It’s Official: Cats Can and Do Ignore Us – But It’s Not Our Fault

The experiment was carried out by French veterinary students who put together sixteen housecats with their owners to observe their behaviors. They made the owners call out their names and command different sentences in the tone they would typically use when talking to their cats.

They concluded that when the cats heard their owners' voices, their ears would move toward the sound, and their pupils dilated, yet, when a stranger called them, there was a decrease in the intensity of their reaction or even a lack of response.

They also compared the tones of the owners; they used the exact phrases, such as "do you want to eat?" in a regular way and in what they called CDS, cat-directed speech, referring to how they usually talked to their pets.

There was a noticeable difference between the two reactions of the cats. They didn't pay attention to the commands that weren't on CDS or even by strangers on CDS; this led the author to state, "cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans, when sentences are uttered by their owners."

In contrast, researchers said that this was different when doing the experiment with dogs. When dogs are talked in DDS (dog-directed speech), they react the same way, whether it is their owner or a stranger.

Similarly, another study by Sophia University, Tokyo, concluded that house cats know their name and are capable of noticing when they are called. Still, they decide to ignore it if there isn't something that catches their interest. However, it remains to be seen if they can follow commands similar to dogs, like catching toys or food.

Researchers believe house cats have developed this ability in their genes after centuries of being domesticated since their ancestors or wild cats are far from discriminating voices and sentences as they do. They also think the cat's response is directly related to the connection and type of relationship they have with the owner, which is why it is essential to spend time with them.

The study also talked about how the cats communicated. They noticed that they use a different pitch in their purr when interacting with their owner; house cats use a higher pitch than wild cats, resulting in being more sympathetic to their owners, which makes them capable of interacting and building relationships with humans.

The author also added, “Cats – who were not so long ago considered as independent and ungrateful creatures – are in fact very well capable of creating and fostering attachment bonds with humans,” so next time you think your cat hates you, just talk to them.