As long as we’re engaging the evolutionary fucking psychology of feline fuck-ups, can someone please explain to me why cats are obsessed with knocking little objects off of big objects? I demand explanations that relate back to their lives in the early days of domestication in ancient Egypt (or whenandwhereverthefuck).
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21 comments
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Dr. Jekyll & Mrs. Hyde
June 8, 2008 at 5:30 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“Is this a mouse? What if I paw at it? Does it move?
“No? Hm. Ok. What about this other thing? Is this a mouse? What if I paw at it?”
But the ethological explanation is obvious: Cats knock little objects off of larger objects to show off to the dog. Egyptians worshipped the kitties because any creature with such intuitive grasp of the powerplay was clearly destined for greatness. We don’t tell stories about Cleopatra because she was obedient, do we?
cgsmks
June 8, 2008 at 7:06 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Makes ‘em laugh?
They like watching the humans pick up the little objects and replace them on the big objects, over and over and over, and are amazed the humans never get bored of the game while the cats do?
Helen
June 8, 2008 at 7:16 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“I want to see you kneel, peon”?
Lauren
June 8, 2008 at 11:11 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
My cat Pablo likes to play this game while also playing the “I’m Not Looking At You” game. He knocks something off the counter while conspicuously glancing in the opposite direction, while also complicitly ignoring that he knows he’s pissing me off.
Lauren
June 8, 2008 at 11:13 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Fail points for misuse of the word “complicit.”
MissPrism
June 9, 2008 at 6:54 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This behaviour is adaptive in the cats’ tree-climbing ancestors where it is used for cracking birds’ eggs by knocking them out of nests.
How’s that?
Cat evo-psych is great fun. Next: why the instinctive fear of vacuum-cleaners?
rehctaw
June 9, 2008 at 7:25 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s simple. We are not fully domesticated yet. You have to give cats credit for perseverance. In only 4000 years they’ve attained most of their original objectives. They are treated with reverence and kept in the luxury/comfort to which they wanted to become accustomed. They are loved and pampered.
The whole knocking little things off big things is part of their ongoing human training program. It is a subtle reminder that even though you provide them with toys and distractions, EVERYTHING belongs to them; to do with what they wish.
They are most disappointed that our work on cat longevity has not broken through the nine-lives barrier.
MissPrism
June 9, 2008 at 8:41 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’ve changed my mind and now think this behaviour dates back to our shared evolutionary past when early humans started to build stone huts.
Cats, by knocking over any pile of stones they possibly could, would demolish weak attempts at building work and thereby ensure that the finished hut was robust enough to protect both cat and owner from the elements.
MissPrism
June 9, 2008 at 8:45 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The ancestor of today’s housecat could tackle even large prey species by pushing rocks off cliffs onto them.
MissPrism
June 9, 2008 at 8:49 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The cat is attempting to landscape its territory by levelling small hills and filling in potholes as best it can. This not only gives a mouse fewer places to hide, but minimises the risk that the cat will fall over something in pursuit of it.
PhysioProf
June 9, 2008 at 8:52 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
MissPrism, you are seriously good at this shit! You should become an evolutionary fucking psychologist!
Interrobang
June 9, 2008 at 9:27 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Cats are another species that has scientists. Every time a cat knocks a small object off a large object he or she is attempting to study gravity and antigravity. Since the objects nearly always return to the tops of the large object, you could say that cat scientists have, in fact, successfully invented antigravity…
Bustednuckles
June 9, 2008 at 1:49 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
They are studying our opposable thumbs and are jealous.
Minority Militant
June 9, 2008 at 3:23 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
that’s pretty fucking deep! i’d take a dog over a cat any day.
“MissPrism, you are seriously good at this shit! You should become an evolutionary fucking psychologist!”
funny stuff!
littlem
June 10, 2008 at 7:39 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
PhysioProf of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
WereBear
June 10, 2008 at 7:52 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
MissPrism is right.
Cats are terraformers.
They also regard humans as good objects for manipulation; if they can’t adjust the environment themselves, they will adjust us.
Come on, Minorty Militant… are you admitting cats are smarter than you are?
bikemonkey
June 10, 2008 at 11:29 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I am having a hard time understanding why you have more cat botherers around here than you ever get commenting on politics. cats are more important than what the excremental bushrovian clown clerks are doing to our citizenry? cats?
This. is. what. is. wrong. with. this. fucking. country!
littlem
June 10, 2008 at 3:52 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Mon cher bikemonkey,
I gather your psychic investment in the acuity of escape valves and coping mechanisms is shockingly low.
No wonder why it seems the top of your head is frequently a scant nanometer from blowing off.
Some yoga with your nervous breakdown, perhaps?
littlem
June 10, 2008 at 3:53 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hee hee. Lower our shields and surrender our fish. Our culture will adapt to service them. We will be assimilated.
The Earth-Bound Misfit
June 15, 2008 at 8:02 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
They are doing their job: Gravity Inspector.
Lemur
July 6, 2008 at 11:44 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
@littlem: “Some yoga with your nervous breakdown, perhaps?”
Can I yoink that phrase now? It is awesome-tastic. I’m getting a mental of a twitchy, stressed out person grinding their teeth while clenching their fists in the Lotus position.
*snicker*
Also, yay for escapism/comedy as coping mechanisms, for sure. I’d be one of the chronically twitchy myself, otherwise.