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They don’t even meow to each other, just to humans. They know what they are about.
No, they do sometimes. Some meow in greeting to each other, as seen on cat cams.
they do sometimes do really low meows to intimidate other cats
I keep meowing at hot guys at the bar and none have taken me home yet 😭
Meow at the moderately acceptably good (minus minus) looking and you may have some luck… but please don’t get offended if we start pspspspsing you, it’s just a reflex
Did you try letting them scratch under your collar?
Works better on girls.
I’m gay
The cat that walked into my house and said “I live here meow.”
Even with toys they are invading our space
Once they figure out email and posting on social media we’re really screwed.
As you see, it is on the way
“Everybody wants to talk about X, nobody wants to talk about Y”.
That’s not gaslighting, that’s whataboutism.I think it’s more along the lines of cats gaslighting humans to care for them…that’s where I grew the comparison.
That isn’t what gaslighting is, though. Gaslighting isn’t simply emotional manipulation; it’s a specific kind.
You mean like manipulating humans into believing they are helpless animals that need to be brought in, and taken care of?
The specific kind of psychological manipulation in this case used by cats over millennia, by definition of the word, is gaslighting lol
Thankfully it’s the year 2024 so if you literally spent 5 seconds doing a search you would find a real definition
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that hinges on creating self-doubt. “I think of gaslighting as trying to associate someone with the label ‘crazy,’” says Paige Sweet, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan who studies gaslighting in relationships and in the workplace. “It’s making someone seem or feel unstable, irrational and not credible, making them feel like what they’re seeing or experiencing isn’t real, that they’re making it up, that no one else will believe them.”
Cats cannot do this.
I don’t want to be the person that brings a real definition into a fun thread, but your complete lack of logical, sane thought on the subject drove me to it. This is your fault.
Did you even read your quote? A subjective stance from an assistant professor of sociology who studies gaslighting IN RELATIONSHIPS AND THE WORKPLACE. That’s a severe lack of a “real definition” my guy. Go watch the 1944 film Gaslight from which the term was coined.
Webster
psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator
Can you spot the difference? I cannot. And cats still can’t do this.
Also, it was coined in a play before that.
Again, it’s 2024, this is easy shit.
Manipulation of the perception of reality is where my argument comes from. Your rude ass tone and pretentiousness are unwelcome. Have a good one boss.
Yeah, because words used in modern context are always best defined by their most archaic usage 🙄🙄🙄
To that point, words used in modern context are also up for interpretation and free thought. :)
Lost opportunity to say “I live here meow”
I went to disagree untill I remembered there’s a ginger cat that lives on my property that I feed sometimes
please don’t feed it unless you know for sure it’s homeless (there are paper bands you can hang around their necks on which you can put your info so that the owner can call you if it’s their cat). if the cat has a owner then you’re making the cat too fat, probably buying the wrong food which will give it liver disease, and being fed 2 different foods can cause bowel problems. Please stop.
If the cat has an owner, that owner is letting them outside knowing the risks of eating what the cat isn’t supposed to, as well as killing what it isn’t supposed to.
Imma feed him when he comes in and screams at me everytime because I like him and he’s cool.
you can, but please know you’re probably removing 3 years from its life.
please just hang a paper band around his neck with ‘are you the owner of this cat? call me’ on it.
Nah I’m right.
so you’d rather just poison a cat?
You’re making a lot of assumptions based off nothing.
Isn’t it weird how some people care more about cats than people or, often, themselves?
that’s how well they manipulate us
More of a dog guy but I get it, I get it. I love their dumb stupid little faces.
That makes it sound like the cat domesticated humanity not “The cat self domesticated itself”
in reality it sure as fuck seems like humanity domesticated humanity, we have a lot of domesticated features like neotony (we look strikingly like chimpanzee children) and we’re arguably the most ludicrously social species on earth.
the ironic thing is that cats aren’t really very domesticated, they’re inherently a social animal and happen to just sorta fit with how humans work.
Note though, that neoteny is a disputed theory and (if at all) only part of human evolution.
Sad that the Wikipedia article is a mess now.
Neotony isn’t disputed to exist in humans, only the ultimate cause and extent is disputed.
I mean that sounds more like those are just traits we have and we made domesticated animals have similar traits to out own since presumably that makes us get along better.
