CATS’ LEVELS OF SOCIALIZATION
Naturally cats are highly social and friendly pets. They are used to being to humans and are highly dependent on us not only in terms of food and shelter but also in terms of social contacts. It is commonly known that domestic cats even elaborated a system of vocal signs to communicate with people – meowing. Cats use completely different sounds to communicate with people and with other cats. It’s another evidence of strong ties between cats and human beings. But due to improper environment where some cats grow, they may be deprived of the possibility of forming healthy patterns of social cat-to-human behavior. Depending on the conditions of cat’s life in its first months the animal may have different levels of socialization from zero tolerance to any contact with humans to cautious behavior or complete trust to humans. The level of socialization is not constant; it may change with the changes of the environment (both improve and degrade). The safer environment becomes the better socialization occurs, and contrary, dangerous environment and improper humans’ behavior make a cat more stressed and feral.
We elaborated the evaluation system to estimate the level of cat’s socialization.
Grade 0 – feral cat: does not approach humans, avoids people, and keeps distance that allows it to escape, hides, hisses and growls when approached by human, very difficult to trap, can aggressively react to any attempt to make a direct contact with it, bites and scratches if caught. Needs a lot of patience, time, and some skills to be socialized.Grade 1 – scared cat: accepts people to be around but does not get close to humans, keeps safe distance and permanent eye contact to be able to immediately react to any attempt to interact with him, hisses when touched by human, alert to any unusual sound, move or vibration, can aggressively react if caught. Needs patience, time, and some skills to be socialized.Grade 2 – cautious cat: accepts people to be in a close distance, may allow to pet him, but needs to be approached in a very smooth and careful way with no loud voices and sudden moves, keeps being alert while petting, can aggressively react to any unusual action of the human. Usually, such cats are on a halfway to their socialization, need some patience and a little of time to start trusting people and become friendly.Grade 3 – neutral cat: does not care if there are people around, accepts human’s care, allows petting but does not initiatively ask for attention, looks independent and self-satisfied without close ties with humans. Neutral cats can happily live their whole life next to people with moderate contacts with them, meantime constant positive interaction with humans can make neutral cats friendly.Grade 4 – friendly cat: loves humans’ attention, positively reacts to direct contact with human, prefers to spend their time next to people, initiatively asks for interaction. Grade 5 – affectionate cat: human addicted, spends all the time next to people, uses every chance to sit on the lap or be picked up, demands constant attention and interaction.
Important: behavior of the cat depends on his socialization level and personality and can’t be “switched” according to the human’s preferences. There is no way to switch super friendly mode off when the person is not interested in interacting with the cat, and switch it on when it’s good time for the cat owner to play. As well as it’s not possible to “jump” from cautious or neutral mode of the cat to friendly or affectionate one after you took a cat in. Cat’s life cycle is consistent and can’t be “paused” or “speeded up” according to the human’s mood and preferences. It’s something important to understand before you adopt a cat. We must respect animal nature and make efforts to help cats to improve their social skills in a smart and patient way. Important: most of the rescued cats (both born on the street and abandoned) usually have traumatizing experiences that affect their personality and should be considered by foster or adopter. It may cause inadequate reactions to certain triggers based on their trauma. Thus, a friendly cat that experiences any kind of violence preceded or followed with certain human actions may fear the same actions from other humans, although no violence happens. For example, if someone picked up the cat and hurt or scared it, the cat will be scared every time it is picked up by any human. Although the same cat can come to the person and sit on a lap by itself with no stress. It’s crucially important to pay attention to such triggers and not to force a pet to go through trauma-related experiences. The best way to deal with such cases is to avoid any triggering action toward your cat. There is a big chance that with time the cat overcomes it itself based on the trust that you build in your relations with your pet. Important: Cats are territorial animals. It means that they are attached to their usual environment and change of place is very stressful for them. That is why the cats’ behavior changes when we relocate them. It means that any cat that you take to your home, even the most friendly and self-confident, will be scared and stressed right after moving to your home and will need time to get used to the new place. The best way to help your new pet to adapt to your home speedily is not to bother it with your attention until it feels safe and starts initiatively interacting with its new family members.
Important: behavior of the cat depends on his socialization level and personality and can’t be “switched” according to the human’s preferences. There is no way to switch super friendly mode off when the person is not interested in interacting with the cat, and switch it on when it’s good time for the cat owner to play. As well as it’s not possible to “jump” from cautious or neutral mode of the cat to friendly or affectionate one after you took a cat in. Cat’s life cycle is consistent and can’t be “paused” or “speeded up” according to the human’s mood and preferences. It’s something important to understand before you adopt a cat. We must respect animal nature and make efforts to help cats to improve their social skills in a smart and patient way. Important: most of the rescued cats (both born on the street and abandoned) usually have traumatizing experiences that affect their personality and should be considered by foster or adopter. It may cause inadequate reactions to certain triggers based on their trauma. Thus, a friendly cat that experiences any kind of violence preceded or followed with certain human actions may fear the same actions from other humans, although no violence happens. For example, if someone picked up the cat and hurt or scared it, the cat will be scared every time it is picked up by any human. Although the same cat can come to the person and sit on a lap by itself with no stress. It’s crucially important to pay attention to such triggers and not to force a pet to go through trauma-related experiences. The best way to deal with such cases is to avoid any triggering action toward your cat. There is a big chance that with time the cat overcomes it itself based on the trust that you build in your relations with your pet. Important: Cats are territorial animals. It means that they are attached to their usual environment and change of place is very stressful for them. That is why the cats’ behavior changes when we relocate them. It means that any cat that you take to your home, even the most friendly and self-confident, will be scared and stressed right after moving to your home and will need time to get used to the new place. The best way to help your new pet to adapt to your home speedily is not to bother it with your attention until it feels safe and starts initiatively interacting with its new family members.