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mk · 3144 days ago · link · · parent · post: Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris catus) Do Not Show Signs of Secure Attachment to Their Owners
Interesting point. There is likely plenty of nurture, however un-affectionate it might be, that plays into the loyalty as well. We definitely are driven by familial conditioning, and probably by instinct too.
I bugs me when animal behavior is dismissed as "just X". For example, cats rubbing being just marking behavior. I mean, I get that there's marking behavior but that's not just marking territory. Social behavior is complex and it having other components doesn't necessarily make it less meaningful. The pack behaviours in dogs are undeniable but that doesn't mean they have not changed and couldn't have acquired new meanings over thousands of years of domestication.