Even among pet lovers, the topic of pets and personality can be a contentious one.
“Animals don’t really have personalities,” I was once told during a discussion about pets, “They only have the characteristics we ascribe to them.” This statement took me by surprise, especially since the speaker had been living with cats and dogs for years.
I can’t accept the idea that the personality traits we observe in our pets and other animals are essentially just figments of our own bias and imagination. And science may be on my side: According to this study, even spiders exhibit distinct personality traits. If spider personalities can be scientifically identified, it seems unlikely that other creatures lack personality. Yes, our observations may be colored by our own experiences. But not all of our observations are inherently invalid. If we see tendencies toward shyness or boldness or affection in our companion animals, it is because these patterns of behavior demonstrate our animals’ personalities.
Littermates: A Case Study in Differing Personalities
(Furry) Peas in a Pod
Brother and sister, peas in a pod. Loki and River are both impish and tremendously affectionate. Their poses often mirror each other when they are sleeping, or when something catches their attention. As littermates, they get along well and have many similarities. But from the first time we met, I could see that their personalities marked them as two very different cats.
Loki, although mischievous, is the more cautious of the pair. He enters a room slowly, gingerly, as though walking into a minefield. This may have to do with the cataract in his right eye*. But it seems to be reflected in other aspects of his behavior. He startles quite easily. Any sudden noise will cause him to stiffen, ears back. Any new object is warily sniffed and cautiously investigated. All that said, Loki is not high-strung. In fact, he is pretty easygoing and mellow.
Laid-Back Loki
River, on the other hand, is much more of an instigator. “Proceed with caution” is Loki’s motto. “Rush in where angels fear to tread” is River’s.
River is petite and delicate-looking, nine pounds to Loki’s fourteen-plus. Yet River seems to fear nothing. With her leader-of-the-pack mentality, she tries everything first. River was jumping up to the top of a six-foot-high media tower for months before Loki tried it once.
Loki settles into my lap and stays put in the same position for a long stretch. (He often jumps up while I am at the computer desk, so he can supervise my writing.) Even when I try to wriggle my wrist out from under his weighty torso in a futile attempt to restore my blood circulation, he holds his ground.
River the Explorer
River often jumps up to me while I am seated, usually in a flying leap that lands her on my chest. She immediately wiggles around to repeatedly kiss my nose and cheek, and remains in a constant flurry of activity for several moments. Loki takes a good thirty seconds to assess our relative positions before even jumping into my lap. But he tucks his paws in to settle down almost immediately after he lands. River is much more high-energy in her lap-sitting rituals.
River always needs to be where the action is. She is the first one to greet me when I come back home, waiting right at the door to welcome me. Loki might come also, but equal odds are that he’ll hang back and wait a bit. He nuzzles me enthusiastically when he sees me, but he doesn’t necessarily need to see me the minute I enter. River will race from one end of the house to the other to follow me as I do laundry and other chores. Loki usually stays where he is, and waits for me to come back.
If experience shapes personality, how is it that two cats raised together from birth have such different reactions the same stimuli?
Pets and Personality: Demonstrating Individuality
Personality is essentially what marks someone as an individual. It’s more than just learned responses to life experiences or repeated stimuli.
If animals didn’t have their own unique personalities, how could we ever have favorite pets? I doubt many people say, “Rover is my buddy because he has black and white fur instead of brown,” or, “I’ve always felt especially close to Mrs. Fluffypaws because she’s a calico instead of a tabby.” No, it is our interactions with our pets—and the way they behave according to their unique personalities—that endears them to us.
Our pets are not interchangeable. Our relationships with them are each special in their own way. When one pet dies, we cannot immediately rush out and find a replacement—because there is no such creature. We need time to mourn the special friend we have lost before we can think of opening our hearts to a new friend. We could no more “replace” a lost pet than we could replace a lost family member—because pets are, indeed, members of our family. Why do they hold such a cherished place in our lives and in our hearts? Because they are individuals. And their individuality is manifested in their personalities.
*Loki’s cataract makes me wonder what type of eye chart a veterinary optometrist might use for a feline. I imagine it would look something like this:
How a Veterinarian Might Test a Cat for Cataracts