Cats are tiny hackers: curious, nocturnal, not fans of authority. The one purring on my lap right now has figured out how to open every door that it's physically possible for her to, and has trained me to throw rubber dice down the hall on demand so she can chase them.
As the Crazy Cat Lady of my family, I can attest to this.<p>> Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later.<p>The reverse is also true: an affronted cat will hold a grudge.
<i>If owners comply with their feline's wishes to interact, then the cat will often comply with the owner's wishes at other times.</i><p>I would change that to "might generously consider".
I wonder how much of the cat/woman attraction is fueled by the transmission from cat to woman of the toxoplasmosis parasite? There's been speculation that the "crazy cat lady" is really manifesting symptoms of toxoplasmosis: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.htm...</a>
A link to the original study:
"Factors influencing the temporal patterns of dyadic behaviours and interactions between domestic cats and their owners"
<a href="http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uploads/tx_ttmedienportal/files/Wedl_et_al._2010_Behavioural_Processes.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uploads/tx_ttmedienportal/f...</a>