For some reason there’s been a spate of recent articles on why some cats fetch (I had one that did it, too). Click on the headlines below to read. I’ll give a short anser for each one.
From The Atlantic (link goes to archived version):
Their “byproduct” hypothesis:
Evolutionarily speaking, that sort of checks out. Fetching is just a sequence of four behaviors: looking, chasing, grab-biting, and returning. Versions of the first three are already built into predators’ classic hunting repertoire, says Kathryn Lord, an evolutionary biologist at the Broad Institute, who’s had her own fetching cat. Returning is perhaps the wild card. Christopher Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told me that, as solitary creatures, cats have little natural incentive to share what they catch. He hasn’t spotted much retrieval behavior in the feline species he’s studied in nature—or in the half dozen house cats he’s had throughout his life
But cats already have some of the behavioral ingredients for carrying fetched cargo. As Sarah Ellis, the head of cat mental wellbeing and behavior at International Cat Care, points out, feline mothers bring live prey back to their kittens to teach them how to hunt, and cats of both sexes have been known to move their food to safer spots before chowing down. (Ellis has had multiple fetching cats.) Maybe, Dickman told me, as cats were repeatedly invited into human homes and praised for eliminating pests, some of their retrieval-esque behaviors were rewarded—and possibly amplified. House cats with access to the outdoors are sadly infamous for hauling home wild birds, rodents, amphibians, and reptiles. And for indoor-only cats, chasing a furry object, gnawing on it, and bringing it to a secure spot may playfully scratch a predatory itch that might otherwise go unsated.
They don’t know! But they also include a video of a fetching cat. Mine was like this: he never brought the fetched object all the way back to me.
So why do cats fetch? We don’t know! It is likely this behavior is part of the predatory sequence of behaviors. There are two parts to this behavior – the pursuit of the object when it is tossed, and the retrieval. Some cats seem to do both (the true fetchers), most cats will pursue moving objects (likely predatory behavior), and some cats will carry objects to home or their owner (including cats who like to bring home things like clothing and toys). As previously mentioned, bringing objects home could be related to bringing killed prey home for a safer place to consume it. However, in the case of fetching behavior, the retrieval seems more likely to be a “request” for the human to engage in more toy tossing! So perhaps this is a truly social play behavior rather than strictly predatory.
A pretty good fetch:
From the BBC:
The research was first published in the science journal Scientific Reports.
Many cats instinctively like to play, the report says, and owners are being urged to think more about the types of activities they could do to keep their pets happy and active.
It found cats generally prefer to be in control of the game and do not require training to play.
Jemma Forman, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex School of Psychology, said: “Cats who initiated their fetching sessions played more enthusiastically with more retrievals and more fetching sessions per month.
“This perceived sense of control from the cat’s perspective may be beneficial for the cat’s welfare and the cat-owner relationship.
“I’d encourage owners to be receptive to the needs of their cat by responding to their preferences for play – not all cats will want to play fetch, but if they do, it’s likely that they will have their own particular way of doing so.”
The survey gathered information from 924 owners of 1,154 cats (994 mixed-breed and 160 purebred) that play fetch to better understand the behaviour.
The vast majority of cats (94.4%) showed an instinctive ability to play fetch from a young age, whether it was retrieving toys or common household items.
From Scientific American:
The fun hypothesis:
In some instances, owners described a scenario in which they dropped or accidentally launched an object, and their cat spontaneously fetched it. In other accounts, domestic felines simply brought their owners a cat toy or other random item, which the human then tossed aside—and a throw-and-retrieve cycle began. “We had an overwhelming number of people say their cat was not trained to do this behavior,” says Jemma Forman, lead study researcher and a Ph.D. student at the University of Sussex in England. “We even had some people say that their cats had trained them to play fetch.”
As a caveat, Serpell says humans are likely giving cats unconscious reinforcement by engaging with them in throwing an object in the first place, providing interaction and social reward. Contrary to popular sentiment, domestic cats are, in fact, very much attuned to their humans.
A good fetch of a tinfoil ball by a hairless cat (from the article above):
For your delectation, the Nature “Science Reports” story is here, and it’s also been covered by The Guardian, too.
Reader Jon Losos sent a photo of his own cat, Nelson, fetching a toy:
***************
This is bizarre but also funny. Someone had a cake made that looks just like their cat. Then they cut into its head in front of the moggy. . . . . .
Look at the cat’s expression!
******************
We met Felix, the Huddersfield Station Cat, in 2016. a moggy so famous that she has her own Wikipedia section along with another station cat, Bolt. Here’s the short bit from Wikipedia:
The first station cat, Felix, joined the staff as a nine-week-old kitten in 2011. Since then she has patrolled the station to keep it free from rodents, and even has her own cat-flap to bypass the ticket barriers. In 2016 Felix was promoted to Senior Pest Controller and local artist Rob Martin painted a portrait of her which now hangs in the station. In 2019 Transpennine Express named a Class 68 locomotive (68031) after Felix.
