Veterinary resident Soraya Juarbe-Diaz, D.V.M., performs a personality test on a cat at the Ithaca SPCA. This particular test is used to differentiate a lap cat from one that doesn't like to be petted or held by people.
By Roger Segelken
Whether a kitten grows up to be an aloof loner or a participating family mem ber, a confident kitty or a fraidy feline is something animal adoption agencies and potential pet owners would like to predict.
Now, animal behavior experts at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medi cine are developing a kitten personality test to help choose a cat, based on expec tations of the pet as an adult.
"Not everyone wants a cat that sits on your head like a hat and helps you type," said Soraya Juarbe-Díaz, D.V.M., a resident in the Animal Behavior Clinic at the veterinary college. "For some people, an aloof cat -- one that regards you as a can opener with legs and leaves you alone the rest of the time -- is the ideal pet."
Too many cats are abandoned or returned to animal shelters because their temperament as adults was not what owners expected, Juarbe-Díaz said. Owners hoping for a docile lap cat may get an unmanageable monster, while those with mouse problems get a purring pacifist. Sometimes the new cat in the house simply can't get along with the established animal occupants.
"There are personality tests for puppies, but it's not clear how useful they are in predicting adult temperament, and besides, most dog tests probably don't apply to a completely different species," said Katherine A. Houpt, V.M.D., Ph.D., direc tor of the Animal Behavior Clinic. "Dr. Juarbe-Díaz' experiment should show whether a kitten personality test is possible or whether cats need to be a little older before we can predict how they turn out."
Working with kittens and older cats that are up for adoption at the SPCA shelter in Ithaca, Juarbe-Díaz will try a variety of tests designed to predict adult behavior. Among the questions:
·How do kittens as young as 6 weeks respond to silhouettes and recorded sounds of a barking dog and a meowing cat?
·Do they resist when they are held on a lap for petting, when they are lifted by the scruff of the neck the way mothers carry kittens or when they are restrained for a veterinary examination?
·Do they like to be petted?
·When they are placed in an unfamiliar environment, do they explore or do they cower in the corner?
·When a toy is dragged by, do they
play like a pussy cat or pounce like a predator?
The animal-behavior experts will check every few months with people who adopt the cats to learn how the animals matured and whether their tem perament matches the owners' expectations. But the owners will not be told at first how their cats scored on the kitten personality test, in part because the vet erinarians don't yet know whether kitten traits are really meaningful.
"I'd be happy if five or six of the traits turn out to be useful predictors," Juarbe -
Díaz said. She hopes to develop a standardized test that animal shelter person nel -- with some training -- can apply. Simply choosing a kitten, she said, shouldn't require the services of a Ph.D. behavioral psychologist.
And what kind of cat does the behavior expert prefer? Juarbe-Díaz doesn't have a cat; a dog and a horse are enough right now, she said. But she wouldn't mind a cat that "sits on my head and helps me type," she noted, adding, "I'd prob ably pick the boisterous kitten that's climbing up the side of the cage."