Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds – Yahoo! News. This is not news to any of us who’ve had cats in our lives for years! Trills, purrs, and meows may not be English (or Russian, or Spanish, or whatever language you speak), but they do speak volumes to people who have cats in their lives. The tone, volume, and frequency of noises can convey hunger, fear, contentment, the desire for play, and much more.

Studies have shown that cats can lower blood pressure in humans. Their faces look sufficiently similar to those of human infants that they evoke similar responses on many humans; the act of stroking a cat is calming and their purring is also soothing.

It’s no wonder that we accord them as much control as we do! While dogs are quite social animals and subjugate themselves to humans, cats act like they are our equals. They challenge us and force us to look at the world through a different lens.

(The original source for this post was graciously provided by @Ruprecht on Plurk, and I was remiss in not mentioning it up front. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…)