They want to manipulate their environment to suit them. Their lack of thumbs is the only factor keeping them from World Domination. That, and those naps.
Photo from the Pendotech site, Mad Scientist division.
Alphas are marvelous cats, but they are not for everyone. As kittens, they are the reason china cabinets have doors and kitchen cabinets have baby locks. If something can be opened, unfastened, switched, rearranged, or button pressed, it was an Alpha who did it. Their boundless curiosity and free running intelligence is fastened on their reason for being; experimentation. If a thing does interesting stuff when dumped in the water dish, it will be dumped in the water dish.
Alphas would prefer opening their own cans and getting their own water. Since their robot is not quite built yet, they will allow you to make arrangements, but expect an Alpha to add their own customization touches. If they are hungry and you are doing something interesting in another room, they will take a mouthful of food into the room where you are and eat it there. Alphas have been known to use their behind as a pushing tool to move the litter box to a better spot. Alphas know you are here to cater to their whims, or why did you sign up? When you do cater to their whims, they melt all over you with affection. You understand! You think they are great! Well, you are great too!
Like everything else in the environment, you are a promising subject for Alpha experimentation. Alphas are the most likely to train you in ways you didn’t expect. Suppose they are locked in the bedroom with you at night and they want to get out. If other attempts to rouse you are not developing as expected, they will, soon or later, walk on your head. Exasperated, you get up and evict them from the bedroom. Congratulations! Your Alpha has now trained you to open the door when they walk on your head. You need to be able to see these things coming.
The most likely ways Alphas will catch your attention will be doing something that got praise, or laughter, from you in the past. They love the spotlight. They not only like to be with you while you are doing things, they will do their best to do those things too. If you don’t want your Alpha playing with your art set or adding their own ideas to your embroidery, you will have to provide your Alpha with a reasonable facsimile of your own hobby, so the two of you can do the same things, side by side. Few things thrill an Alpha more.
Alphas can more than handle busy households, and most other animals. The biggest problems with Alphas and other living creatures are their tendency to take over any social hierarchies. Timid cats will be terrorized with attention, mild-mannered dogs will start saluting when they walk by, and soft-hearted humans will do their bidding. Anyone without the ability to give and take with an Alpha will need social support to hold their own.
When it comes to toys, the more complicated, the better. They love having cat-safe versions of your favorite toys, and are the challenging target for the makers of puzzle boxes, treat cubes, and remote controlled mice. Pick up busy boxes and other interactive toys for toddlers at garage sales to keep them occupied. Because if you don’t come up with something, they will.
More than any other cat type, Alphas need to be disciplined with persuasion. They want to please you, but when something interesting moves across their sensitive radar, they forget. Sometimes the only persuasion that works are cat traps; motion sensors that spritz water or make loud noises, putting open catalogs over bookcase edges, or leaving tippy boxes full of empty soda cans in forbidden areas are often the only persuaders Alphas understand. They have to make their own mistakes, and take their own consequences. Deciding to leave certain things alone must be their own idea.
Some breeds noted for their Alpha tendencies are Abyssinian, Siamese, Rex cats, and other “Oriental” breeds. Their mixes are easily spotted because of their long legs and lean bodies. Devoted acrobats, they retain their kitten playfulness and energy most of their lives.
But any cat can be an Alpha. In kittens, look for a laser like gaze that seems to be constantly computing angles and trajectories, and a stubborn insistence on reaching what they focus on. In shelters, Alphas can look droopy and depressed, because their need for stimulation is so thwarted in this situation. Make some faces at them. If they show interest, they are still open to overtures.
Ask the shelter folks for “really smart, kind of nutty, has to have toys” and soon you’ll be the Igor in your home laboratory.
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Alphas seem to have a bad reputation- just google “alpha cat” and “alpha cat aggression” comes up, as if alphas are bad! They aren’t! They just get bored easily and want something to do. I’ve noticed my girl, who is an alpha, just needs to be redirected when she’s doing something naughty or distracted. It’s like all cats have cat’s curiosity, alphas have OCD.
