Researchers Determine the 'Right Way' to Stroke a Cat

It's no secret that cats are picky pets. They can be perfectly content with you stroking their soft fur and then suddenly WHAMMO! you get a paw full of claws to the hand. Of course, the temperament of your furry friend influences if and when this happens, but researchers at the University of Lincoln decided to investigate if there is a surefire way to "properly" pet your cat.

What they found was more evidence that cats think of their owners less as... well... their owners and more like a big, dumb, and useful fellow cats.

Researcher Sarah Ellis and her colleagues launched their study suspecting that cats consider friendly feline behavior from other cats in the same way that they asses friendly behavior from humans.

No, you aren't expected to groom your cats with your tongue, but when you pet them, your cat is likely responding to it in the same way that felines respond to mutual grooming - called allo-grooming. Other times when you stroke your cat, it may be associated with how felines will often rub against one another or even intertwine tails - all part of a complex social agenda.

To determine when and what kind of petting is most acceptable in the feline world, researchers tested 34 cats (age 6 months to 12 years) in their own homes. Once each animal became comfortable around an experimenter and video camera, the experiment was started. On two separate days either the experimenter or owner was recorded stroking the cat.

The petter was asked to stroke different parts of the cat's body in various ways and orders. The animal was also free to walk away at any time. Only 16 of these cats apparently stuck around for the whole petting routine, potentially because the humans were getting the order "wrong."

The videos were then analyzed, with the researcher looking specifically for when friendly behavior (slow blinks, straight tail, rubbing, etc.) occurred or angry behavior (swishing tail, biting, or swatting).

The results were published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior.

What the researchers learned is that, most importantly, cats seem to think of stroking as allo-grooming more than mutual feline rubbing. Most cats also let experimenters pet them for longer, potentially because the experimenter was new and interesting. They also learned something that most pet owners know: avoid the tail when petting, lest you want to get bit. And this actually makes a lot of sense, as tail licking is not considered a regular part of allo-grooming.

Still, whether or not cats think they are actually being cleaned by their owners when they are getting pet remains to be seen. They may simply accept the action, as it serves as obligatory social interaction with that big-dumb cat that feeds them.

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