How long does a cat remember?

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Rhino - 14 Apr 2006 22:04 GMT

I'm sure we've all heard the line "If only your mother could see know, she'd
be so proud...." in movies or TV shows.

That line got me to wondering about how my cats' mothers' would feel if they
ever met their offspring again. Of course mindreading is pretty difficult
even in humans and harder with cats so we probably can't answer that
question. But it probably _is_ possible to say how a cat will _behave_ if it
ever meets someone from its past.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this?

For instance, my two cats are both 6 years old. I got them from the animal
shelter when they were kittens. They aren't related and neither has seen its
mother since kittenhood. If they were ever to meet their mothers again,
would they recognize their mothers? Would their mothers recognize them?How
would they react if they recognized one another: like long lost humans
separated from someone they cared deeply about? Or indifferently? What about
siblings? Would they recognize them? How would they react to the
recognition?

Similar questions could be asked about humans that they haven't seen in a
long time. If my cats were to meet the humans they met before they were
taken to the animal shelter, would they recongnize them? How would they
react to them?

Some of you must have encountered situations like these. I'm very curious to
know what happened. I have no idea how long a cat can remember another cat
or a human.

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Rhino

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Monique Y. Mudama - 14 Apr 2006 23:02 GMT

> For instance, my two cats are both 6 years old. I got them from the
> animal shelter when they were kittens. They aren't related and
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> deeply about? Or indifferently? What about siblings? Would they
> recognize them? How would they react to the recognition?

I sure don't know, but I'm reminded of the book White Fang, in which
WF's mother pushes him further and further away because she has a new
litter to care for.

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monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

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William Hamblen - 15 Apr 2006 00:08 GMT

>For instance, my two cats are both 6 years old. I got them from the animal
>shelter when they were kittens. They aren't related and neither has seen its
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>siblings? Would they recognize them? How would they react to the
>recognition?

The instinctive behavior of a mother cat is to drive away her
offspring when they get older. I would expect squabbling. I also
would expect squabbling from adult litter mates.

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Enfilade - 15 Apr 2006 02:20 GMT

How long does a cat remember? Well, put Smokey next to an open window
and listen to him scream. Four years have not diminished the memory of
how it is to be homeless outside.

....though in that time, he's utterly forgotten that Bad Things Might
Happen to kitties who are too presumptive (ie, kitties who sit on the
table, kitties who steal sandwiches off plates, kitties who slap their
people in the face until they wake up and feed him....)

If a mother did recognize her adult kittens, she would probably push
them away as they are too old to be in the nest...but my dad's mother
cats have always had pretty good relations with their adult children.

--Fil

> The instinctive behavior of a mother cat is to drive away her
> offspring when they get older. I would expect squabbling. I also
> would expect squabbling from adult litter mates.

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Gandalf - 15 Apr 2006 05:51 GMT

>I'm sure we've all heard the line "If only your mother could see know, she'd
>be so proud...." in movies or TV shows.
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>know what happened. I have no idea how long a cat can remember another cat
>or a human.

I remember reading somewhere that a mother cat will not recognize her
kittens if separated from them for 3 months. Can't recall *where* I read
it, but the snippet of information stuck with me, as trivia related to
cats tends to do.

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wafflycat - 15 Apr 2006 10:40 GMT

> I remember reading somewhere that a mother cat will not recognize her
> kittens if separated from them for 3 months. Can't recall *where* I read
> it, but the snippet of information stuck with me, as trivia related to
> cats tends to do.

It's even less than that. On a recent documentary about the feral cats in
Rome, it took only a week of separation for the mother to fail to recognise
some kittens as her own. Saying that there is a bond that remains between
mother & daughter, as females who are related will help raise each other's
broods - including nursing of kittens. In the above documentary - the focus
was on mother & adult daughter over the course of several months. Mother &
daughter aided each other as described and when mother got separated from
her kittens, the daughter continued to nurse her 'step' brothers & sisters
along with her own brood. When the real mother came back a few days later,
she completely failed to recognise the kittens as her own and went into
season again.

Cheers, helen s

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Jeanette - 15 Apr 2006 12:12 GMT

> Some of you must have encountered situations like these. I'm very curious to
> know what happened. I have no idea how long a cat can remember another cat
> or a human.

In my experience, cats are unimpressed when re-united with litter mates or
their mother, even after just a few weeks they treat them as strangers.

My cats certainly recognise me after they've been at the cattery for two or
even three weeks, but my cat Spooky played dumb when he'd been missing for
two months and I went to his new 'home' to retrieve him. However, once we
had him home, in a familiar environment, he seemed to realise who I was and
was back to his old ways. I think that context is very important for cats,
their memories of people are associated with location to quite a large
extent.

I once went to visit a foster kitten of mine in her new home, just a couple
of weeks after rehoming her, and she blanked me completely until I whistled
to her, at which point she looked up with a 'Oh, it's YOU!" expression on
her face, and came over to be scritched, obviously really happy to see me
again and very chatty. :-)

So I think there are a lot of triggers, other than the sight of a person and
their individual scent, that a cat uses to 'recognise' someone. Most of us
have known a cat that's perfectly happy to be picked up and cuddled indoors,
but treats its owner like an evil catnapper when they encounter them in the
street.

Jeanette

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