Distant, aloof, self-absorbed, cats.
(cat hissing)
Untrainable, lazy bundles of fur.
(lively music)
Think again.
With the bounce of a ballerina, senses so acute
they can pinpoint a mouse scratch 30 feet away,
(cat meowing)
and, unique social skills, they're deservedly
the most popular pets in the world.
And, they seem to be evolving,
finding surprising new ways of thriving in our world,
revealing personalities and talents
that challenge any thought of their cool, standoffishness.
(cat meowing)
As science uncovers more about their behavior and senses,
we discover the awe-inspiring qualities
that each and every one possesses.
From those that save themselves
to those that even save our lives.
We will follow a kitten from newborn to fully grown
revealing the secret life of cats.
(gentle music)
(kitten mewing)
Just after birth, we meet our kitten for the first time.
After nine weeks in the womb, she's born deaf and blind,
completely vulnerable and totally dependent on her mother.
(kitten mewing)
But, she won't stay like this for long.
(kitten mewing)
In the next few weeks her senses will develop
at phenomenal speed to become super senses,
helping her make the journey to join
the 8 1/2 million other cats in the UK
who've made our homes their own.
(upbeat music)
She'll develop qualities that will make her
not only one of the most successful predators,
but also perhaps the best at adapting to our world.
(kitten mewing)
Our kitten's mother has her work cut out
insuring her brood grows up healthy.
Grooming is a way of bonding between a mother
and her kittens.
Each time she licks, she's adding her smell to their fur
so they can find her if they get lost.
(kittens mewing)
What's startling, though, is the fact
she's not just licking them clean,
she's actually combing their hair at the same time.
By filming in slow motion with a special lens,
hundreds of tiny barbs on the top of a cat's tongue
can be seen combing through the hair.
If you've ever been licked by your cat,
this is why it feels like sandpaper.
Cats spend a sixth of their life grooming
so it's worth watching how they do it.
They'll appreciate being stroked the same way
they groom themselves.
When we stroke our cat, we're reminding him
of when he was a kitten.
We're also making him familiar with our smell,
both strengthening his bond to us.
(cat chirping)
And, scientists have discovered that stroking
has a surprisingly positive side effect on us.
When you stroke a cat, your body releases
a stress-busting enzyme called renin.
(cat purring) Your heart rate slows
and your blood pressure goes down.
All of which means that if you're a cat owner,
you're around 1/3 less likely to suffer from heart disease.
(cat purring)
(gentle music)
At two days old, our kitten is still too young
to have direct contact with people.
Our smell could cause her mother to reject her.
(kitten mewing)
Her focus is on growing, fast.
She may not yet be able to see or hear,
but using her smell sense, she sniffs out one nipple
on her mother that'll be hers alone.
And, then using her touch sense, paws around it
until she finds her mother's milk.
This deep-rooted instinct is the reason your adult cat
will sometimes knead you.
He's remembering the comforts of kittenhood.
Now, and for the rest of her life,
it's our kitten's heightened smell and touch senses
that will keep her alive.
(kitten purring)
It was these same two cat super senses
that saved Sue Rolf's life and turned her rescue mogie,
Basil, from unloved street cat into guardian angel.
Basil turned up (cat purring)
on Sue's doorstep unexpectedly 16 years ago.
It was pouring with rain.
It was a horrible night.
And, we don't know how he managed to get in
to be honest with you.
He had a couple of fleas and things,
but I said to my husband, he obviously wants to live here,
can we keep him?
Sue nursed Basil back to health
and soon he'd made himself at home.
(Basil purring)
He seemed like any other house cat
until one night in 2011.
I'd done dinner, my husband had gone up to bed.
I cleaned the cooker last thing at night.
And, I think that was about sort of 10-ish
then I went up to bed.
(ominous music)
Sue had accidentally left
one of the gas rings on.
Asleep upstairs, neither she nor her husband
could smell the leaking gas.
But, Basil, the cat she'd rescued, could.
Half past one he came on the bed,
patted my face and I just literally pushed him
back off the bed 'cause I said, you know,
I need to go to sleep, Basil, go away.
