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Comment by sscaryterry | Hacker News Reader

The only reason my house cat has not murdered me is because he is 4kg, and I'm not. He loves me though.

Cats are not really domesticated. I've heard various terms but semi-domesticated probably serves. They're very adaptable but not pack animals. You're sort of safe with house cats because they're small. You get less safe as the body weight goes up the scale.

It’s funny to hear they are not pack animals. I’m sure that is technically the case, especially in the wild, but my house cats definitely cling to me and follow me around like I am their leader. They groom/fight to try to establish a hierarchy below me, and when my partner comes home from work immediately switch allegiance to her, who they clearly see as the dominant mammal in the house.

They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.

As I wrote, they're adaptable. But there's a difference between true pack animals with an established hierarchy and being solitary but being open to other cats and species. Certainly, some cats are more pack-like (lions) and others are, or are more open to, being largely solitary.

I have 2 cats that are sisters. They have a very interesting dynamic. There isn't a fixed dominant sibling, they switch back and forth.

They antagonise each-other most of the time, but they also support each other in times of stress. If one goes to the vet and the other doesn't, the initial reaction is hissing and being a dick. Then, after a few minutes, it's licking and comforting.

I don't like to anthropomorphise too much, but they definitely look out for each-other. Equally, they definitely annoy each-other.

Domestic cats, are pack animals under some conditions.

Those and lions are the only cats known that don't mind to tolerate friends and non relatives around in their territories, cats clearly enjoy the company, form hierarchies and share food. Hyaenas and mongooses are related with cats and definitely social also. Lingsangs on the other way, are solitary.

I have never felt safer around any other animal than a 11 kg Maine Coon that I happened to share a couple of years of my life with

My cat always looked at me like "if only you were smaller..."

I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold. I'm about 90kg, so thats a 4.5x ratio :)

Cats are the perfect killing machines (apart from maybe sharks) :)

There's a bobcat that lives around here. He's on my porch now and then, and I also see its tracks in the snow.

It doesn't look like it wants to be petted. I stay clear.

Many people don't know that Craigslist has a "best of" which includes this (relevant) post that makes me laugh every time I read it:

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html

Yep, a bobcat. But much smaller than the one around here.

omg WHAT

Where do you find this?!!??! This is GOLD!

On the Craigslist homepage (on desktop) there is a gray navbar on the left side of the screen. That area has a calendar and some group of links below it. The second group of links below the calendar includes "best-of-craigslist" link.

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all

I like that the Craigslist site design is utilitarian and hasn't changed much over the years. The downside is that stuff like this can hide in plain sight.

Brillian! Thank you! I love Craigslist and am so glad that it's still around and hasn't been "modernized"

>"I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold" - most likely even 10kg cat will shred you before you could blink. They're insanely fast and surprisingly strong for size. Furry explosives they are

An angry cat in full fight mode will absolutely put a human in hospital, and the bites and scratches are teeming with potentially deadly bacteria.

They may be unique - a super-successful predator that has persuaded a more dominant species to look after it by looking cute and feeling soft and making relaxing noises.

my cat at its peak weight is about 8kg, and that's the size that i'd get a bit nervous around if i didn't know it's a tame housecat that runs away at sight of a mouse...

See also "why you should never put a chimp and a little person in the same room" by Penn Gillette

My main coon is over 10kg and is basically harmless

My newest cat started as a stray. Cautious around humans, but not feral. He was hanging around a lot, so of course I started giving him food because I’m a sucker that way. He disappeared for a couple months, then showed up injured from a fight one day, so we took him to the hospital and ended up keeping him in the garage for a few days to recover. We also did the usual due diligence to locate an owner.

The rest, of course, is history. Now he’s a big 20lb goober of a cat who is positively enamored with my wife. The feeling is mutual.

There was a farm nearby where a mother cat died and all but two kittens died from hunger afterwards. We adopted one, my wife fed the kitten (which was way underage for adopting) with bottle.

Now she has been with us for years. She’s very loyal to me, dismissive to aggressive to anyone else. Not sure why me and not my wife, but hey :)

She basically sleeps next to me all the time, both when I work from home or at night. She’s 14 now, no medical issues.

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