Oh sure, when the cat walks into a house and wants to live there, they’re all “omg it’s so cute” and “let’s go buy it food and a bed”, but when I do it, they’re all “who the hell are you?” and “leave or I’m calling the cops” :(
Have you tried meowing at them?
don’t do this. it only made things escalate in my experience
Marking your territory probably didn’t help you either
Don’t pick a house with a dog next time.
Have you tried UwU’ing at them?
thats even worse why would you suggest that you trying to get me shot on sight?
Just block the shots with your big banana ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
That would only work if you’re very cute and kinda short.
So cats are successful squatters?
As of about three weeks ago a stray cat figured out how to use our doggie door.
Now we have a 2nd cat.
Covert cat distribution network, working as intended.
In my opinion cats should never be kept as singles. They need social interaction with another cat, even if they don’t like each other. It’s not as bad as guinea pigs who will literally die from depression if kept alone, but it’s similar.
New cat is totally cool with OG cat. OG cat fucking hates the new cat.
I wouldn’t say “never” because, for me, it’s better to shelter them instead of leaving them outside. But yeah, ideally at least two cats. I’ve only had two cats, both stray, the first one tried to play with our feet when he was the only one in home as he plays with the second now.
People always say they look cute and yea sure,
But did y’all forget the fact that they can literally get rid of all your mice problems?
I got a cat because for companionship and one month later, all those filthy mice are gone.
Being soft and warm to pet, and the beautiful meows, are just the cherry on top of their lovely companionship.
They -can- do that yes. Whether or not they will choose to, however, is anyone’s guess.
They will have a joyous time with it. And you might find eviscerated mice under your couch one day. But my two dumbass fur balls just thought they were awesome toys.
Never figured out quite when they stopped coming in. The only really humane way to kill em is snap traps. I probably went through a couple dozen of them before they stopped showing up.
I was against using poisoned food traps because the last thing I wanted was my cat consuming a poisoned mouse. But, since our whole neighborhood had a problem with the mice, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a neighbor did it.
Snap traps in a brown paper bag baited with peanut butter.
When you catch something, curl up the top of the bag and throw it all in the trash.
Ooooh that paper bag idea is nifty.
We actually discovered something that worked far better than peanut butter - Reese’s peanut butter cups. You break off a little piece, squish it into a ball, and place it on the bait lever. Not a single trap misfired once we switched to that.
I’ll have to try it if there’s a next time
Even if you have a lazy cat, mice have since learned to avoid the smell of cat pheromones. So just having a fat furball laying around will make it more likely the local mice go bother your neighbor instead.
eeeeh, it can go the other way. i dont think i would’ve ever had mice in this flat without the cat. but she likes to catch mice, bring them inside totally unharmed and let them go. and then watch them. chase them. sit on top of them. she doesnt eat them because i guess she never had to eat them.
and then i end up catching the mouse since i dont want it loose in the flat at night, and i dont want to find a rotting mouse corpse 2 weeks later (this has happened at least twice).
They rarely need to in the city, also those that weren’t taught by other cats most of the time won’t kill the mouse just torture it or scare.
I feel like depends on the cat. I found mine as a list kitten that we assumed got outside and then was starving and almost dead. He’s always been N indoor cat. Had never seen a mouse in the 8 years he was alive. I go out of town for a day and night and come back to a decapitated mouse in the apt. Fool took care of shit without even knowing. Then years later, we move into a house and a mouse gets in some how. My cat finds the mouse, kills it, walks around with it, then drops it in the hallway for us to clean up. If he had been taught how to catch mice when he was a kitten, I he wouldn’t have been starving to death. But when a mouse showed up, he knew exactly what to do.
Well, whatever my cat did, the mice are gone so… 🤷♂️
I did see a few dead mice around the first 2 months, now no sight of mice.
You are lucky, in my previous flat there were hoarders-alcoholics that lived on the next floor, one day they brought mice with whatever shit they decided to take. At first they were contained on their floor, but after a while they were everywhere. Cat played with them at first >_< and then got bored. After 10 or so that traps killed (in a month) I moved out.
Your experience reminded me of “Tom,” the farm cat who lived in the corn silo on my great aunt’s farm. He avoided/hated children but tolerated the adults who worked there. Depending on the season, he killed multiple mice a day, ate only their livers (leaving behind a trail of bodies), and used crippled mice to track down the hidden others. Tom was a true professional—and honestly, quite terrifying.
