--- title: Why Do Cats Knead? Your Cat Thinks You're a Giant Cat Says Cat Sense description: Consider yourself a kitten's mommy? You're actually more like its freakishly large roommate canonical: https://time.com/3898677/actually-your-cat-thinks-you-are-a-giant-cat/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-07T21:33:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:36.126Z og:title: Why Do Cats Knead? Your Cat Thinks You're a Giant Cat Says Cat Sense og:description: Consider yourself a kitten's mommy? You're actually more like its freakishly large roommate og:url: https://time.com/3898677/actually-your-cat-thinks-you-are-a-giant-cat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cb399d860540cb3/698851e455a8592f5ba8c362/1374762764bradshaw-cat_sense.jpg?branch=production&width=450&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 450 og:image:height: 253 og:image:alt: 1374762764bradshaw-cat_sense og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Do Cats Knead? Your Cat Thinks You're a Giant Cat Says Cat Sense twitter:description: Consider yourself a kitten's mommy? You're actually more like its freakishly large roommate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cb399d860540cb3/698851e455a8592f5ba8c362/1374762764bradshaw-cat_sense.jpg?branch=production&width=450&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Actually, Your Cat Thinks You Are a Giant Cat > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Inside New York's First Cat Cafe [Watch (HLS stream): Inside New York's First Cat Cafe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0MiiFeak.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-12-12. Meet the cats of NYC's first cat cafe, Meow Parlour, and hear more about the growing trend of paying to play with cats from the cafe's two owners._ by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jan 7, 2014 9:33 PM UTC  Basic Books by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jan 7, 2014 9:33 PM UTC If you own a cat, you probably identify as something like its mother, albeit a human version, who feeds it, entertains it, and licks its fur to keep it clean (hopefully not). Unfortunately, your cat sees your pet-owner relationship much differently, according to the [new book _Cat Sense_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465064965/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0465064965&linkId=25d43d3695f4e883830fb32ae51265c8) by English biologist Dr. John Bradshaw. It actually thinks you’re a “larger, non-hostile” cat. Bradshaw, who has been studying the behavior of domesticated animals for over 30 years, reveals some fascinating explanations for why cats act the way they do around humans. For one, since cats have never been bred for a specific function other than looking nice, they’re ultimately less domesticated than the dog breeds humans have designed for chasing down game and helping around the house. Given that 85 percent of cats breed with feral tomcats, according to the book, the species has also stayed relatively wild. The animals’ interactions with their owners are driven less by learned behavior than by pure instinct. When a cat kneads your body or the surface of a bed, it’s a behavior that’s meant for its mother’s belly, a message to keep milk flowing. Rubbing up against a human leg or hand is a way of treating you as another cat, “the clearest way cats show their affection for us,” Bradshaw explains. Leaving dead rats around the house isn’t a way of “feeding” their owners, but rather, the cats want a safe place to eat their kill. When they actually take a bite of the victim, they realize their normal human-delivered cat food tastes way better. And if you’ve ever seen a rat in any major city, this should be obvious. So next time you call your cat your “baby” or chide it for being annoying, just remember—it thinks of you as a fairly pleasant roommate that just happens to be freakishly large for reasons it can’t comprehend. ### Artists and their Cats  Artist Salvador Dali and his ocelot, Babou. World Telegram & Sun photo by Roger Higgins; image courtesy of the Library of Congress  Artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her cat, 1935. Photograph by John Candelario. Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 165660  Photographer Edward Weston with two of his cats ,1960. Berko—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Artist Claude Cahun her cat., 1927. Photo courtesy of the Jersey Heritage Museum  Composer John Cage and his cat. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust  Photographer Margaret Bourke-White and her cat, 1940. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Artist Henri Matisse and one of his cats. © Robert Capa © International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos  Artist Grandma Moses (born Anna Mary Robertson) and her cat, 1947. W. Eugene Smith—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Artist Arthur Rackham and his cats. Image courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University  Photographer Florence Henri and her cat. 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