cats are beautiful... why?

[miriam_e]

Am I the only one who sees the peculiarity here? Cats look beautiful to us. We frequently coo and aaww over them. Even people who hate the slaughter they wreak upon the Australian wildlife still have to admit they are gorgeous creatures.

But why?

We are humans. They are cats -- a totally different kind of mammal. They have a completely different language from us, both verbal and body-language. They are quite alien. So how could we ever consider them beautiful? They don't even benefit from crossed parental cues the way dogs do. Dogs even share the same language as us, both verbal and physical. If we should feel another species was beautiful you'd think it would be the dog, but they are described differently -- they're our best friend, loyal, steadfast, noble... but rarely beautiful.

The only thing I can come up with is that there may have been some early selection for those who like cats because they kill rodents that take grain and pass on diseases like bubonic plague. Cats won't hang around unless it is in their interests to do so -- they aren't social animals. So a person with a misplaced adoration for cats would have been be in a much better survival position.

Just pointless thoughts. Can't be proved or disproved so it's far from scientific. But an interesting puzzle.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I still don't go along with competitive behavior as being social. That's a little like Maggie Thatcher's denial that society exists; that only individuals do. But of course there is always some kind of wiggle-room in definitions, for instance flocking behavior looks pretty social, but the rulles are simple and individual... so perhaps there are ways of looking at cats as social.

I've never had more than one cat at a time so I've never seen "cat chess". It sounds interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the pointer.