Can cats actually get mad?

[becca tsukino]

I don't necessarily believe that they have ZERO concept of time. I remember when I was little, I used to go on two week vacations to my Nana's house in Florida. Each time I came back and approached my cat, her tail would poof up and she'd act extremely agitated with me, as if she was pissed that I left her alone for so long!
I definitely know that cats hold grudges. My brother used to treat my cat like she was a play thing. He used to pull her tail, hold her tightly and carry her like a stuffed animal.. He even threw her down the stairs once to see if she would actually land on her feet! He used to make loud noises and purposely scare her away for amusement as well.
Granted, he was extremely young and had no concept of how to abide by cats' many rules. Thankfully she has always been a very tolerant cat.
Anyway, to this day (maybe 6-8 years later) she still runs away when she hears him coming down the stairs.. She avoids him at all costs, and only really approaches him when he's sleeping or in a calm, relaxed state. (Which isn't too common for a 14 year old boy)

 

[becca tsukino]

 
It is not anger or disappointment. It is fear. Cats have very short memories, and you are now seen as a new experience to her. Give her a few days to get used to you again and she will go back to the loving cat she used to be. Don't bother her when she is under the bed, that will set the process back several steps.

Of course, this is only my personal observation from 25 years of multi-cat ownership and over 50 years of having cats around.

I disagree personally. My cat NEVER acts in such a way to newcomers.. She's actually quite friendly. I had the exact same situation as fonkee, except I was away for 2 weeks. I was never away from home for that long in my life at the time. (I was eight).
When I got older, and was staying out of the house more often, she became used to it though. Recently I left for two weeks again, and she greeted me the same as ever. I think at the time, my cat WAS feeling abandoned... But once my leaving became routine, she got used to it. I think she is just happy to see me, considering I'm her favorite it the house (:

 

[lilin]

I have read numerous times that cats cannot have human emotions such as the human emotion of being mad at somebody. I have also read that cats have no concept of time; if you leave for work and come back ten hours later they will be just as glad to see you as if you had been gone for ten days. So the experts have always told me. But here on TCS people are always talking about their cat(s) getting mad at them.

I wonder if being mad is like the mad emotion in humans. Being normal, I occasionally get mad at my spouse. And of course there are times when she gets mad at me. The length of time that each would be mad at the other would depend on the "crime". Here is my input on the subject.

I brush and comb Persi every morning but there are still times when I hit a snag. Determined to get the snag out before it becomes worse, I continue combing/brushing until I get it out, knowing it will be worse tomorrow if I do not. This action on my part makes Persi very "mad" at me and he will in fact threaten to do me harm. Now here is where being mad and the concept of a time frame come together: When I am done with the grooming session he will head into the walk in closet where his tent is located and he will get into the tent "mad" at me. There can be no doubt in my mind he is mad at me.

The next thing on my agenda is to come down here in my office where it is very rare that Persi does not join me. Today is such a day. No Persi. He did not even come down to share my roast beef sandwich today at lunch time. You know this guy is really mad at me. He is still up there in his tent. In a few hours it will be dinner time. He has never failed to get over being mad by dinner time and will come downstairs where he will remain the rest of the evening.

Has he actually been feeling the emotion us humans call mad? Does he have a concept of time for how long he will stay mad? (When he gets mad it seems he stays mad longer some times more than others.)

So, what do you think about this subject as it pertains to your cats?

I don't believe cats get mad in the way we think about it. I don't think they get the "You suck and you deserve bad things!" kind of feeling that humans do.

I think it is wrong to say cats don't have emotions, but their emotions are less "meta." If you think about it (and it's a bit of a mental pretzel, since it's hard for us to imagine feeling in a non-human way), being "mad" in the human sense is kind of meta. It's connecting a person's overall personhood to certain actions. I don't think cats do that. Because the human emotion of "mad" tempts us to act spitefully, and I am certain that cats don't do that.

I think, rather, they are trying to communicate "I didn't like that" or "Don't do that" by staying away. They aren't trying to be spiteful, the way humans can be. They aren't telling us we're being bad people. They're telling us they don't like that and they don't want to be around if we're going to do that because it's unpleasant for them. But there's no "meta" implication that we're being bad people, or that we deserve bad things. They just don't want that happening to them again, so staying away is an effective measure to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Cats never "strike back," which is why I don't think they get mad like humans do. If they scratch you or something, they aren't doing it to "get back at you." They're doing it because they feel threatened and they think they need to defend themselves. If you're doing something to a cat they don't like, and you stop, it's over. They aren't going to come back and re-initiate a conflict. And angry human sometimes will.

I don't know how well I'm explaining that, but there it is.

As far as a concept of time, I don't really know. I think cats do have a concept of time, but they don't have a concept of future, if that makes sense.