The pilot light for Sue's central heating
was due to switch on soon
and that would make the gas ignite.
I couldn't smell it in that stage, but he obviously could.
(Basil purring) Couldn't you, eh?
Basil, like all cats has a sense of smell
30 times better than ours.
To him, the smell of gas was intense
especially now it had been leaking for over five hours.
An hour and a half later he came back.
He was very much more insistent.
He patted my face like that and then one little claw.
And, then I knew there was something wrong.
(Basil purring)
Basil's touch was so precise,
he didn't scratch Sue, but used just enough pressure
to make sure she was properly awake.
(emotional music)
He could've just literally walked straight
out the cat trap and just left us.
But, he didn't. (cat purring)
I'm convinced in my own mind that he's just saved our lives.
'Cause if he hadn't have woken me up
when the gas came on at 4:00, it would've just gone kaboom.
Many people think of cats as uncaring.
Yet, it appears Basil made sure, Sue, her husband,
and their neighbors were unharmed
before looking after himself.
I like to think it's his way (Basil purring)
of almost giving back the fact that we possibly saved him
from a life on the street and looked after him
all these years.
Catch it.
I'm really proud of him.
You know, without him, would I be here now?
He is my hero.
Aren't you, eh?
He'd risked his own life
and with his impressive smell (Basil purring)
and touch senses, Basil had saved the day.
(kitten mewing) (gentle music)
Our kitten's paws are ultrasensitive just like Basil's.
She has many thousands of nerve endings
around the tiny pads and between her toes.
Cats walk on tiptoe so naturally have more sensitivity
in their toes to feel the texture and temperature
of the ground.
Which is why even though we enjoy a soothing foot massage,
cats hate us touching their feet.
(kitten mewing)
Our kitten's perceptive touch sense is not only
in her paws, though.
(kitten mewing)
All over her body she has special hairs
that are hypersensitive.
(kitten mewing) (kitten purring)
Whiskers.
These are above her eyes,
on her front legs,
and, of course, on her cheeks.
When she's older they'll become essential
for helping her to navigate in the dark.
(lighthearted music)
In fact, for blind cats whose world is always dark,
whiskers are what help them see.
Monty was born blind,
while Charlie lost her sight as a kitten
after an infection.
Yet, both of them find their way around home
with no problem at all.
If it wasn't for the fact that their eyelids are shut,
you wouldn't guess they can't see.
Each of them has used their whiskers
like a blind person's white stick to build up
a mental map of their home.
(Charlie meowing)
All Charlie sees from up on this chair is a dark void.
But, she leaps with no fear of hurting herself.
It's also why Monty can do what seems impossible.
After sensing the position of this tree with his whiskers,
he moves back a couple of meters, then jumps
without a second's hesitation.
It's foolproof.
Well, most of the time.
The sensitivity of Monty and Charlie's whiskers
is phenomenal but not unique.
(thunder rumbling) (somber music)
(rain pattering)
Yule cat's whiskers are no different,
capable of feeling things we need
complex scientific instruments to detect.
Through their whiskers (cat purring)
cats sense minute changes in air pressure
like a barometer so they can even detect
an approaching storm well before it arrives
(thunder rumbling)
ensuring they're somewhere safe and warm when it hits.
(lighthearted music)
Like adult cats, kittens use their whiskers
to make sure they can find somewhere safe, too.
(kitten mewing)
Facial whiskers are just wider than the widest part
of their body, the head.
(kitten mewing)
So, they're essential for judging what's possible
to get into (kitten mewing) and so get out of.
This helps explain why kittens are so fond
of getting into the smallest spaces.
Messages transmitted by their whiskers
tell them that what they're touching is snug and secure
(kitten mewing) just like their mother's.
(gentle music)
Our kitten's mother is a tabby and so too is our kitten.
But, apart from her white socks and chin,
her sister's fur is all black.
It's likely that these sisters
actually have different fathers.
Their mother is a city cat and scientists have found
that in built up areas, around 3/4 of females
give birth to litters with more than one father.
It's a way of ensuring a large gene pool
and so prevents inbreeding.
