{"id":7570,"date":"2026-04-16T17:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=7570"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:36:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:36:57","slug":"its-actually-good-news-that-cats-dont-need-their-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=7570","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s actually good news that cats don\u2019t need their\u00a0owners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New research has shown that\u00a0cats<\/a>\u00a0don\u2019t need the company or care of humans to feel secure and loved but, before you start stressing that your moggy doesn\u2019t love you, there\u2019s more to the story than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that it\u2019s a good thing our cats are so independent and self-sufficient. (Aside from the fact that we can leave them at home alone for hours and they don\u2019t hold it against us.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, if a cat sticks around, it means she really wants to be there, says a new study from the University of Lincoln<\/a>, published in the journal PLOS One<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe domestic cat has recently passed the dog as the most popular companion animal in Europe, with many seeing a cat as an ideal pet for owners who work long hours,\u201d said Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln\u2019s School of Life Sciences. \u201cPrevious research has suggested that some cats show signs of separation anxiety when left alone by their owners, in the same way that dogs do, but the results of our study show that they are in fact much more independent than canine companions. It seems that what we interpret as separation anxiety might actually be signs of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To determine whether cats needed their owners to feel secure, the research team watched 20 cats in an unfamiliar environment, recording how they reacted when with their owner, with a stranger or on their own. The amount of contact sought by the cat, the extent of passive behaviour and any evidence of distress during the owner\u2019s absence were all taken into account.Report ad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough our cats were more vocal when the owner rather than the stranger left them with the other individual, we didn\u2019t see any additional evidence to suggest that the bond between a cat and its owner is one of secure attachment,\u201d said Professor Mills. \u201cThis vocalisation might simply be a sign of frustration or learned response, since no other signs of attachment were reliably seen. In strange situations, attached individuals seek to stay close to their carer, show signs of distress when they are separated and demonstrate pleasure when their attachment figure returns, but these trends weren\u2019t apparent during our research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a pet dog clearly sees its owner as a person of security domestic cats are much more capable of coping with unfamiliar situations and places alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat expert Celia Haddon, author of Cats Behaving Badly<\/em> and How To Read Your Cat\u2019s Mind<\/em>, joined the discussion, telling The Telegraph<\/em><\/a>: \u201cThis study shows that cats do not need their humans to feel safe, they don\u2019t depend on us, they look after themselves. If they are scared a cat won\u2019t come to its owner, it will jump on top of the wardrobe or hide under the bed.Report ad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut in a way that\u2019s a real compliment,\u201d she continued. \u201cCats won\u2019t live in an unhappy home, they\u2019ll just walk out. And abandoned or feral cats get on just fine on their own. Cats are not pack animals, they don\u2019t depend on other cats. So they are not going to depend on their owners. But it doesn\u2019t meant that they don\u2019t want to be around their owners. This shows that they really do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reckon cats have this relationship thing nailed. After all, isn\u2019t the most healthy bond formed when you don\u2019t need someone but want to be with them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research has shown that\u00a0cats\u00a0don\u2019t need the company or care of humans to feel secure and loved but, before you start stressing that your moggy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/662691664_1404872481682091_5970753632319003316_n.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7572,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions\/7572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}