Everyone knows that dogs are mans best friend. Scientific research into the study of canine behavior, emotion, and connection to humans has been studied for years. Many would describe the connection between a dog and their owner to be unique trait for dogs specifically. However, Kristyn Vitale and her team at the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State, have shown that cats present the same proportions of secure and insecure attachments to a human caretaker as dogs or human infants. So your cat is just as likely to bond with you as your dog!
The researchers performed what is known as a Secure Base Test (SBT) with pairs of cats and their owners. The test begins with the cat and the owner in the same space for 2 minutes, before the human leaves for 2 minutes, and then returns again. The animal subject is considered to have a secure attachment to the human if they maintain a balance between continued exploration and contact with their owner upon their return, and a reduced stress response. This indicates they find comfort in their owners return, to the point at which they are calm and happy to say hi but also continue exploring the space.
Insecure attachments are shown by large stress responses. They can present as either avoidance of the human, excessive attachment to them, or a disorganized mix of the two. This means that even if your cat immediately arrives to sit in your lap in a stressful environment, it doesn't necessarily prove a secure attachment. Security for a cat means they are comfortable enough to still explore the space, and don't need to hide or stick to their human (see video above).
After testing 70 kittens and their owners, Vitale's team found that 68% of them displayed secure attachments to their owners, and that this number stayed relatively steady through the next year of their lives, regardless of any kind of additional socialization their owners attempted. This is unsurprising to me as a cat owner, given that almost every cat I've known has a distinct preference for "their person". If they bonded with someone early on in life, it sticks. In the end, although cats are known to exhibit sometimes flippant attitudes towards their caretakers, they can still develop secure cross-species relationships just like dogs, and even to the same general degree of strength. Some cats may be less cuddly than others, but generally, if you're kind and don't crowd them they're not as crabby as people sometimes think.
Vitale, K. R., Behnke, A. C., & Udell, M. A. (2019). Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans. Current Biology, 29(18), R864-R865.
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