From: mdhangton@gmail.com

Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article ,
> William Vetter   wrote:
>> Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
>>> "Dorothy J Heydt"  wrote
>>>
>>>> Is someone writing about the vibrissae of an aileuromorph?
>>>> Please send a link, if so.
>>>
>>> The best Amazon can find is the facsimile reprint "The Functions Of The
>>> Vibrissae In The Behavior Of The White Rat (1912) "
>>>
>>> All listed seem to be non-fiction.
>>
>> If you cut the rat's whiskers off, he can't find his way through a
>> maze.
>>
>> If you cut the cat's whiskers off, he can't locate a victim's neck in
>> the dark to kill it with a bite.
>>
>> That is the importance of the vibrissae, whiskers that function as
>> sensory organs.
>>
>> Cats score very badly in maze work anyhow.  Maze work is how many
>> scientists define the intelligence of animals.
>
> That, and being willing to understand/carry out the command of
> humans.  This is why some humans think dogs are more intelligent
> than cats.  The dog is a pack animal and wants to cooperate with
> whoever it thinks its pack leader is.
> The cat is less social,
> more independent, and while it can become very fond of its human,
> this takes time.  Thus, the cat may understand perfectly what you
> want it to do, but just can't be bothered; so you'll never know
> if it understood you or not.

I've been reading some books by Roger Tabor.  The phrase he uses is
that the cat is "not particularly hierarchical."  And in terms of
hunting behavior, the dog is "a cog in the machine," and the cat "_is_
the machine."

Well...the way I look at it is the cat, in that he is an independent
hunter, is self-employed, and really doesn't get the concept of a boss.
 Cats may also operate as scavengers, although their dentition isn't
specialized for that such as, for example, the hyena.  When we feed
them, they are operating as scavengers.  When their main procurement of
food is this way, and food is plentiful, they form colonies, and, in
feral colonies, adult cats interact socially as kittens do in the nest,
grooming one another in the regions of their bodies they can't reach,
nursing their neighbors' kittens, etc.  Some cats, especially large
males, can show dominance behavior, but the cats in these colonies
behave as colleagues, rather than employees of the leader.

That's how I see their behavior toward their humans. Surely you've
encountered personnel managers who believe an employee who doesn't show
ritual submission is up to something, and others who want to relate to
their subordinates as junior colleagues.  Some types of employees will
succeed under either; and for an employee ill-suited to the type of
boss will fail disastrously.
>
> The differences between dogs and cats tells us something about the
> differences between dog people and cat people.

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