Yet, it's not just the father's genes that can have
a huge effect on a kitten's color.
(upbeat music)
In one breed, temperature too has an astonishing effect.
At birth, all Siamese kittens are completely white.
But, because of a genetic mutation,
as they grow up, the coolest parts of their bodies
start to darken.
With a high-tech thermal camera
we're able to see which parts of these kittens are coolest
like the tips of their noses, ears, and tail.
Even though this one is mostly white now,
his face will end up just as dark as his mother's.
That's why Siamese cats growing up in colder climates
are darker than those in warmer places.
(kitten mewing) (gentle guitar music)
(cat purring)
Our kitten's not yet as sophisticated in her development.
But, far more radical changes are ahead.
She's about to experience two life-changing events
that will transform her world and how she relates to us
as she gains two new super senses: sight and hearing.
Two weeks after birth, her blue eyes open
for the very first time.
(lively music)
If our eyes were equal in scale to hers,
they'd be the size of tennis balls.
(kitten mewing)
Hers are so large because cat's vision has evolved
over thousands of years for very specific reasons.
And, scientists are only now starting to understand why.
(upbeat jazzy music)
While most of us can see all the colors of the rainbow,
cats are partly colorblind.
(patrons chattering)
They can only see blues and yellows.
To them, red and green colors appear gray.
They don't need our precise color vision
because colors have little effect
on the way they hunt and socialize.
Instead, they've replaced this ability
with an extraordinary sense.
Recently, scientists have learned that cats see things
invisible to us because their eyes allow in
the ultraviolet part of the light spectrum.
So, they can see everything from extra vivid stripes
on plants, to additional bold patterning on other animals.
To see UV like cats see, we need special lights.
When they're restoring old masters,
art experts use these lights to reveal the ultraviolet
secrets sometimes hidden in the paint.
Cats, of course, put their ultrasensitive skill
to a much more practical use.
Some prey animals leave traces of ultraviolet
in their urine.
It's invisible to us, but as clear as day
to a stalking cat.
At dusk, the differences between their sight and our own
become greater still.
Mirror-like reflectors at the back of their large eyes
capture and concentrate every last bit of light.
To see as well as cats do in the dark,
we'd need our eyes to be six times as sensitive.
Then again, most of us don't usually spend
all night out hunting and socializing.
(gentle guitar music)
Our kitten's ability to focus is still developing.
In the next two months, her vision will improve 16-fold.
(kitten mewing) (cat purring)
But, like all cats, she's evolved to be long-sighted.
It's much more useful for hunting
and she'll never be able to focus on objects closer
than about 12 inches.
So, if you drop a treat in front of your cat,
he'll struggle to see it.
But, if you drop it a few feet away,
he'll spot it quickly.
Even now, though, our kitten's eyes are tuned
to detect danger and she'll avoid eye contact
with anyone outside her family.
(tense music) (lion rumbling)
For big cats and for small, direct eye contact
is an act of aggression. (lion growling)
It's one way lion tamers establish dominance
allowing them to control a wild animal
that could turn on them in an instant.
That's why it's much more friendly to greet your cat
with a slow blink.
It's the way they use to greet family members.
Give it a try when you next see a cat
and don't be surprised when he blinks back at you.
(lighthearted music)
(kitten mewing)
It's not just sight that's transforming
our kitten's world, (kitten mewing)
but hearing, too.
Sealed shut at birth, her ears open
at two weeks old (kitten mewing)
and, she's able to hear her mother clearly
for the first time.
(kitten mewing)
Once she grows up, like most adult cats,
she'll tend to be solitary so she needs
acute hearing abilities to know
if danger is approaching. (dog barking)
With 32 muscles in each ear, ours have just six,
cats' ears twist independently of each other
to give them full surround sound.
Have you ever noticed that your cat,
though seemingly fast asleep, knows when you enter the room?
(door squeaking)
Unlike our hearing which diminishes when we're asleep,
a cat's hearing is always on (dog barking)
ready to locate danger.
On top of a cat's list of dangers is dogs,
(dog barking)
unless you're a cat that uses its senses
in a very unusual way.