I know not all cats fall into one kind of cat type, but we have a cat that seems to be an unlikely mix. Otto, who is now about 10-11 months and a wiry little shelter rescue, seems to be a cross between alpha and gamma. Is that even possible? He’s extremely active and devious, batting my earrings off the dresser every night, climbing walls, and hunting his toys with a kind of OCD ferocity. He will also do anything for food (including trying to pry your hand open with his paws for a treat), though is not an overeater. On the other hand, he’s super shy of strangers and loud noises, and will hide under the couch or stalk around the room perimeters during get togethers. He also always seems to be on edge and spooks incredibly easily, often zooming by you just to make sure when going from place to place, and often watches everyone before deciding he’s comfortable. He’s the best cuddler though, when he’s calm and will fall asleep on our laps and purrs upon touch, and loves to be picked up and loved on most of the time. He’s also extremely submissive with our other cat, a beta maine coon. We just can’t figure him out! We think maybe he gets his gamma side from being formerly a street kitten and living in a hectic shelter for 3 months, but now that we’ve had him for several months, we think the nervousness may be part of his personality, and wonder whether his alpha will ever truly shine through. how stable are cat’s personalities over time?
It sounds like poor Otto has PTSD from his time on the street; he will be slower to trust than cats blessed with a more low key upbringing. I think you are right about the shyness and caution being acquired, not innate. At 10-11 months he still has some kittenhood to go, so with the great support you are giving him, he could mellow more.
Cat personalities are highly stable; but their response to stress doesn’t vary that much. His innate sweetness has put him in the shy camp. It’s all self-defense from the cat’s point of view, and once activated, it’s hard for them to put it down. Have you tried some Bach’s Rescue Remedy? It’s a calming plant essence you can put in their water; it can help. Look for it at health food stores or online.
O&D: There could indeed be some PTSD stuff going on as WereBear suggests, but at the same time I am pretty convinced that gamma-alpha kitties, while perhaps less common, can be “naturally occurring”. Otto sounds a lot like my Brodie right down to the odd mix of deviousness, shyness around strangers, and lovey-cuddliness (when relaxed and around people he knows and trusts).
Some background: I adopted Brodie, Coraline, and Shadow in late 2009 after trapping them in my partner’s parents’ back yard. They were between the age of 7 and 10 weeks when they first moved in here and completely feral.
They’ve made huge strides socially since then, but they’ve all definitely got very different temperaments. Cora is strongly alpha and the boldest of the three. Shadow is a solid beta and the second-bravest next to Cora about strangers and whatnot. Visitors will usually see Cora and will sometimes see Shadow if they come by, but Brodie still retreats to the darkest, coziest corner of the house he can find until he is certain all strangers are gone.
And since all three siblings had pretty much the same early-life experiences (aside from Shadow being caught three weeks later than the other two) I’ve been able to get a really good look at how “nature” comes through for each cat as an individual despite near-identical “nurture” factors.
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, but I was just intrigued to hear of another gamma-alpha out there. Bottom line I guess is that even if you do have a shy-by-nature cat on your hands, he certainly still has the potential to lead a happy, fulfilling life. Brodie is definitely a happy guy the vast majority of the time; his shyness around unfamiliar people and noises and whatnot just suggests to me he ended up with a large dose of the genes that served his wild ancestors very well in terms of self-protection and whatnot.
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I was pretty sure my little girl kitten was a beta at first, but at just over a year old I now think she’s much more alpha than I gave her credit for. These stories from the past two days illustrate that point:
1. Her big brother cat can’t be bothered to bury anything in the litter box. She HATES this, and if we can’t beat her to it, she’ll go in and clean up after him. Two days ago she must have decided that just covering it in litter wasn’t going to do the job, so she got a plastic bag (we keep them near the litter box for quick cleaning) and covered everything in plastic. Once I stopped laughing and wiped the tears from my eyes, it certainly made for easy cleaning!
