Wolves and dogs and cats

November 24, 2002 6:09 PM

Three Dog Eves--They really do understand us--even better than our cousin chimpanzees. Well, at least when food's involved.
As to how wolves became dogs, the current understanding seems to be they tamed themselves--in a Survival of the Friendliest. Here's more on animal linguistics. As for cats, well, Stephen Budiansky in The Character of Cats suggests they aren't even really tame. Hence, unlike dogs, cats haven't bothered to pick up our language--they've taught us Cat talk instead. Take the test and see. A woof out to Australian Broadcast Coporation's five part Animal Attraction series is called for here. C--Miao baby!
posted by y2karl (11 comments total)

Tenuous evidence suggests dogs are the slight advantage that finally helped people move across the Bering Strait.

Apparently cro-mag needs all the help he can get when threatened by giant gate-keeping man-eating hyenas.
posted by dgaicun at 7:03 PM on November 24, 2002

Great links y2karl.

unlike dogs, cats haven't bothered to pick up our language... Everyone knows that dogs have masters and cats have slaves.
posted by dg at 8:20 PM on November 24, 2002

Thanks y2karl - I love stuff about inter-species communication, and you unearthed some fascinating links on dogs & cats, and their adaptation to domestic life. Here's a decent page of links to animal communication studies, although they are biased to apes and chimps.

Another fascinating area is a dog's communication by sensory perception - it's fairly common for dogs to sense the onset of epileptic seizures and warn humans in advance. There have also been anecdotes about their ability to detect cancer, and research is underway to study this further.

On a less scholarly but fun note, we humans can't even all agree on what cats and dogs are saying when they talk to us. These diaries of a dog and a cat might provide a clue as to what they are thinking.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:43 PM on November 24, 2002

Another fascinating area is a dog's communication by sensory perception

And we haven't even mentioned their sense of smell, literally a thousand times more sensitive than ours, with which they conduct most of their communications via peeing on trees and rocks and such then sniffing same and each other's butts and genitalia while nervously negotiating an amicable relationship.

We don't get any of that stuff, so they indulge us by paying attention to our faces. They've--dogs for the most part, cats but a little--learned to smile from us--wolves, wild dogs and those breeds of dog most analogous to wolves don't smile or show much expression. But then the dogs that are most expressive and therefore most like us are essentially puppies. And cats relate to us as their mothers, or so I read. It's all so strange.
posted by y2karl at 10:19 PM on November 24, 2002

One of my favorite dog authors (she has written about cats, and for that matter Bushmen as well) is Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Her Hidden Life of Dogs is a classic, but she is a bit controversial due to her hands-off approach to dog ownership.
posted by TedW at 4:36 AM on November 25, 2002

Stephen Budiansky is another iconoclast on dogs, although perhaps not entirely in agreement with Thomas. Here's a better start page for that Animal Attractions TV series--some of the links have some interesting soundbite sized factoids. And they have a picture of the famous 12,000 year old human and dog burial at Ein Mahalla.
posted by y2karl at 7:53 AM on November 25, 2002

My favorite Mike Royko quote of all time:

"Cats would kill us if they were only big enough".
posted by iconomy at 8:12 AM on November 25, 2002

Gee, and here I thought I made that observation by myself--but it is pretty obvious. Size aside, cats are much stronger than we are--I remember trapping and trying to pick up a wild barn kitten in my grandfather's grain silo. I don't know where the expression 'weak as a kitten' came from--that was like sticking my hand into a woodchipper--Yowch! Oh, the pain, the blood!

Royko, hmm... Oh, well, great minds think alike, or so I hope. It would be nice to be as on the ball as Royko when I'm that old. Now there's an ambition.
posted by y2karl at 9:03 AM on November 25, 2002

y2karl,

I think the entire expression is "weak as a newborn kitten", an important distinction. Kitten development is slow - they can't walk for the first month or so, and are blind and mostly deaf until after three weeks.

You're right, though, give them two or three months and they'll take your head off, especially if they didn't get any positive human contact during their socialization period ^__^
posted by vorfeed at 1:46 PM on November 25, 2002

Size aside, cats are much stronger than we are--I remember trapping and trying to pick up a wild barn kitten in my grandfather's grain silo.

Indeed. Our old family cat, who was an impressive animal (three feet long, about 18 1/2 pounds) once socked my father in the temple. My dad tells me that it was like getting hit by a human being--hard enough to make him see stars. Similarly, it takes two people to hold my female cat down when she needs her claws clipped--while two people weren't strong enough to get my male cat into a carrier when I was moving to my new house.

And cats relate to us as their mothers, or so I read.

It may be a little more complicated than that. Domesticated cats are, by and large, in a permanent state of emotional immaturity: they tend to want attention and companionship in ways that are foreign to feral cats, who are essentially solitary beings. When petted, cats act like kittens--purring, kneading, sometimes pretending to nurse. On the other hand, cats also treat us as though we're their kittens. Most cats supervise their humans, much as mother cats supervise their kittens, and cats who go outside will bring home prey in order to teach us how to "hunt."

Everyone knows that dogs have masters and cats have slaves.

A few weeks ago, the Guardian had a great run of similar sayings going on in its letters column. My favorite was "dogs have owners; cats have staff."
posted by thomas j wise at 2:57 PM on November 25, 2002

Domesticated cats are, by and large, in a permanent state of emotional immaturity...

Someone's been reading Desmond Morris. (Amazon link--sorry.) Fascinating ideas that man has.
posted by hippugeek at 8:38 PM on November 25, 2002