Catwatching by Desmond Morris Read Free Book Online Page A

females have been known to act as midwives, helping to chew through the umbilical cords and clean up the new-born offspring. Later they may offer a babysitting service, bring food for the new mother, and occasionally feed young from other litters as well as their own. Even males sometimes show a little paternal feeling, cleaning kittens and playing with them.
    These are not usual activities, but despite the fact that they are uncommon occurrences, they do reveal that the cat is capable, under special circumstances, of behaving in a less selfish way than we might expect.
    Territorial behaviour also involves some degree of restraint and sharing. Cats do their best to avoid one another, and often use the same ranges at different times as a way of reducing conflict. In addition there are special no-cat's-land areas where social 'clubs' can develop.
    These are parts of the environment where, for some reason, cats call a general truce and come together without too much fighting. This is common with feral city cats, where there may be a special feeding site.
    If humans throw food for them there, they may gather quite peacefully to share it. Close proximity is tolerated in a way that would be unthinkable in the 'home base' regions of these cats.
    Considering these facts, some authorities have gone so far as to say that cats are truly gregarious and that their society is more cooperative than that of dogs, but this is romantic exaggeration. The truth is that, where social life is concerned, cats are opportunists.
    They can take it or leave it. Dogs, on the other hand, can never leave it. A solitary dog is a wretched creature. A solitary cat is, if anything, relieved to be left in peace.
    If this is so, then how can we explain the mutual aid examples given above? Some are due to the fact that we have turned domestic cats into overgrown kittens. By continuing to feed them and care for them we prolong their juvenile qualities into their adult lives. Like Peter Pan, they never grow up mentally, even though they become mature adults physically. Kittens are playful and friendly with their litter-mates and with their mothers, so they are used to acting together in a small group. This quality can be added to later adult activities, making them less competitive and less solitary. Secondly, those cats living wild in cities, where there is little space, adapt to their shrunken territories out of necessity, rather than by preference.
    Some animals can live only in close-knit social groups. Others can tolerate only a completely solitary existence. The cat's flexibility means that it can accept either mode of living, and it is this that has been a key factor in its long success story since it was first domesticated thousands of years ago.
     

Why do cats keep crying to be let out and then cry to be let in again?
     
    Cats hate doors. Doors simply do not register in the evolutionary story of the cat family. They constantly block patrolling activities and prevent cats from exploring their home range and then returning to their central, secure base at will. Humans often do not understand that a cat needs to make only a brief survey of its territory before returning with all the necessary information about the activities of other cats in the vicinity. It likes to make these tours of inspection at frequent intervals, but does not want to stay outside for very long, unless there has been some special and unexpected change in the condition of the local feline population.
    The result of this is an apparent perversity on the part of pet cats.
    When they are in they want to go out, and when they are out they want to come in. If their owner does not have a small cat-flap on the back door of the house, there will be a regular demand for attention, to assist the cat in its rhythmic territorial supervision. Part of the reason why this repeated checking of the outside world is so important is because of the time-clock message system of the scent-marks. Each time