(gentle piano music)
Turval, a 14-year-old chocolate lab,
is blind and partly deaf.
He used to be stuck in his basket because he couldn't see
where he was going and kept getting hurt.
I didn't own him as a puppy, but I was told
that he'd been thrown against a wall
and that's caused his blindness.
So, it must've been quite traumatic for him at the time.
(cat meowing)
But then his owner, Ann,
inherited a stray cat called Puttytat.
(Puttytat meowing)
He's top cat and he's not very nice
with the other cats.
He will, you know, bully the other cats
a bit into submission.
Amazingly, Puttytat became
Turval's best friend.
He prefers Turval to any of the other cats.
I think he must've known
Turval was blind (Puttytat meowing)
because he sort of bonded with him straightaway.
(Puttytat meowing)
Puttytat will seek out Turval and then they'll snuggle up
and rub against each other.
It's quite obvious that there is a bond there.
Definitely love at first sight, mmm (chuckles).
But, more astonishing still
was when Puttytat decided to take on the role
of guide cat to blind Turval.
I think Puttytat must've realized
that Turval was a bit vulnerable.
He just seemed to know that there was a need there, somehow.
Turval is much more confident when Puttytat's around.
He relies on him to get around
and avoid bumping into things.
It's often when they're out.
You know, they're nose to tail with Puttytat in the lead
and Turval following him.
It is lovely to see especially when you're used to
dogs chasing cats.
But I don't think I've ever seen one
that have got on quite as well as these two
and have relied up each other in that same way.
Cats and dogs have very different ways
of communicating.
When a puppy wags its tail, it means I want to play.
(cat hissing) But, for a kitten,
it's a sign of aggression.
For cats and dogs to get on,
they have to learn what each other means.
And, researchers believe that cats are better
and faster at learning these differences than dogs.
(puppy whimpering)
Puttytat has learned to read Turval's body language
and now has no reason to see him as a threat.
In fact, they've become better than the best of friends.
(birds chirping)
(gentle guitar music)
Our kitten is now a month old and in the middle
of a crucial stage of her development.
Scientists have pinpointed a five week period
in all kittens' lives that defines how they'll respond
to people when they're older.
(kitten mewing)
Between two and seven weeks of age,
if our kitten has no contact with people,
she would likely go feral,
returning fully to her wild nature.
(kitten mewing)
Yet the earlier she has human contact
during these few weeks,
(kitten mewing)
the more she'll adapt to us and the more sociable she'll be
when grown up. (kitten mewing)
How much more can domesticated cats adapt
and how much can we affect how they behave towards us?
(lighthearted music) (cat purring)
You might believe you can't train your cat
to do anything.
Emily Muggleton has taught her cat, Benny,
not only to high five on command, but also to hurdle fences
like a thoroughbred.
And, again, jump.
We've started teaching him tricks four or five years ago.
Good boy, Benny.
It's always just been like a little party trick
that when people come round, we just do our little tricks
and everyone loves it.
Come on, Benny. (Benny purring)
Good boy.
Many cats will learn one trick,
but Benny won a national competition
because he had memorized a whole range of tricks.
And again, and again.
You just have to have patience, really,
'cause it might take like half an hour
to teach him something, but if you just keep practicing,
well, he doesn't forget.
Good boy.
Kind of first cat in Britain (chuckles).
Cats can learn as well as dogs,
they just need shorter lessons over a longer period.
Good boy. (Benny purring)
So, if you got a little spare time
and a lot of patience, you might even persuade your cat
to fetch your slippers.
Only kidding.
He's probably my best friend
even though that's really embarrassing admitting that.
But, yeah, I can't imagine living without him.
Cats are building ever stronger ties to us.
But, the connection to their wild past
remains just as strong.
(upbeat music)
Soon, our kitten will start affecting those facets
of her wild side she's kept despite being domesticated,
developing the stunning physical qualities
that'll turn her from dependent kitten
into super-powered cat.
At eight weeks old, all her senses are in place
and it's time for play.
(comical music)
Play isn't just for fun.
It's a way of learning new skills
and building up her strength to become
a super-powered cat.
