Dogs just want to love you but cats, well, what the hell do cats want? They have a mind of their own, they seemingly do whatever the hell they want, and their habits are just so weird. Why is that? According to Ted-Ed, it’s because how they developed as both a solitary predator that had to hunt and kill smaller prey for food and stealthy prey who had to hide from larger predators to survive. Their habits today, reflect both!


Being a predator is why they scratch things around your house (to sharpen claws) and why they hang out atop bookcases (their ancestors once looked down on their prey) but being prey explains why they hide in small places (to hide from bigger predators). It’s an interesting duality.