Edit: My aunt “paid” him with leftover spaghetti, ground meat, and eggs, as well as a warm spot by the oven in the winter (if he chose to stay there). He was “semi-feral”—never going near the house during the summer months.
Edit2 + Spelling,Typos,Grammar,
What the fuck kinda Hannibal Lecter cat…
We had an indoor/outdoor cat growing up that liked to hunt squirrels. He was so good at it that the squirrels had a special cry for him. Anyways, he liked to leave nothing but their heads (with spine and tail still attached) on our front door step. I miss the little serial killer
One of my calicos likes eating the bottom half of lizards and leaving them alive. She’s a sadist.
Ive always wondered about the poor villagers who lived in tigers territory. Every night a kitty comes out to play.
Mice and some other pests have evolved an instinctual aversion to the smell of cats, it triggers their fear response. Just having the cats around might have been good enough.
Mine can catch 2 mice at the same time. And also wasps, centipedes, lizards, pigeons, etc.
I was hoping my cat can get rid of the roaches too but her paws aren’t very effective at that, and theres just wayyy to many. 😕 Welp, at least my cat has some
roachtoys to squish (or at least, try to).
I never liked cats at all and one did exactly that. Stupid fuck make me fall absolutely in love with it too.
Get another one from the shelter! They have much richer lives if they have another cat to interact with, even if they don’t like each other.
Plus having two cats is getting yourself twice the cute and love for very little extra work.
Edit - doesn’t this look great?
Be careful, it looks like they’re trying to merge and create a Cat King in that first picture!
Love RTJ, never seen this, thanks.
If only the 4th one was in there. He’s the brother of the huge orange boy but he’s a dwarf. Looks exactly like an orange Maine Coone but he only weighs 7 pounds. He doesn’t snuggle with the other 3. So he’s 7 pounds and his brother is 23!
Are they paying you or something??
Big Feline advertising all over this thread
The cats? Yeah everyday.
The fact that only two creature in this world that will approach another creature 10 times bigger than them just so they get adopted is pretty impressive. That’s how i adopted my 4th cat, little baby dude just came out from under a car and yell at me until i pick him up.
My (future) cat jumped up on my car when I parked! Almost named her Engine…
What’s the other kind of creature? Dogs?
Yep.
no way
Humans are just exceptionally weak to cute. If aliens ever show up and try to conquer us, we’re going to be so screwed if they happen to be adorable.
Too Cute crisis is about aliens coming to destroy earth but learn there are cats.
Speak for yourself, I hope the furry aliens make me their pet.
(Source: SMBC)
🥺
Well, I guess you’re getting screwed anyways
Maybe he likes getting screwed.
I would love the life of a house pet as long as I can play video games instead of sleeping all the time.
We just collectively need to convince our new overlords that it’s enrichment and just let me keep it I already have it, and I’ll be totally friendly and compliant whenever you want, I can pause, it’s cool.
Would it change your mind if the aliens are responsible owners and neuter their pets?
We’re on lemmy, none of us are having kids anyway.
for free??
Got my tubes tied when I was 27 (no kids no interest).
So nope, not in the slightest.
Yeah, I mean I can multitask licking their tentacles while I game.
It’s all fun and games until de-worming time.
How many people have worms? I thought that was rare… Am I missing something and Kennedy is actually not an odd-ball?
Not many people have them, but the aliens don’t know which ones - and they already have the anal probe equipment handy.
Shit, here I thought we were all going to just take heart guard haha. Your way doesn’t sound as fun.
almost all animals and a lot of people too have worms, most of them aren’t really dangerous though, so no worries.
but it’s less prevalent in humans than in other animals due to hygiene or sth
source: i read it somewhere
What’s great is when they show up and become furry because they decide that furries have devised the best possible social system in the cosmos
Even if they were horrors beyond our comprehension, a whole lot of people would be still be very sexually aggressive towards them.
Honestly that may be what saves us. They try to manipulate us by being cute, we weird them out by being horny.
It would be so funny if they left bc of kink shaming.
“KINK SHAMING IS MY KINK”
ACK ACK ACK ACK splat
War of the Worlds got absolutely the wrong reason for the aliens to leave.
There’s a Philip K Dick short story about this, “The war with the Fnools”
“ca wi go see de wokets humie? wi wana see de big ones fly hiiiiigh”
If aliens turn up and they’re like “Give me snacks. And a fluffy bed.” I think we’d be like “…aight.”
Aww nibbler
