Showing love to your cat makes it MORE likely to scratch the sofa, study finds 

Although cats have a reputation for being independent and unaffected by humans, many owners form close emotional bonds with their cats.

But a new study may stop owners from showing that much love for their cats.

Researchers at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul have warned that cats are more likely to scratch the couch if they have a close emotional bond with their owners.

“Unexpectedly, in our study, cats with the behavior of scratching furniture or destroying objects were associated with a higher emotional attachment to the owner,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul have warned that cats are more likely to scratch the couch if they have a close emotional bond with their owners.

In the study, the researchers wanted to understand whether the degree of emotional connection between owners and their cats influences the animal’s behavior.

“There is some evidence that cat behavior influences the level of emotional attachment between the animals and owners,” the team wrote in their study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour.

“In some circumstances, a bad relationship can result in neglect, abuse or abandonment of the animal.”

The researchers surveyed 500 cat owners in Brazil about their emotional bond with their cat, the characteristics that describe their cat, and their cat’s behavior.

The vast majority of participants (90 percent) were female and the level of emotional connection was higher in this group than among male owners.

Factors such as having other pets and frequent visits to the vet were also directly linked to a higher level of emotional closeness.

“No association was found between the owner’s emotional closeness level and the presence of aggression, excessive vocalization or inappropriate elimination in the cat,” the researchers wrote.

The vast majority of participants (90 percent) were female and the level of emotional connection was higher in this group than male owners (stock image)

However, the team was surprised to find that emotional closeness appeared to be linked to scratching in cats.

“Surprisingly, scratching furniture and destroying objects was directly associated with greater emotional closeness in our population,” she added.

“Owners who didn’t report this behavior had lower emotional closeness than those who did.”

Unfortunately, the reason for this link remains unclear.

“This behavior could have been interpreted by most owners as expected and acceptable, as scratching appears to be relatively less corrected than the problem behavior of other cats,” the team concluded.

Cats know their owner’s name and can also recognize their feline friends’ nicknames, research shows

When it comes to pets, they are not always recognized as the friendliest or even the most sociable.

But it seems that cats are less selfish than they may seem – because they know not only the names of their owners, but also the names of their feline friends.

Japanese researchers looked at 48 cats living with at least two other pets, either in a family home or in a cat cafe.

Each animal heard a recording of their owner calling the name of a cat they lived with.

Then a picture of that cat flashed on a computer screen, or a picture of another cat in their household.

The 19 cats from family homes continued to stare at the photo for longer when the cat whose name was mentioned was not seen – a common reaction when animals are surprised.

A study by Japanese researchers has suggested that cats know each other’s names and “possibly” their owners (stock image)

A separate experiment showed cats either a photo of their owner or themselves when their name was called.

While the 26 cats surveyed generally fared less well, those who lived in larger families stared longer if the photo and name didn’t match.

Authors, from Kyoto University, said the results suggest cats know each other’s names and “possibly” their owners.

They said, ‘One possible explanation has to do with competition.

“A cat may be fed when the owner calls her name, but not when she calls another cat’s name.”

However, cats never compete with humans at meal times, so they have less reason to know their names.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.