(baskets rustling)
(birds chirping) (mysterious music)
All domestic cats, including ones like this Bengal,
can trace their family tree back to where it split
from the big wild cats.
(moving to dramatic music)
(cat growling)
Even now, 10,000 years after wild cats
were first domesticated, the two share similarities
in patterning, body shape, and movement.
Yet, it's not just physical characteristics
that these animals share (cat growling)
but ways of behavior too.
(lighthearted music)
Domestic cats (kitten mewing)
have an ancient instinct
to hunt and return home with their kill.
(mouse squeaking)
It's separate from their instinct to eat
which is why you'll sometimes get left
those unwanted, uneaten gifts on your doorstep.
So deep rooted is this instinct
that even at eight weeks old,
kittens practice their hunting strategies.
(kitten mewing)
As our kitten stalks a ball of wool,
it's a mirror of the technique older cats use
to hunt mice.
And, this scooping method is the same
an adult cat uses to pull fish from a pool.
(water gurgling) (gentle flute music)
There's one breed that's taken this method
of hunting fish to the extreme,
busting one of the longest held myths
about cats, that they all hate water.
(water splashing)
Although legend has it they swam ashore
from Noah's Ark, in reality, these Turkish cats
called Vans have adapted
to living near Turkey's biggest lake
becoming more like Navy Seals than covert commandos.
(gentle piano music)
It's unlikely our kitten will ever be
quite as comfortable in water,
but with every playtime, she moves a step closer
to being able to join the older cats
who've turned the city into their playground.
(siren blaring)
(rhythmic music)
They are masters of the thinnest of rails
and the most perilous of heights
by day and by night.
While they have around the same number
of neck and back bones we do,
their ace is in their tail.
Another 20 bones turn it
into an automatic stabilizing device.
It's not only a cat's ability to leap up
and balance on a knife edge that's impressive,
but the way they fall, too.
(gentle piano music)
One surprising survivor of a terrifying fall
is Britt Kirk's much-loved cat, Sugar.
I wasn't a cat person growing up,
but right when I got Sugar, I really fell in love with her.
I would come home from work and really look forward
to seeing her.
Sugar is deaf, like the majority
of white cats.
Which is why Britt didn't let her outdoors
fearing she'd get hurt especially when they lived
on the 19th floor of an apartment block in Boston.
She would sit on the windowsill
and just look outside all day,
look at the birds, look at the bees flying by,
look at the clouds.
It was beautiful so I can see why she spent
that much time up there.
In March 2012, Britt had left for work
at the hospital across the street leaving an air gap
in one of her windows.
Sugar stepped through the gap and onto the ledge.
An indoor cat, this was the first time
she'd ever ventured out.
175 feet below her was the concrete pavement.
(siren blaring)
For us, it's the equivalent of looking down
from the top of the Empire State Building.
I think what happened was that she was so focused
on whatever she saw there,
she probably just lost her balance.
(tense music)
There's an elderly woman and she was at the window
doing her eyebrows and she saw something white
just go flying past her window and she thought,
how terrible that someone has just thrown trash
out of their window.
It went straight down and I thought,
what is that?
What she'd seen was Sugar flying past
at 60 miles an hour.
I looked out the window
and the cat was laying on the ground.
And, I thought for sure she was probably dying.
And, I get really, really sad to think
how frightening that must have been for Sugar
slipping off of the ledge.
I can't imagine falling from such an immense height.
Britt got an urgent message
to call the Animal Rescue Center.
I did wait a few minutes before I called
Animal Rescue League back just because I didn't,
I really didn't wanna hear the bad news.
(gentle piano music)
They said, "We have your cat.
"We traced her back to you because she is microchipped
"and it looks like you're the owner.
"Apparently she fell out of your window."
And so, of course, I thought the worst
because living on the 19th floor
what would survive?
The vets made X-rays
but couldn't believe what they showed.
They looked all over and no broken bones at all,
it was just slight bruising to her lungs.
That was it, no chipped teeth, nothing, no scratches.
This cat was able, I think, to position her body
to slow the rate of the fall and that saved her life.
