Hey, kitty kitty! Your cat probably DOES know its own name, as well as the names of its furry friends — and it might even know YOURS!
Japanese researchers found cats living in households with other felines often recognize each other’s names, as well as those of the human companions who always seem so slow to open their cans of food!
This means cats are not as aloof and above-it-all as some people depict them.
One possible explanation for excelling at the name game “has to do with competition,” says the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports. “A cat might receive food when the owner calls her name but not when she calls another cat’s name.”
Since cats are not in competition with humans at mealtimes, they may be slow to commit their owners’ names to memory, the Kyoto University team reasoned.
