Does your Maine Coon like you?

Of course, would be the answer to the question if you love your cat and you provide her with a great environment in which to live and good food et cetera. If you do that then there is no reason why your cat would not like you. Cats, including Maine Coons of course, are able to experience basic emotions at least and therefore the emotion of affection for others just like humans.

In fact, both cat and human are mammals and they have a huge number of similarities both in terms of their anatomy and variations in emotionality. Cats have variations in their behaviour which is similar to the variations that people experience.

RELATED: Ten Emotions That Cats Share with Us.

For example, some cats eat too much and become obese. I believe that these cats are seeking food therapy. They are eating for pleasure. They do this because they are bored. This is a human trait. Many cats are described as being finicky eaters but then so are many humans. 

And domestic cats have preferences regarding been petted. Some are more tolerant than others. Each cat has their own individual personality. These are just some examples of the overall similarity between humans and cats in so many areas.

And domestic cats are able to make friends like humans too. We see many examples of domestic cats making friends with other cats. When they do this, they scent exchange by rubbing their bodies against each other and rubbing their head into the head of the other cat or dog. This is also scent exchange. It is a sign of friendship as we know.

So, cats can enter into interspecies friendships which, as mentioned, we see all the time. The cat-human relationship is an interspecies relationship.

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Furthermore, it is more than likely that domestic cats see their human caregiver as their mother, a surrogate mother. The more you read about the relationship between cat and human the more you come to the conclusion that they perceive us as cats but they don't actually tell themselves that we are cats.

They just relate to us as they find us and they don't query what kind of species of animal we are. But instinctively their behaviour towards us is very similar to their behaviour towards other cats and particularly their mother.

So, knowing all these factors, on the basis that you agree with them, we have to conclude that in the right household where there is love from human to cat, it is going to be reciprocated. And by love, I mean a deep affection.

A lot of people will wonder why the question is asked in the first place because it is obvious to them that their cat likes them. I'm not writing for these people. I am writing for those who don't know domestic cats very well or have an ambivalent relationship with their cat companion.

And just as cats can like and indeed love their human caregiver, they can also dislike them or be frightened of them. If this happens it is because the human has taken the lead in terms of breaking the relationship. The cause will be that the human has created an environment which is stressful and perhaps frightening for the cat. The caregiver might be frightening to the cat because of poor or insensitive human behaviour.

The relationship is ultimately dictated by human behaviour. If it goes wrong then it can normally be traced back to the human caregiver. People make rational decisions with respect to their relationships whereas cats act instinctively when responding to the behavior of others.