'Cats Think You're Their Mother'

Science discovers . . . that cats bond more with women.

While cats have plenty of male admirers, and vice versa, this study and others reveal that women tend to interact with their cats — be they male or female felines — more than men do.

Having a mind stuffed with trivia, I thought of the 13th-century Ancrene Riwle, a handbook for anchoresses, an "anchoress"*  being a woman who voluntarily lived alone  in what amounted to a prison cell attached to a church, where she  spent her time in prayer.

The monk writing the rule book notes (updating the Middle English here), "Ye shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat."

This post's title comes from an observation by our friend Joyce, who went on to become a clinical psychologist: "A dog thinks you're another dog, but a cat thinks you're its mother."


*If male, an "anchorite," from a Greek work meaning to retire or withdraw.