Cats Are Jealous


I read somewhere about a year or so ago that cats don’t experience jealousy. I don’t remember the author but I do remember he had letters after his name so he was some kind of expert. I suppose if I was paying attention I would have noticed those letters to be “BS” because, even then, I knew he could not have possibly had cats. Cats can certainly be jealous. I know that because I live with Chris, who, if he was human, would be like the crazy ex-girlfriend who breaks into your house to go through your computer history (yes, that happened to me).

I know Chris is an extreme case but I see evidence of jealousy sometimes in our other cats. Floki, for example, will get mad at Chris if he is in the bedroom with Mom in the morning when Floki likes to get attention from her. If a new box is introduced, there can be fighting over who gets first dibs on getting inside. I don’t know if that is jealousy or its evil sibling, envy, but it’s so similar who’s counting.

Here is Chris while Frankie is on my lap. Can someone tell me that this is not jealousy?

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18 thoughts on “Cats Are Jealous

  1. easyweimaraner

    oh they sure can be jealous… I saw it at the cats of a friend, Mickey & Minnie, the two went mad when they could not both sit on her lap. Later Mickey moved to her brother while she kept Minnie… mission completed, both got their own lap. but no good headline for disney: Mickey&Minnie separated LOL

    Reply
  2. Summer

    My human had a cat that considered her her exclusive possession. When she made friends with a neighbor cat, and her cat would sniff her clothes and growl if she could smell the other cat on her!

    I think the person with the initials after his name meant that cat feelings tend more to the territorial than actual jealousy. But then, what is jealousy in humans than being territorial?

    Reply
  3. cat9984

    Actually, Chris is much more patient than Kommando. If Snoops is receiving any type of attention and Kommando notices, she will immediately come over to take command of any attention being given. If that had been a video of her, she would have immediately jumped up into what is left of your lap. We have never seen anything like it and have not been able to break the habit

    Reply

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