" One
person said the cat didn't like him to move his hand--he
would like him to put his hand out, and [the cat] would
move under it," she recalled.
The degrees
varied--some fairly democratic cats could be petted everywhere
but on the stomach. Others took a totalitarian view--"Only
the head and nowhere else. You had to stop at the neck
or it would bite you."
And then
there were the cats that only like to be petted in a certain
place--no, not the head, not the back. These cats preferred
a certain location. Think "location" in the sense
of "Finland."
Those
cats would lead their owners to the appropriate spot in
the house--the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom--where
it wanted to be petted. "Some cats will only be petted
in the bathroom," Dr. Bernstein noted.
She calls
it the "leading ritual." The cat would appear
and solicit petting. The owner would put out a hand, and
the cat would move away, occasionally glancing back to
make sure the owner was following. When it reached the
appropriate spot, it would flop down on the floor, a signal
for the petting to begin.
This,
by the way, is the point at which we begin to use the term "owner" loosely.
But it
doesn't seem an uncommon behavior, although Dr. Bernstein
and other behaviorists are at a loss right now to explain
it--which would be why people do studies in the first place,
of course.
It could
be a simple conditioning process, said Dr. Petra Mertens,
assistant professor in behavior at the University of Minnesota.
The cat begins to associate a certain action with a certain
location--if the two of you cuddle often on the couch,
the cat heads for there because it knows that's the place
where that happens.
In that
case, the behavior could be altered with effort. You'd
start by petting the cat just briefly in other locations--a
stroke on the head in the living room--in addition to giving
the new place pleasant associations, Dr. Mertens said.
Maybe the living room is where the cat gets a treat, or
where the two of you play with a cat toy. Make it a good
place, and gradually change the cat's attention to that
location.
The preference
for certain sensitive spots is well-known, behavior experts
said. Many cats have a strong dislike for having their
bellies or feet touched, Dr. Mertens said.
Some
of it may have to do with the way their mothers interacted
with the kittens, some of it may have to do with the way
the cat was introduced to people, said Dr. Kathy Gaughan,
an assistant professor with the Kansas State University
College of Veterinary Medicine clinical sciences department.
Kittens
that are handled gently by people early in life tend to
develop motor skills more quickly and open their eyes sooner--it's
possible that social skills come along with that gentle
handling.
Alternatively,
if the kittens experience something negative--like getting
a tail pulled, or being petted too roughly, it may make
them averse to having that spot petted, she said.
Generally,
cats much prefer the head and back for petting. But owners,
um, may not want to hear the theory why ... "There
is no proof, but it definitely makes sense that they like
to have areas petted that have [associations with] sexual
and social behaviors," Dr. Mertens said.
Part
of it's a grooming function--horses will chew on the upper
part of each other's necks, a place they can't reach. This
also strengthens the social bond, as you know if you've
ever had someone scratch between your shoulders or give
you a massage.
Sometimes
they bond a lot. "Cats definitely like to be petted
around the area of the ears and neck--the area a tom will
lick and bite when they mate," Dr. Mertens said.
As part
of the mating/heat behavior, female cats will crouch down
with their rears stuck up in the air--similar to the behavior
they exhibit when their back is petted, Dr. Mertens said.
The explanation
could be simpler--it could just be those are itchy spots
that cats like scratched, Dr. Bernstein said.
As for
the insistence on only petting the head, or the back, and
never out of order, that can be frustrating. Some cats
nip when they're overstimulated, Dr. Mertens said. Cats
bite each other after mating. But sometimes they're just
cranky.
"Cats
are sometimes very opinionated," she said. (Sounds
like a cautious employee evaluation: "The supervisor
can be very ... opinionated.") "Some like total
control over interaction with others, and they're very
despotic that way."
And they
do tend to warn before they bite--the eyes dilate, for
example. The tail twitches. It's when people ignore or
fail to notice the warning signs that they may get bitten.
If a cat is really frustrating in its refusal to be petted,
behaviorists can help owners develop a program in which
they gradually desensitize their cat to its dislike of
petting.
But most
cat owners know their pets likes and dislikes, and accommodate
them. "Older cat owners appreciate the individuality
of their cat," Dr. Mertens said.
Dr. Gaughan
has had clients warn her in the exam room not to touch
the cat's belly, or stroke his back end--but they don't
complain about the restrictions, she said. "They modify
their behavior around the cat's behavior."
And perhaps
that's the key--the real reason your cat wants you to pet
him, head to tail only, in the bathroom, on the floor near
the sink, except on Sundays during a full moon if the temperature
is below 65 degrees, in which case you need to move to
the porch, on the glider, and the petting should be ears
only ...
It simply
the way we interact with them, Dr. Bernstein theorized. "It
may be this is this nice, interspecies interaction that's
designed for cat and human," she said. "We're
always thinking that it's something they do with another
cat--maybe it's not. Maybe it's just something they do
with people."