My elder kitty knew the difference between me going to school or work for 6 to 8 hours, and when I left for months traveling. She never worried when I left for school/work, but she was beside herself while I was away traveling. So that suggests she does have some concept of time. Maybe not a fantastically detailed one, but something.

However, after my traveling, she would get nervous every time I left the house for about 6 months. It didn't matter how long I was gone. Whether it was an hour or a weekend, her reaction was the same.

I think she remembered that I had once went away for a long time, and she got that nervous feeling whenever I was gone after that, because she worried I'd be gone a long time again. And because she had that FEELING, it didn't matter how long I was gone -- she still felt bad. She perhaps didn't realize that I hadn't been gone very long, because it felt just as bad to her.

So perhaps, cats measure time by how they feel.

 

[lilin]

 
It is not anger or disappointment. It is fear. Cats have very short memories, and you are now seen as a new experience to her. Give her a few days to get used to you again and she will go back to the loving cat she used to be. Don't bother her when she is under the bed, that will set the process back several steps.

Of course, this is only my personal observation from 25 years of multi-cat ownership and over 50 years of having cats around.

I don't think that is true. I know my elder cat Pearl remembered me for an entire year of absence.

She would recognize my voice after months of not hearing it. I would occasionally send something that smelled like me, and she would hoard it until the scent was gone. And when I came back, she instantly resumed sleeping only with me.

She also developed depression. Her fur thinned and her energy went down. She stayed low for that entire year. When I came back, she was looking better within a week.

I don't know if cats have memories like we do, but at the very least, they remember the association with positive interaction.

Pia seems to remember people too. With people she has met before -- even if she hasn't seen them in weeks -- she will come out to say hello pretty much right away. With complete strangers, she won't come out for about an hour.

 

[meandthegov]

i think that the different posts in this thread all reach at the same idea that cat-mad can happen if you interrupt the cat's routine. it is not like people-mad, resentful and spiteful, but it is a sort of cat-mad where the cat lets you know he doesn't like what's going on.

i just got back from a week long trip to texas and searched the site for this exact topic and i'm glad it's been revived because i wasn't here four years ago.

while i was away, i had a cat sitter come daily to spend an hour with him and she left me a note that said "gov and i have a definite routine" of feeding, playing, and being brushed for one hour starting at 12pm. like an idiot, i guess, i came home and started to unpack and i think that gov was disturbed by all the "new" activity, he lashed out at me while i was hanging stuff in the closet and got me pretty good on the leg. he grabbed onto my ankle and locked his jaws on my leg and drew some blood. he wouldn't really respond to the "NO" and hissing that usually snaps him out of it, and it kinda scared me. my human brain wants to think that he was mad at me for going away. my understanding of cats, however, is that he was cat-mad at the disruption of what he was used to. 

sometimes i get frustrated that i have to conform my daily life to my cat's routine, and i wish he would mellow out. he's still very young so i hope that will happen eventually. 

however, i really believe that he missed me while i was gone. he hasn't otherwise left my lap since i've been back. 

 

[laralove]

I'm interested to see how Oliver will react to BF coming home tonight. He's been gone for over a week. I can't see Oliver being "mad" or strange about. I think he'll be excited. But who knows?! He's set to arrive in the middle of the night. Oliver sleeps on or beside me but is very jumpy to any unfamiliar sound. So I expect he will run under the bed until he realizes it's John, then be okay.

 

[mdavis1231]

I know absolutely for a fact that my little Daffodil gets angry when she's not happy with something, and only seems to become angry with me specifically.  I don't believe that Daffodil ever becomes "afraid" in my apartment, because ever since I got her when she was a baby, I've always made sure that there's never been anything for her to be afraid of.  Nor do I believe that when I return from a trip that I am a "new experience" for her, because when I go to pick her up from the border, as soon as she sees me, she begins crying for me to come and get her out of her "kitty condo", and goes crazy rubbing against my hand from inside her carrier.  Other than me leaving the apartment for a few hours instead of just a few minutes, she also becomes very angry with me when I decide to relax in my living room recliner in front of the television and have a few drinks.  If she smells any alcohol on me whatsoever, she immediately gets angry.  She makes it very clear to me that she's not happy at all with me even having just a few drinks.

 

[tinkerfellouch]

Well I haven't had my kitty for very long. But when I have to set her aside for a moment to do some work or tell her no, her certain gives me that teenage " Whatever, you don't love me." look. But I don't think unless you do something insane cruel to a cat, they will be annoyed or hate you forever.

 

[meowow1]

My cats get upset for sure. For instance... True story....my mom and her boyfriend fight. They fight in the room but my outside cat, chuckie sees and watches from the fence. He doesnt like the boyfriend. He hisses and slaps him when he tries to pet him. One day the boyfriend was working on his car. He was lying on the floor underneith it wrenching away. chuckie found it the perfect time to go pee on him without the boyfriend being able to go very far. He went on to of the engine area right over her boyfriend head and peed. It got all over her bf.lol