Cat Culture

It's interesting how new cats (feral, stray or domestic) fit into the culture of older established cats when they are introduced and integrated into a family. I first became aware of this about ten years ago when I was on the house-sitting circuit in Sydney. I lived like a gypsy for about seven years all around the city – from the beach to the inner city and outlying suburbs. I had regular "clients" (if one could call them that) for whom I would regularly house-sit – especially people with animals. I liked the cats and dogs and they liked me so the house-owner would invariably transition back from a business trip or holiday to happy and relaxed animals. 

One of the families I house-sat for had four cats. Their house backed onto a State forest and had a lovely swimming pool and garden area. Every morning and evening, wild rainbow lorikeets, rosellas, cockatoos and corellas would fly onto the feeding trays on the verandah and eat sunflower seeds. They would walk all over the decking and would often come within inches of the sun-baking sprawled-out cats. What amazed me was that none of the cats would even so much as twitch their whiskers or open a sleepy eyelid to look at the birds, let alone pounce on them as is their nature.

When I expressed my incredulity about this phenomenon to the owner, she told me that the senior cat had never shown any interest in the feathered visitors. When two of the other cats came into the fold they looked to the senior cat for cues on how to handle the situation. The senior cat didn't even bother budging when a parrot walked past his nose and in the end neither did they – the cat culture was well and truly established in the form of ignoring the birds. 

A while later, a fourth cat joined the family. He was a starving stray who came in from the forest desperately seeking food which the house owner would leave out at night. After a while he moved in and became part of the family. He was a great character with a confident affectionate personality and he quickly established himself as the dominant cat – not with any show of threat or territorial competitiveness but with his wonderful character. In the first instance when he was confronted with a veritable feast of bird life, he observed that the other three cats didn't bother moving a muscle in the bird's vicinity and consequently he adopted that response as well. During the many sojourns I had at that house, I found no evidence of dead birds or other fallen animals that had become victim to the cats, although it must be said that these cats were well fed so I'm unsure whether starvation would have changed their behaviour or their established cat cultural practice.

Cat culture can be established by way of routines, eating patterns, inter-species interaction and so on and is invariably led by senior cats rather than humans. I've noticed on the farm that the newer cats look to the older cats for what to do in certain situations where they are unsure of the protocols (for want of a better word). In the end the neophytes just fall in line with what the other cats are doing and integrate into the farm cat culture. That's not to say they lose any aspect of their individual identity and personality, it's just that there must be some kind of modeling behaviour going. The Xmas kittens were perfect examples of this – they bonded with Samson and then started following his lead when it came to vacating their rumpus room home in the morning and coming back at night to eat. In the end if it was good enough for Samson, it was good enough for them.