I’m wondering if cats think of us kind of like how a person thinks of a friendly bull: aware that they could easily kill us, but not necessarily afraid of them; or more like a large Dalmatian: they could fuck us up, but most of us don’t really think about that unless they’re being aggressive.
I grew up with dogs and feel like I understand them a lot better than I do cats as a whole. I adopted my cat almost four years ago and I feel like I get her pretty well, but I don’t really have an idea of what she thinks about me. I also don’t really know any other cats, though I’ve gotten along with strays and friends’ cats a lot better since I got mine.
Cat tax:
My last cat had 100% faith that he would be completely safe when I was near, basically trusting that nothing bad could happen to him. If he was lying on the leather couch, stretched or turned and started slowly sliding (more like flowing like a liquid) out of the couch, then he'd not react, he'd just continue sliding until I caught him and put him back on the couch. The kind of trust that a toddler can have in the infallibility of the parent to catch them. As long as it never gets betrayed, they don't lose that trust.
I imagine that if I had been clumsy around him: tripping over him when he was standing in the way or not always catching him, that he would have lost that trust.
The cat before that only was adopted when he was already older and more world wise, he was always attent and seemed aware of the size difference and the possibility of accidents if we were to trip over him.
Hmm interesting. I have terrible eyesight so I don't always see my cats when they're somewhere I don't expect them to be. But they're not afraid of me. They're still very affectionate with me and they do seem to trust me a lot. One of my three cats has figured out that if she makes any kind of noise I'll notice her but the other ones don't, but still don't seem to get too mad at me when I do accidentally run into them. I do love them very much though and I'll spend as much time with them as I can or they let me. So maybe they have internalized that I don't do it on purpose. Might also just be how I react to when it does happen though. I genuinely feel bad every single time. That same cat also figured out that if she stands on her hind legs and knocks on the glass door I will always hear it. Scared the crap out of me when she did it for the first time but if only I could get my other cats to do the same...
So cats are ok with us tripping over them, as long as we profusely apologize afterwards, interesting :)
It sounds like the 2 cats count on the smart cat to get the door open for them. They have no reason to learn as long as the present system works.