I think it was her lucky day
in that one half a minute, even less than a half a minute,
she used up her nine lives, but it goes to show you
what nature can do, what animals can do for themselves.
It was a miracle that happened that day.
Sometimes I think that her falling has taught me
a life lesson with you have to really appreciate
what you have because you never know when it will go
out the window.
Sugar's fall was one of the highest
ever survived by a cat.
She's incredibly lucky to have escaped unharmed.
Yet all cats have the potential to survive
such spectacular falls by using an extraordinary instinct.
Using extremely high speed cameras,
we're able to see how they do it.
(delicate piano music)
In 1/10th of a second, Paddington works out
which way is down.
He twirls like a dancer, first the front part of his body,
then separately his back end.
He slows his descent like a parachutist,
extends his claws so he won't slip when he lands,
and finally, flexes his back to absorb the shock of impact.
This unique instinct is one reason cats are credited
with having nine lives.
But, it's not exclusive to fully grown cats.
It's so instinctive, kittens as young as seven weeks
make it seem like child's play.
But, please don't try this at home.
(gentle piano music)
Our 12-week-old kitten is almost ready
to head outdoors, but in her final stage of kittenhood,
she'll need to learn the skills that'll bring her
safely home again.
She's becoming more and more independent from her mother
and the lure of the outside world is increasingly strong.
(kitten purring)
Her reaction is to purr
but surprisingly it's not to express pleasure.
Cats purr when they're nervous or afraid,
not only when they're content.
(playful music)
Up to now, she's never heard or seen the outside world
so she rightly treats it with caution.
In the same way that our voices are all different,
each cat's purr is unique.
(kitten purring)
And, scientists have found that some domesticated cats
have evolved a special purr that has the tone
of a human baby's cry in it.
(kitten purring)
They only use this purr to get our urgent attention
revealing how these once wild animals continue
to embed themselves in our lives.
Some cats go one step further,
developing expert unspoken communication with us.
(gentle somber music)
Lorcan Dillon is nine.
He suffers from an anxiety disorder
called selective mutism.
When he started school nursery
when he was just over three,
he just didn't speak.
He was silent all day.
He'd answer yes or no very, very quietly.
But, it just tailed off to absolutely nothing
and it just went on and on and on.
So, it was a massive problem.
You know, some of his little friends
would go out to play and knocking on each other's doors.
I couldn't let him go out,
'cause if he did lose sight of his friends,
he just wouldn't be able to ask anybody for help.
It was very vulnerable.
Frustrated, Lorcan struggled
to control his temper, couldn't express his emotions,
and found it difficult to talk to anyone
outside his family
until Jessi-cat turned up.
She's just been his best friend, really,
since the day she arrived.
He does struggle explaining how he feels.
He really, really struggles with that
which is obviously one of the reasons why
Jessi-cat's brilliant with him.
He can talk to her.
If he's upset, he cuddles her and it's an outlet
for his emotions.
I think it's some sort of animal instinct thing
that she knows that he needs her
and she'll just be there for him.
What's surprising is that the only motivation
for Jessi-cat's love for Lorcan is Lorcan himself.
Many people think that cats only respond to those
that feed them.
Lorcan has never fed Jessi-cat,
but theirs is an unbreakable bond
and has had a huge effect on his confidence.
The test came when Lorcan's teacher asked him
to do a talk about Jessi-cat in front of his class.
The teacher said to me beforehand, she said,
"I don't know how this is gonna go."
She said, "Either he'll be great and he'll do it
"or his friend George might have to step in
"and do the speaking for him."
Well, I sat outside the classroom waiting
to hear what had gone on.
My heart was hammering.
I was thinking what, you know, just for him,
just thinking is he, 'cause if he can't do it,
how will that make him feel?
When the teacher came out she just grinned at me
and she told me what happened and he had a big smile
on his face.
And, it was just a huge, huge relief.
I actually heard him say to her,
"You've helped me to talk, Jessi-cat."
Jessi-cat, wanna play play?
When Lorcan does talk,
he has a high-pitched voice, perfect for Jessi-cat to hear.
That's because all cats' hearing is tuned
to the high-pitched sound made by the animals they hunt,
like mice and birds.