2. She’s always exploring and searching for the best possible place to take a nap. She recently discovered our luggage, and will curl up on a small rolling suitcase. She showed her little spot to her brother, and now he climbs on a big suitcase beside hers and they’ll nap for ages. She must have decided that she needed to make it a little cozier, because this morning I noticed that she had taken one of my scarves to her suitcase so that she could cuddle with it when she slept.
I’ve never had an alpha before. Not only is she endlessly entertaining, but she’s a little love bug. Life is an adventure with an alpha!
I’m glad to read this discussion of cat cross-types. I find it very difficult to clearly type my cats. for a long time I have been thinking of Henry as a B+. he has strong, classic beta traits. if he’s not napping, he really wants to be with me. at mealtimes he will stop eating if I don’t stay in the kitchen with him. he likes to meet any people who come to visit. often he will scream at me when I come home from work, although he seems less and less worried that I will not return as time goes on. he’s always been worried about not getting his food on schedule. he was found wandering outside, (not a good place for a white cat for many reasons). but he also manipulates the environment. he cleared a space on a shelf above my computer when I first adopted him and he will nap there while I am working sometimes.
before I adopted him he was staying in a foster home with several other cats and there was a very unfortunate incident with a heavy crock pot falling from the top of the refrigerator and breaking another cat’s leg. the foster parents and I both think was likely to have been Henry pushing that pot.
when I adopted him in summer of 2010 they told me they thought he was between 1 and 2 but I think he was much closer to 1 because of his kittenish behavior. he also might have more than a bit of Maine Coon in him. today, at about 2 and a half, he’s a very svelte 11.5 pounds with classic medium-long fur and giant marshmallow paws and he trills his thoughts to me all the time. he really wants to find all the comfortable high spots in the house (but he has left the refrigerator alone so far).
Henry’s dominant personality seems very beta to me. but he has those high energy moments and he doesn’t hesitate to manipulate things if it suits him, though he chooses what he decides to mess with carefully. most often he’s trying to find a way to get to a higher spot to watch the world. he did learn how to use the buttons on my radio alarm clock. one night when I came home late, he turned on the music at 3:30 am. a few days later he turned off the alarm and made me late. the next day he turned off the alarm again. I turned it back on and he had a wonderful time turning it off again — 4 times! that day I covered the buttons with thick cardboard.
Henry’s personality is delightfully comical and he really wants to play. he draws me onto the floor to toss a milk jug lid for him or to get me to hide behind furniture so he can stalk me. if he is a Maine Coon, he’s still very young so maybe he will grow out of some of these antics one day.
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I have 10 cats in my household (all rescues) and it’s so interesting to watch all of their personalities. Sita, my Maine Coon, is definitely the Alpha around here. She’s the oldest of the bunch and I always refer to her as the matriarch. She loves to sleep on your head and 13 pounds of cat laying on your head isn’t fun at all.
Merlin, on the other hand, is definitely and alpha-gamma. He is very dominant with the other cats around here. He respects Sita but also pushes her at every chance he gets. He gets that look in his eye like he just can’t help himself. With humans he is the most loveable cat you ever want to meet, unless you’re a stranger then you won’t even see him. When my daughter moved in it took her 3 weeks before he would even allow her to touch him. Now she can do whatever she wants to him. He totally throws out the window the idea that his breed can be very aggressive and difficult to handle. He’s a Bengal cat.
The rest of the “herd” are very content to follow these two’s lead. And before anyone asks, they are all spayed and neutered. I rescue cats and definitely don’t want to add to the overpopulation from uncaring people.
Blessings on you, Wolfmagic4. Having had double digits myself, I know how much work, and fun, is involved. Yet having a “herd” is not so difficult! I used to say 2/3rds of them were asleep at any given time, it was like having three and a half cats, really,