Science reveals Baltimore cats are friendly kittens

Every day when I get home from work, a familiar face greets me from my living room window. That’s my cat, Mr. C. (If you’re a fan of David Lynch, you’ll know that he’s named after Mr. C, Agent Dale Cooper’s evil doppelganger.) C, Twin Peaks: The Return (If not, assume C stands for “cat”). I live on a busy street and my house is near the sidewalk, so pedestrians sometimes stop and chat with him. Sometimes, late at night on a Friday or Saturday, when I’m already half asleep, I hear a voice just outside saying, “Hello, kitten!” I think many of my neighbors know Mr. C well. He has orange and white fur, a clipped left ear, and a stubby tail, the end of which was injured and later amputated before I adopted him.

Aside from some minor disfigurement, my cats are statistically average, at least when compared to the number of cats in Baltimore. Until recently, no census data existed for the city’s felines, but Johns Hopkins University MD and PhD researcher Charlotte Farre is trying to correct this critical oversight. In her 2023 report, “Semi-Quantitative Analysis of Baltimore’s Cats,” she surveyed some of Baltimore’s cats to study their “appearance and temperament.”

The study area includes the JHM campus, Canton, downtown Baltimore, Fells Point, Upper Fells Point, and Mount Vernon. Like Mr. C, almost all the cats observed were perched on windows, and the predominant coat colors were orange, orange, and white, followed by black and white, and gray and white.

Cat breeds are notoriously difficult to identify due to overlapping coat types, Fair magazine reports. To demonstrate this, Fare created the following graph.

Image credit: Charlotte Faret

What about take-home? Baltimoreans are not snobs. The common color of cats on the street indicates that owners are more likely to adopt a mixed-breed cat from a shelter than to buy a purebred cat from a breeder.

This study may actually reveal more about the city’s human population than the cats.

Image credit: Charlotte Faret

“People who own pets are generally happier, and happy pets equal happy people,” Farre says. “If we see a significant change in the impact or abundance of window cats, that could indicate some kind of sociological change that is worth noting.”

Farre said most of the cats she saw actually seemed happy and friendly. In her behavioral test, she raised her finger and waved her hand in greeting. Almost every cat was trying to sniff my fingers or paw at the window.

“Based on appearance and demeanor, we can reasonably assume that all window cats observed were sociable, healthy, and well-loved. Despite not being able to interact with this population, these The discovery has been made to researchers,” she wrote. comfortable. “

Since no behavior was represented in this study, it is unclear what these results mean for my cat. Whenever he sees me outside, he frequently attacks me with the same hostility he shows toward the pigeons on the fire escape. I once saw him with his pupils dilated and his hips shaking as if he were about to pounce on a group of passing toddlers.

Image credit: Charlotte Faret

Perhaps, as Faret’s research continues, we’ll find out more about my cat’s erratic behavior (I must stress that he doesn’t act so viciously when he’s not near the window. As I write this) Even the cat is curled up on my leg). Currently, Fale is somewhat obsessed with research in Jeff Rothstein’s lab. This study investigated how mutations in proteins within the nuclear pore complex influence the disease phenotype of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons. I am. But as long as there are cats in the window, Farre is determined to document them.

“When spring comes and the sun shines through the window, the cat comes to the window sill so I can see it,” she says. “I’ve seen a few kittens recently. I’ve seen a tabby cat in the Fells Point area. There’s also a bookstore with a cat right by Station North. Her name is Stoney.”