Last night, I was unpleasantly awoken by our newest foster kitten. It seems Heidi thinks I’m her real mother now.

After getting over the weirdness/hilarity of this happening, I began to wonder, just how did she know to do this? How did she know this is where milk comes out of humans? Human nipples look nothing like cat nipples. What is inherent in the innate knowledge of nursing? Are nipples generalizable? And why me and not my boyfriend? Is gender acknowledged before being understood?

Topics: cats, kittens, mothering, babies, infants, nursing, behavior, knowledge, nipples, feeding, gender, mother, innate