for guests” thing — she doesn’t normally approach strangers to be petted, but she will be happy to do backflips around the living room if there’s an audience.
Meanwhile, the one actual Siamese here (Nikki) is well into the Beta region, temperament-wise. She’s very demanding and perhaps that’s the main area her lineage comes through, but overall she’d much rather convince her humans to do her bidding than do it herself (she won’t even operate treat-puzzle balls, despite clearly being smart enough to do so; she’ll just yell at me to put the treats where SHE wants them if I offer her a treat-bearing toy.)
Since so many of our cats are delightful mixes, I always throw in behavioral clues as well as physical ones. What you describe as Coraline “computing trajectories” is a classic Alpha clue. I saw it in Ordell when he was six weeks old. While Nikki enjoying giving orders, instead of being “paws-on,” is exactly how Betas prefer to work.
Hi Pamela! Yep, the “computing trajectories” thing was evident in Cora’s repertoire starting back when she was tiny. Here’s a video showing something of an example of the sort of thing she does: before she ever managed to get to the top of the DVD cabinet in the living room, I watched her sit there and figure out (by observing her eyes darting from thing to thing) the exact sequence of other things she’d need to jump to in order to reach her destination.
(She also gave me QUITE a scare as a kitten when she decided it would be fun to climb part-way up the chimney and sit on the flue (which, needless to say, remains tightly shut these days!). And the only reason I even figured out she was up there was because her (Gamma) brother Brodie was sitting underneath staring up all saucer-eyed.)
…and while I’m already going tangential, regarding Nikki, one thing I know is that Siamese breeders (my parents got her from a local cattery) have been doing more and more outcrossing in recent years to eliminate genetic health problems in addition to crossed eyes and whatnot. Nikki has neither a kinked tail nor crossed eyes, and is a “traditional Siamese” (with a more compact body shape) rather than a “modern Siamese”, all of which make me figure there’s been some sort of moderating influence in there along the way. That said, regardless of specific lineage it does seem at least plausible that occasionally you’ll get a Siamese who goes in the extreme Beta-supervisior direction, which is Nikki through and through. All in all, though, regardless of their ancestry it is wonderful and fascinating watching different cats develop their own individual character — I feel quite privileged to get to live with four very different kitties simultaneously (as I’m sure you do as well!).
Now I know that I’ve had two alpha cats, and one cat that was probably Gamma. Cooky was called Monkey-faced Cooky, because of his tannish face that looked like those cookies. He was my monkey cat, long & very thin (until he put on 18 pounds), into everything, would move items as big as jeans around the house, and a stuffed teddy bear that was bigger than he was around the house. Annie is also a monkey cat, but in a slightly different way. She has far more attitude than Cooky, who was a bottle-fed kitten (from one day old). She is also the one who still can’t resist dipping her paw into glasses of water (I warn guests not to leave open containers in places she can reach), and if it is a closed container with liquid in it, it will be tipped over. She does respond fairly well to requests to leave something alone, but if you leave any yarn out and leave the room, you can expect to find your working yarn chewed in half.