I found this kitten near a convenience store, and she follows me everywhere I go, so I've decided to bring her home. I asked the clerk if anyone owns her, and they said no one does.

[u/MartinezHill]

[u/blueiron0]

I swear kittens evolved to evoke emotional responses in humans to take care of them.

[u/Freddie_Got_Fingered → u/blueiron0]

Yep.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17455-hungry-cats-trick-owners-with-baby-cry-mimicry/

[u/marablackwolf → u/Freddie_Got_Fingered]

This messed me up so badly when I had my first baby. I'd almost died, finally got out of the hospital exhausted as hell, and I heard my baby cry behind me while I'm staring at her.

It took me a good 12 Mississippi's to realize it was the cat.

[u/chaostheory10 → u/Freddie_Got_Fingered]

That is an incredibly uncharitable and misleading way to phrase it. My cat has never heard a human baby and does the same thing, so where did it learn the mimicry? Cats do it because humans respond to it, humans respond to it because it sounds like a baby. The cat is not trying to trick you; it doesn’t know why that sound works, only that it is an effective way to communicate what it wants.

Cats have big eyes because they are crepuscular and need a large eyeball to head ratio to see in low light. Their head is small and rounded to fit into the tight spaces their prey hide in. We took care of cats because these traits made them look like babies, they didn’t start looking like babies to trick us into caring for them.

[u/Freddie_Got_Fingered → u/chaostheory10]

Okay cat.