One, by researchers at Oregon State University’s Human-Animal Interaction, looked at both shelter cats and owned cats. The cats got no food or attention for two and a half hours, and then were offered various stimuli, one at a time. In one session, a person (not the cat’s owner) spoke to the cats, and offered petting and a chance to play. In another, the cats could choose among food, a toy mouse with a shaker inside, or cloths scented with scents of catnip, another cat, or a gerbil. Then the cats were presented with all these things at once and got to pick what they wanted to interact with.

Less than half the cats chose the food, while exactly half chose the interaction with people. That was true for both the shelter cats and the owned cats. “Although it is often thought [that] cats prefer solitude to social interaction, the data of this study indicate otherwise,” the study authors wrote.

In the other study, done in Sweden, owned cats were left home alone for two periods—30 minutes and four hours. Owners were asked to behave as usual leaving and returning home. When their owners returned after four hours, all the cats purred more, stretched more, and interacted with their owners more than they had after 30 minutes. Most of the cats were free-fed, so anticipation of a meal was not a factor. “The increased level of social contact initiated by the cats after a longer duration of separation indicates a rebound of contact-seeking behavior, implying that the owner is an important part of the cat’s social environment,” the researchers wrote.