You may think your cat has a unique personality but a new study has identified just five types of relationships that cat owners have with their beloved feelings
Researchers from the University of Lincoln examined the behaviour of thousands of pet cats to understand what it says about their relationship with their owner.
Although many cat owners may feel their pets are aloof and disinterested in them, the study suggests that your relationship depends on how emotionally invested you are in your pet as well as each cat’s individual personality traits.
Data from 1,994 respondents to a questionnaire developed by the researchers was analysed based on everyday cat-owner interactions.
The analysis was then broken down into four main factors, which are the “owner’s emotional investment in the cat”, “cat’s acceptance of others”, “cat’s need for owner proximity” and “cat’s aloofness”.
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The results found that every cat-owner relationship could be categorised into one of five groups: an “open relationship bond”, a “remote association”, “casual relationship”, “co-dependant relationship” or “friendship
Those with an “open relationship bond” were characterised by owners who were lightly emotionally invested in their pet, and an avoidant cat that has “little need for owner proximity”.
Meanwhile, owners with a low level of emotional investment may find themselves in a “remote association” or “casual relationship” with their cat, depending on the cat’s response to them.
These tend to occur in busy households and among cats that have access to the outdoors.
Cat owners that have the highest positive score in emotional investment usually land in the “co-dependent” and “friendship” relationship categories.
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