Are you okay, kittens?
(Jessi-cat meowing)
Are you okay?
With her unique way
of communicating (Jessicat meowing)
Jessi-cat is helping give Lorcan back his voice.
She's just incredible.
I mean, I'm not in the least bit religious,
but if I was, I would probably feel that she'd been sent
to Lorcan for a reason.
(gentle piano music)
With each day comes more independence
and our kitten now spends more time away from her mother
exploring her surroundings.
This is her home territory.
Using her sophisticated smell sense,
she's starting to build up a mental map
of familiar objects.
(lively music)
Cats lay trails of scent in their home territory
by making repeated regular circuits
to make sure the familiar stays familiar.
If a foreign smell turns up, like another cat,
their mental map is disturbed and so they must redraw it
by reapplying their own scent.
These trails of scent include not only things
that don't move, but even include us.
So, when a cat rubs up against our legs,
it's not just because he loves us,
but also because he's making us part
of his secure home territory.
All cats are instinctively protective of their territory,
but could they evolve to suppress this instinct?
(people chattering)
You'd imagine a cat cafe where customers
come for coffee and cake with a dozen resident cats
might be a recipe for trouble.
Yet these cats have learned to live happily
alongside one another and also become highly sociable hosts
despite a constant stream of new faces and smells.
They're so unusually relaxed because they've adapted
to having extremely small home territories
even if it means the smallest perch
at the top of a bookshelf.
(gentle piano music)
In just a few weeks our kitten will be old enough
to venture outdoors.
But, until she's able to memorize her territory,
she'd likely find it impossible to make her way home.
That's why when you move house, it's best to keep your cat
indoors for a few days until he's fully mapped
his new territory.
While nearly all cats are territorial,
some take it to the extreme.
(comical music)
Hamish McHamish has turned the whole Scottish town
of St. Andrews into his territory,
much to the surprise of his original owner Marianne.
He'll walk into any door, any open door,
or through a window.
I mean, he considers town his own (laughs), I think.
So he hasn't been coming back here for a long time.
He's a free spirit shall we say (chuckles)
and that's what he always has been.
He's an extraordinary animal.
Marianne brought Hamish home
when he was a tiny kitten.
But, he quickly decided his home territory
was much too small.
For awhile he stayed around.
But, then he's just decided no, I prefer the wandering life.
His own home here he abandoned and God knows why,
'cause I always fed him, he always had a place.
Everybody else feeds him now (laughs).
I haven't had to feed him for years.
Hello, Hamish.
Are you coming (chuckles).
15 years older and a wee bit arthritic,
Hamish still patrols the gardens, streets,
and shops each day making sure his mental map
of the town stays familiar.
(people chattering)
(baby meowing)
His circuit even includes regular visits to his local salon
to have his hair done. (Hamish purring)
Hamish has been coming in here for eight years.
And, he gets fed and brushed and made to look
very handsome, I hope.
Somebody's sent him his little blanket for his Christmas.
So, this is Hamish's chair.
And in the winter particularly, he likes to come in
and just cozy up and go to sleep.
And, if somebody's sitting on his chair
when he comes in, he'll sit and stare them out
until they move.
And you just like to be boss.
And, it's like he absolutely owns the town.
But, we like him to come in.
We've been having him coming in for so long now.
I think it's that face, that handsome face.
He's like a little mini tiger or lion.
Aren't you?
(gentle music)
It's unlikely our kitten will have quite
the same wandering spirit as Hamish.
Yet, at six months old, she's now fully independent.
And, as she leaves home for the very first time,
she'll do exactly the same thing that Hamish does,
mapping her own territory in the brand new outdoor world.
(dog barking)
She'll apply all the instinctive super senses
and superpowers she's gained during the last six months
to secure her patch.
And, with her highly evolved social abilities,
will soon return home to slot right back in
with our indoor world.
We'll never really know if our cats love us.
What's certain, though, is that they're evolving
into ever more sociable, cuddlier homebodies.
Yet the amazing thing about cats is
that they'll never lose their wild side
reminding us who they once were and making us love them
all the more.
(upbeat music)