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Comment by douche | Hacker News Reader

Cats are furry, murderous assholes

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill

http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/index.html

Putting "cat" and "murder" in the same phrase instantly triggers the following one in my mind, which I thought was the one you were linking to:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kitty_pet

"If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember."

― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Well, from now on I'll remember to interpret every cat's purr or meow as a crazed outburst of, "Blood for the blood god!"

That's what makes them cute, though.

Eh? IMO it's their appearance and style that makes them cute, not their violent tendencies! I never hear two cats scrapping in an alleyway and think 'how cute!'.

On the contrary, many of cats' predator characteristics make them cute -- for example, their large, forward-facing eyes, the way they pounce on and bat at things (the little ass wiggle they do just before striking is particularly adorable), their little fangs (giving a character cat fangs is an anime way of conveying "mischievous cuteness"), etc.

They are also fairly intelligent. Intelligence can be cute, and the cuteness of intelligence is enduring. Rabbits are cute to look at, but make for boring pets; cats and dogs can fascinate and charm us for years and quickly become considered friends and the near-equals of humans. And don't tell me that a cat who's figured out how to operate doorknobs or lightswitches isn't adorable.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that we are also predators and these characteristics remind us of ourselves (in particular, our young).

> "their large, forward-facing eyes"

Appearance.

> "the way they pounce on and bat at things"

Style.

> "their little fangs"

IMO, fangs aren't exactly a cute feature. Cats aren't cute all the time. This isn't a cute image of a cat IMO, for example...

http://baddogneedsrottenhome.com/images/emails/55c8ce1c28a9b...

> "They are also fairly intelligent. Intelligence can be cute, and the cuteness of intelligence is enduring. Rabbits are cute to look at, but make for boring pets; cats and dogs can fascinate and charm us for years and quickly become considered friends and the near-equals of humans. And don't tell me that a cat who's figured out how to operate doorknobs or lightswitches isn't adorable."

Again, style.

It's possible to see a cat's playfulness and intelligence as separate from its roots as a predator. I don't think we actively have 'killer' in mind when we see a cat look cute or do something cute.

And I'm not saying we consciously think "oh, they prey on other animals, that's cute" -- just that characteristics they evolved to make tgem better predators makes us unconsciously perceive them as cute because they remind of us of a predatory animal we intrinsically find cute -- ourselves.

> "a predatory animal we intrinsically find cute -- ourselves"

I wouldn't describe our predatory instincts as cute.

Furthermore, there are tons of animals that are not seen as predatory and are still cute. To me they're completely separate traits. For example, which one is cuter to you...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LgINvKhd2wc/hqdefault.jpg

https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/10/01/10/44/he...

Cats' playing is straight-up hunting practice. If you pay attention to a kitty playing with something, you can tell that they're practicing how to stalk, hunt, kill, and eviscerate their prey.

And it's adorable. I used to tell my parents' kitty "You're such a cute widdwe pwedator, yes you are!". Sometimes while she was playing, other times after watching her hunt and kill a lizard in the backyard. There wasn't much difference between her behavior between those times.

The point I'm making is that the cuteness is not determined by their desire to kill, it's their appearance and style that makes them cute.

If being a predator was a deciding factor in making them cute, then other predators would automatically be cute too. Perhaps you think all animals are cute, but I don't think of sharks, snakes, crocodiles, etc... as cute.

In other words, IMO it's not what they do that makes an animal cute, it's the way that they do it (and/or their appearance).

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