Well, yes. They are. They hunt and eat.
But not us.
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Cat do not see us as prey. We are friends. Cats can make friends even with rats, so we shouldn’t worry.
I’ve seen people get nervous when a cat displays some of their most wild-eyed, vocal, and high-speed play enjoyment. It looks unpredictable, uncontrolled, and downright scary. To them.
To me, it’s a cat doing one of the things they do best. Since it is one of the things they do best, they don’t do it without a good reason and the right target.
Often, people express the worry that by playing with the cat, they get the cat “worked up,” and make the cat more likely to stalk their ankles and pounce on their toes.
The opposite is true.
When we establish times and places for the cat to “get worked up,” we have released that predator energy, and encourage the cat to be calm, and ready for a different kind of encounter.
In fact, a rowdy play session, getting the cat thoroughly wound up and worn out, is the perfect setup for more relaxed pursuits. By draining the cat’s predator energy, and ramping up their intellectual energy, we’ve created the space for cats to be alert and interested… but no longer wishing to go with their first impulse, which is to pounce on something and shred it.
We shouldn’t be frightened by our cat being what they were born to be. Since that’s not all they are. They are playing. Just like our toddler pretends to be a fireman, or we pretend to be a superhero on Halloween, our cat is pretending to stalk and kill some pompoms or a sponge ball.
“Savage” implies uncontrollable and unpredictable impulses. That’s not what is going on here. The cat is playing with something, but they aren’t invested in it to the point of forgetting that they are playing.
We enjoy a move when we feel, momentarily, that we are in the movie.
Our cat enjoys the thrill of the hunt; even if that polyester mouse will live to fight another day.
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There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.
Of course they are, that’s what’s so cool about them. The lazyest, fluffyest Persian in the world thinks it can take down a Buffalo if sufficiently motivated.
Yes, that’s true. But a Persian always has a very good reason for what they do.