Felix was probably the most famous cat in Britain, and you can read the details about her in the sad article below announcing his death early last December:
A train station cat which became famous across the world has died.
Felix has been a pest controller at Huddersfield Station since 2011, but it was today confirmed that “she peacefully went to sleep” in the company of the station’s staff.
The moggy shot to fame after a Facebook page dedicated to her life was created by a commuter in 2015 and quickly attracted more than 170,000 followers.
She made several television appearances including on Good Morning Britain and her first biography for charity, Felix The Railway Cat, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
Here’s the announcement of her death:
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Felix.
On Sunday, she peacefully went to sleep, in the loving comfort of Angie Hunte (Station Manager) and Jacqui Cox (Station Team Leader).
We will miss her dearly pic.twitter.com/5ThAk5fzyW
— Felix and Bolt (@FelixhuddsCat) December 5, 2023
Here’s a video of the pre-mortem Felix:
You can find the Facebook page of Felix and Bolt here.
*****************
Lagniappe: Reader Reese sent two photos of his cat Rocky:
Rocky likes to bathe while I fill the birdbath.
From Doc Bill: “Here’s a photo of Kink the Cat fetching “Mousie. 2007.”
h/t: Jon, Ginger K., Reeese, Pyers
Kink the Cat played fetch when he was a kitten. He had a little fuzzy fish that he liked to carry around. I’d toss it across the floor and he’d bring it back. Over and over and over. Fun game.
I had a cat who liked to chase and fetch a bouncing superball down a wooden staircase. (A superball is a small hard rubber ball that has a fantastic bounce on hard surfaces.) She figured out how to start it bouncing down the stairs by herself. I would hear her playing fetch with herself in the middle of the night. But she preferred to play with a person. She’d bring the ball to any available human and look at them entreatingly.
I use to throw crumpled cellophane wrapped cigarette packages for the cat I had at the time named Squeak. She would bring them all the way back but only if I wasn’t watching her.
My cat, Bertha, also chased cigarette packs. It started when I threw an empty, crumpled pack of Lucky Strikes across the room to the wastebasket, but I missed the bin, and Bertha took off like a rocket, grabbed the pack in her mouth, and brought it back. If i didn’t immediately throw it, again, she would push it into my hand with her mouth.
Growing up, our cat would regularly play fetch with me. Her favorite toy for doing that was a hairpin. I’d toss it down the hallway and off she’d go, crashing into the shelves at the end of the hall, grabbing up the hairpin, and then come running back to drop it at my feet where she’d wait for me to throw it again.
If I did nothing she’d pick it up, drop it again, and look at me like I was an idiot. We never taught her to do this.
Only one of our d*gs ever learned the full sequence, no matter how hard we tried to train them.
These are all awesome. Cutting the cat cake is a bit creepy for the cat—and even for me!
Indeed, I had to skip it.
One of our many cats, Flora, a white polydactyl long hair rescue liked to play fetch but her particular skill was to catch the ball or object which she was very adept at because of her extra digit. Quite dexterous and a beautiful nature. Sadly no longer with us but she had a long and loving time.
Thanks for another great Caturday trifecta!
When I’m in bed reading before I go to sleep, my cat will frequently bring me a toy to solicit some play time. Of course I always get out of bed and accommodate her, because that’s what we servants are for. Here’s one video of her: https://youtu.be/YtL0-8DIyqI
Kink used to do that when he was little. One night I reached down in the dark to feel what he brought to bed and I thought it was a plastic wrapper of some sort.
In the morning I discovered the “wrapper” was actually a large, and dead, cockroach.
I’ve had several cats who played fetch on occasion, but it was probably accidental rather than intentional. One, however, Taffy, loved to play fetch with smallish plastic colored eggs that are around at Easter. I pulled them in half (they were just over an inch in diameter). When I threw them, he chased, picked them up with his teeth, and brought them either right to me or within a foot. We did that over and over until I sometimes ended the session as my arm was tired. He also occasionally carried one to the top of the wooden stairs and let it bounce down the stairs–favorite time to do that was, of course, in the middle of the night. When one went under the stove or bookcase, he sat there staring at the spot it disappeared until I came along and retrieved it. One of his other games was batting it under those objects on purpose, where he could sometimes get it out himself and other times had to wait for a person with a long stick.
For at least one cat, Abyssinians, it’s a breed trait; I had one that would do this for hours.
My dad used to toss a crumpled-up silver paper ball to our big black tom, who would bat it back to him without allowing it to touch the ground. They both seemed to enjoy this activity (“boolie” – my parents were from Glasgow) and each bout would go on for some time.
Sad news about Felix, who was clearly much loved. Other British railway stations that have resident cats include Stevenage and Stourbridge Junction. The letter’s incumbent is George, a handsome ginger fellow who posts daily on Twitter.
I used to have a cat named Little Joe who fetched. I haven’t been able to teach any of my other cats to fetch, but he loved to chase that crumpled-up piece of papers & then bring it back to me.