Lily and Sophie
Is your cat an extrovert or an introvert? I once wrote an article for Cat Fancy Magazine on how to choose the right cat for your household based on the cat’s personality. This week, I came across an article that takes this theme even farther. It talks about the five basic personality traits of cats. Some of the researchers found it interesting that the sophisticated computer program they developed to determine personality traits in cats came up with five traits—which coincides with the fact that there are also five categories of human personalities. Although, only three of the five personalities attributed to cats have similarities to those ascribed to humans.
Are you interested in the five human personality traits? I thought they were a little odd myself. They are Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Can you guess which ones they’ve attributed to cats? Neuroticism (Skittishness), Extroversion (Outgoingness), and Agreeableness (Friendliness).
Those that don’t coincide with any of the human personalities are Spontaneity and Dominance.
To read more about this study, visit http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2016/06/21/cat-personality-traits.aspx
Can you determine which basic trait your cats fit into? As with us humans, it’s difficult to
The cat that inspired the book series
pigeonhole specific personality traits. I can see a little of each in my cats. I guess if I had to choose one, for Lily, it would be Friendliness. For Sophie, Skittishness with touches of Outgoingness. It helps to read the criteria for each label. Follow the link provided and see if you can pigeonhole your cat’s personality.
Cat’s of a particular breed are often promoted as having specific characteristics common to that breed—Siamese and Abyssinian are active and vocal; Persians, and Maine coon cats are considered docile; ragdolls are rather dog-like. As we’ve discussed previously, even color comes into play when considering a cat’s personality. Calicos and torties are thought to be ornery and orange tabbies (especially the males) are quiet and calm. But many of you have found out different. As one follower wrote, “I’ve had two torties as different as night and day.”
