What do you think of this "Alpha Female Cat" description?

[ralphonzo]

I'm going to excerpt in full a description of "The Alpha Female Cat" from this website:

Among spayed and neutered cats there are some females that are dominant by nature – these are the Alpha Female Cats. In a multiple cat household, there is often a female at the top of the cat hierarchy. This cat has a lot of responsibility – it is her job to keep all of the other cats in line. She can’t seem to find much time to play because of this responsibility. She can’t change this; it is just her personality.
An alpha female must keep her place at the top of the hierarchy at all times. Sometimes it is necessary for her to howl, yell and hiss at one of the other resident cats for no apparent reason, just to let them know who’s boss. Often the other cats will need to be whacked on the head a few times to remind them who is in charge of the cat family. It is very important that the alpha female cat should get the first plate for food at eating time: as top cat she is entitled to eat first. Alpha female cats are happiest as the only cat in a household, or where other resident cats have mellow personalities. The majority are best suited to live with mellow male cats. Alpha females are also more likely to get over-stimulated when petted.

It is best to just let the alpha female cat just be herself – after all, she is in charge of everything and that is a big responsibility!

I had never read anything like this before, or heard the term applied specifically to females. I also can't find any other sources describing the same phenomenon. If not for my experience with one cat, I'd be tempted to dismiss it altogether.

I've had a lot of cats in my life, but none quite like my female Himalayan who is 8 now. We've had her since she was around 8 weeks and she was always different. Easily overstimulated by touch, always looking all around her suggesting extreme paranoia, always stalking the other animals to stare at them at close range, quite often hissing, spitting or growling with the deepest voice I've ever heard in a domestic cat--it's not unlike a leopard in its guttural depth (perhaps it's no coincidence that her favorite genre of music, the only one she sings along to, is death metal). Oh, and by the way, she's barely 7 lbs.

At first, because of the unfortunate "home" she came from, we thought she may have been inbred and possibly retarded (I don't think her first 8 weeks were difficult or traumatic, but I wasn't left with a positive impression of the ethics of the old woman who apparently deliberately produced this litter). Then we decided she just had severe communication/interpretive issues and compared her to a person somewhere on the autism spectrum. That may seem insensitive, but it was the best I could ever come up with until I read the above quote.

The above describes her exactly. She's always watching, she's always making other cats and dogs feel uncomfortable. She even has a special place where only she eats where she can survey all passersby. She blocks doorways she knows other animals want to pass through, and if they eventually try to break through, she lashes out defensively as if they're trying to attack her. She loves to be held for short periods of time on her own terms, but inevitably becomes overwhelmed by tactile stimulation and freaks out until she's put down, after which she runs off to regroup. She's the perfect fly on the wall--the cat for someone who likes the aesthetic qualities of cats but who doesn't necessarily want to have to play with them and pet them and sleep with them and... She's 'add food and water, let live,' basically.

I know, cats are not dogs... Dogs like having a leader, cats don't, but mine have a boss if they want it or not. I don't mind. She's mostly talk and she hasn't traumatized anyone. I'm glad to accept this explanation of her behavior. Though I'd never heard of it elsewhere and have had no luck reading more about the phenomenon, the description is just too dead-on for me to believe anything else after all these years of not quite understanding her.

I've only had one other obviously dominant cat, a male, who, in contrast to the female, happened to be extraordinarily friendly and sociable. While he dominated the other cats, he did it in a more straightforward manner. He'd just beat the others up from time to time rather than stalking them for hours yelling at them and creeping them out. I'm not sure he was born into the alpha role, but he certainly assumed the throne in time. The female, however, has never changed. She was born this way. I'm not of the mindset that "there will always be one cat in a multi-pet home who rules all the others under his iron boot," as I've had stints of total harmony before and between the reigns of my dominant cats, but it's difficult to deny the current situation. Let me be clear, though, that I'm not seeking to change a thing. I'm confident everyone is happy here, and no one ever actually gets hurt. There's certainly never biting.

So what do you think about the quoted description? Have you ever had a female who possessed all or most of these qualities?

 

[kim23]

I currently have Susie, pictured, and a sweet 7 month old male. Susie is 5 years old. Both of my cats are recent rescues and are still learning their new home. Susie fits the description above. I will be interested in other opinions because I am a bit confused about whether everything is as it should be or I need to take some kind of action.