Is There a Way to Tell if Your Cat Misses You?

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Cats know that they do not need us to survive, and this fact will have a cat owner wondering: “Does my cat miss me when I’m gone?” According to Rover, felines are affectionate, although they have a hard time showing it. So if you think that leaving your cat does not hurt them, you are wrong, and some signs prove your cat longs for you to get back home. Let’s take a look at some of the signs you should look out for every time you walk through that door.

Signs Your Cat Misses You

A recent study showed that affectionate gestures are a sure sign that your cat missed you while you were away. Since cats groom each other, yours could start licking you and rubbing themselves against you the minute you get back home. Even if your cat is not too keen on grooming you, simply sitting on your lap or by your side is enough to tell you that they cherish your company and miss you. Other cats are not affectionate; instead, they are aggressive, trying to communicate that they would like it if you stayed with them a bit more. Passive aggression could be in the form of crying when you return or no longer being too nice, so you might be greeted with a few claws when you try to pet. Others are not passive and show how they longed for your presence by becoming destructive. You may find your favorite couch with a few scratch marks, but it is only because your cats were lonely without you and have to preoccupy themselves as they await your return. While being aggressive might sound extreme, you will be shocked to learn that your cat has fallen sick due to loneliness. As humans, we talk of being lovesick whenever we miss someone so much that we can barely function. Well, even felines can get “lovesick” to the point of getting sick literally. The separation anxiety results in vomiting, increased vocalization, poor appetite, excessive grooming and inappropriate defecation or urination. So before you get mad that your housetrained cat is no longer complying with house rules, be more affectionate and watch them heal without even the need to visit a vet.

Cats are Not Attached to You

Even if your cat does not exhibit these signs, the Washington Post suggests that it is not for your fault if trying to form a deeper bond with them does not work out. According to the article, cats are not like dogs who view themselves as servants to humans and doing whatever they can to make us happy. Felines prefer autonomy, and even if they like you, it is on their own terms. The lack of attachment is because cats have not been domesticated for as long as the canines. Also, cats were not bred primarily to be human companions; hence they have not interacted with humans for longer than dogs. As a result, the lack of attachment is expected, although there are rare cases where cat owners have shown how attached their pets are; some accompany their owners to the bathroom and like to be involved in the human routines. We miss people that we love, and a researcher, Daniel Mills, said that our cats don’t love us; hence the probability of them missing us when we are away is very low. According to Vox, although Mills is a cat lover, his experiments concluded that cats do not love their owners. In the experiment, the cats’ behavior was observed when the owners left and when they returned; the felines were not interested in both scenarios. Since the same experiment had been conducted on dogs and shown very different results, the dogs have been said to have an emotional attachment to their owners while cats do not love their owners back as much as dogs.

Some of the Signs Your Cat Misses You are Misconstrued

While some scientists assume that cats rubbing themselves against you when you return is a sign of missing you, researchers believe that it could be just felines making their territory. By rubbing their fur against you, their scent is transferred to you. It is common for them to do so on anything they feel is theirs, including furniture. Still, you might comfort yourself that your cat could not transfer his scent if he did not love you enough to think of you as part of his territory. When it comes to purring, researchers continue to burst our bubble. They explained that cats make different purring sounds, and each has a meaning. Low-tuned purrs indicate that your cat is hungry, so even if your cat vocalizes when you get home, it is to tell you that he is hungry and wants to be fed, not necessary to say that he thought of you when you were away. What’s worse is that you may believe that by petting your cat, you are showing him lots of love, and he might return the favor by being affectionate. Unfortunately, Mills studied the feline behavior and concluded that petting could result in stress and instead of your cat wanting your affection, he will run away. All the same, BBC published that the infancy stage of a cat determines how friendly he will be as an adult. If a cat is socialized in the first eight weeks, he will likely develop a strong attachment to his human parents and want their company. However, not all hope is lost for our felines; one study showed that cats who feel secure with their owners go to the humans when they return before going back to whatever they were doing before the human arrived. Others will not move an inch from the couch, and researchers referred to such behavior as a sign of a strong emotional bond, which of course, would mean that cats miss us; they have different ways of showing it.