The Love Story of a Cat and His Little Sisters

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Bailey is a cat. To be exact, Bailey is a cat who serves as an excellent example of the bond that can form between cats and humans. In short, the story started out when Erin Merryn was still a college student. When Erin came upon Bailey, the two formed an instant connection, which is why she managed to hold onto him even though she was issued an ultimatum by her school to get rid of him. Ever since, Bailey has been an important member of Erin’s family, which has seen a number of additions over the course of more than a decade.

Why Has Bailey Managed to Become So Popular?

With that said, while Bailey has a wonderful story, it wouldn’t be so well-known if he hadn’t managed to become the social media star that he is. Currently, he has more than 35,000 followers on Facebook as well as more than 62,000 followers on Instagram, which are very respectable numbers under the circumstances to say the least.

As for how Bailey managed to build up that kind of following, well, suffice to say that he gets along very well with the rest of he and Erin’s family. In short, Erin has had three daughters named Abby, Hannah, and Claire, who have formed bonds with Bailey that are just as strong if not even stronger than Erin’s own bond with her beloved cat. Due to this, Bailey is perfectly content to let Erin’s daughters bathe play with him to their hearts’ content, even when that means dressing him up in a bridal veil as well as a pair of heels. Luckily for Bailey’s following, Erin has been meticulous in snapping up photos of their playtime, which have become very popular because they are ridiculously cute. On the whole, Bailey and his family are an excellent reminder that in spite of the jokes that are told about them, cats actually do get along very well with humans.

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Do Cats Actually Like Humans?

Having said this, it is natural for there to be doubters. After all, there are a lot of jokes about the cold, aloof attitudes of cats towards humans, which might seem superficial in nature but nonetheless reflect deep sentiments on the matter. However, it is important to remember that popular belief is not the same as confirmed truth, so it should come as no surprise to learn that this popular belief about cat-human relationships is more than a little bit off.

For starters, it is important to note that cats and dogs don’t behave the same way. This can be seen in how dogs will actually take their cues from their human owners, so much so that dogs have developed a better ability to read human non-verbal communication than any other animal species on the planet. In contrast, cats are much more independent. However, this doesn’t actually mean that cats don’t like us, just that they don’t have the same kind of relationship with us that dogs do.

One piece of evidence for feline affection towards humans can be seen in feline behavior. In short, cats seem to use the same set of behaviors for cat-human interaction that they use for cat-cat interaction. As a result, when a cat is doing something that would mean affection in cat-cat interaction, it is reasonable to speculate that it means affection in cat-human interaction as well. Amusingly, this means that cats might actually see humans as really big but by no means socially inferior cats because we know how cats behave towards socially inferior cats, which doesn’t match how cats behave towards their human owners.

Moving on, there have also been studies conducted about cats’ fondness for cat-human interaction. In one case, researchers isolated a small number of cats, spent some time figuring out each cat’s favorite foods, favorite toys, favorite smells, and favorite kinds of cat-human interaction, and then let the cats out into an environment in which they would be able to choose between their favorites. As it turned out, cat-human interaction proved to be the most popular, beating out favorite foods, favorite toys, and favorite smells in that order.

On the whole, there are still more studies that need to be carried out to figure out exactly what cats think of humans, but there are definitely reasons such as Bailey’s wonderful relationship with his family that suggest that cats aren’t anywhere near as cold and aloof as they are sometimes made out to be.

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