Everyone who has a cat has had the following experience: the animal jumps on their knees and sits down with careful gestures. After a short pause, he presses one front paw then the other, alternating them in a sort of rhythmic massage or trampling. The pace is slow and measured as if the cat was beating time in slow motion. When the gesture becomes more intense, we feel the claws pierce. The owner then begins to get angry and chases the animal, or gently lifts it up to put it on the ground.

What does that mean ?

To find the answer you have to observe the kittens at the udder. There, the same gestures can be observed when the little paws of the kittens begin to knead the belly of their mother. These movements stimulate the flow of milk to the nipples and, the drool, is part of the salivation at the thought of the delicious food to come. This kneading of the udders takes place at a very slow pace, about one stroke every 2 seconds, and is always accompanied by resounding purring. So what happens when the adult animal begins to knead its owner's knees? This gesture should in fact be interpreted as a resurgence of this infantile behavior. It seems that when the cat owner sits down in a casual manner, some type of signal comes to the cat saying I'm your mom and I'm settling down to feed you. The adult cat then regresses to the state of a kitten and crouches against it, purring with satisfaction and performing gestures that stimulate lactation.

From the cat's point of view, it's a moment full of warmth, love, and he must find it quite inexplicable to be chased away by his master, whom the tips of his claws have irritated. A good cat would never have behaved so negatively towards her young! Really, people react in very different ways. In the eyes of the cat, humans are obviously motherly images, since they provide her with milk and other foods, and when she sits down, they show her their bellies as if to invite them. But as soon as the juvenile kneading reaction occurs, there they are suddenly puzzlingly annoyed, and they throw away the pseudo infants. This is a classic example, where interactions between humans and cats can lead to misunderstandings. These would be avoided by admitting once and for all that an adult domestic cat remains, in its behavior towards its pseudo parental master, neither more nor less than a kitten.

(Source: www.secrestdechats.com - 06/18/2018)