Canadian Catnip
Senior Don Juan
I live in an apartment building where the balconies are connected and only separated by a metal barrier on each side.
The cat next door sometimes comes over and I scratch his ear. He never came over at first. It took about a month for him to get up the courage to come up to my window and let me scratch his ear.
The other day my neighbor was taking care of a second cat. I stepped out onto my balcony and both cats were sitting around on the next balcony over.
As soon as the first cat saw me he got up and came over for an ear scratch. I was looking at the second cat and he was assessing the situation. He was looking at me and watching the other cat. Within about 30 seconds to a minute he was over looking for a scratch.
It made me think about what we say here about social proof. It took the first cat a month to get to know me and the second cat made a decision to trust me based on the fact that the first cat was all happy to be around me.
Had the new cat been there alone it might have taken another month for him to trust me to give him an ear scratch, but with social proof he made a decision to come over in 30 seconds.
The cat next door sometimes comes over and I scratch his ear. He never came over at first. It took about a month for him to get up the courage to come up to my window and let me scratch his ear.
The other day my neighbor was taking care of a second cat. I stepped out onto my balcony and both cats were sitting around on the next balcony over.
As soon as the first cat saw me he got up and came over for an ear scratch. I was looking at the second cat and he was assessing the situation. He was looking at me and watching the other cat. Within about 30 seconds to a minute he was over looking for a scratch.
It made me think about what we say here about social proof. It took the first cat a month to get to know me and the second cat made a decision to trust me based on the fact that the first cat was all happy to be around me.
Had the new cat been there alone it might have taken another month for him to trust me to give him an ear scratch, but with social proof he made a decision to come over in 30 seconds.
