Cats Are Freeloaders

Most cats would rather take the easy route and eat free food, unlike some other animals that will choose to work for it.

Meowza hoomans,

If you don't know what “contrafreeloading” means, you are not alone. Of course, you can take the word apart and then guess what it is supposed to say. “Freeloading” is something we know and probably don't like, and “contra” means something like “against”.

If you now ask yourself what “contrafreeloading” has to do with cats, there is an easy answer in this newsletter: it's a research paper that looks at feline freeloading behaviour when it comes to food. And it turns out that, unlike other animals, cats don't think twice about freeloading food.

🐈‍⬛ This month's newletter talks about one of our cats’ favourite pastimes, namely eating

🐈‍⬛ and gives you the monthly selection of meowlogisms

🌿 Get your catnip ready and enjoy your short trip into the Cativerse.

Cats and (Contra)Freeloading

The study actually confirms something we already know: given the choice, cats don't want to work for food, i.e. they are not contrafreeloading (see, the word!). Alas, science calls our observations “anecdotal evidence” because they apparently lack the scientific rigour in making these claims. That is why a group of researchers has set out to find out about cats and their opportunistic behaviour.

Image by Jay from Pixabay

🐈‍⬛ Mikel M. Delgado, Brandon Sang Gyu Han, Melissa J. Bain (2022): Domestic cats (Felis catus) prefer freely available food over food that requires effort. ➡️ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-021-01530-3

This study looked at whether house cats would rather work for their food or just eat food that’s freely available. In the wild, animals usually have to hunt or forage, but some animals will still choose to work for their food even when they have the option of getting free food. This is called “contrafreeloading.” But not cats! Cats don't mind freeloading.

The group of researchers gave 17 cats a choice between free food and food in a puzzle that required some effort to get. Most of the cats went straight for the free food and didn’t bother much with the puzzle. A few cats did show some interest in working for their food, but even they preferred the easy option.

A Sample of the Monthly Meowlogisms

Here are some of the meowlogisms and other catspeak collected in the last month. As per linguistic conventions, the meowphemes making the word feline are written in <>.

Some words are easy to guess, others are more difficult. Let me know if you need a solution to what the original word actually is. 😸

• Sanremiao (Italian) <miao>

• pawty <paw>

• fur-friends <fur>

• Be my Catnentine <cat>

• Meowlentine <meow>

• catnipulation – the technique of cats to get what they want <cat>

• Catchelorette <cat>

• optimeowstic <meow> a first occurrence for me

• halp = help

• eep = sleep

• purrm <purr> perm

• pawttormey <paw>

• wonderpurr <purr>

Cats in Art

Who fancies a cupcat or a trip to the Meowseum to see the Mummies, in need of some paint for your new paw-lette, then a trip to the feline fine art shop is a must, or perhaps some flowers to act as your new inspiration then pop on over to the fur-lorist and grab some Meowygolds and finish the trip with a large scoop of Chococat Mice Cream from the ice cream purr-lour. @niaski https://niaski.com/pages/about

• Andy Purhol

• Paul Claw

• Keith Hairball

Cat Supermeowdels

• Meowmy Campbell

• Clawdia Schiffer

• Linda Evangewhisker

• Elle McFurson

• Cindy Pawford

🙀 Need help? Ask me!

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😸 Fank mew furry much for reading , and looking forward to dispensing my 🌿linguistic catnip to your inbox 📦 next month.

📝 Drop me a line if you have a question 🤔

➡️ Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested in cats and language.