To celebrate this intelligent and mysterious animal — sacred to the ancient Egyptians and cursed by those who hunted witches in the Middle Ages — we present four studies that reveal some intriguing facts about it.

1) Cats recognise their owners' voices and choose to ignore them knowingly

This is a Japanese study from the University of Tokyo that effectively confirms the suspicion of any human who lives with one or more felines: these are animals that are neither deaf nor stupid — they simply have no desire to respond. The two researchers Atsuko Saito and Kazutaka Shinozuka monitored 20 cats in their respective homes, having their names called first by their owners and then by complete strangers. When the name was called by the owners, each cat displayed a body language of recognition (through signals given by the head, ears and tail), but showed no sign of wanting to respond to the call.

2) They see us as other cats

According to John Bradshaw, a feline behaviour expert at the University of Bristol, the way cats perceive human beings is entirely different from the way dogs do. While dogs understand that we are a different species — and indeed adopt a different attitude when interacting with humans compared to when they interact with one another — cats show no interest in modifying the way they relate to us, despite being perfectly aware that our size is different. According to the researcher, small felines think of us as big, clumsy cats.

3) They prefer women

According to Jon Day, a researcher at the Waltham Centre for animal nutrition, this may depend in part — though not exclusively — on the fact that it is usually women who take care of feeding these animals, going so far as to adopt "maternal" attitudes towards them. A study carried out by the University of Vienna, which analyses the interactions between 41 cats and their respective owners, shows instead that the empathy between felines and women (preferably young and extroverted in character) is greater than that shown with male owners.

4) They do not eat endangered species

We are talking about free-roaming cats, that is, those that are not kept indoors by their owners but have the opportunity to extend their territory to a garden or an even wider area. The fact that many small felines love tuna is down to the offerings of the pet food industry and the dietary choices of the humans they live with. According to the study Hunting behaviour of domestic cats and their impact on prey populations, cats primarily target species of rodents and small birds that are abundant in nature. Which is to say that certain dietary habits are entirely the owners' fault.