Here, Catch!

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Throw a stick at a dog and they will run and fetch it. Cats, however, are a different story.

But a new study has found that a lot of felines actually do like playing fetch with their pet parents.

“We found that fetching was much more common in cats than we anticipated,” Mikel Delgado, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Purdue University, wrote in the Conversation. “Over 40 percent of cat owners had a cat that ‘sometimes, usually, or always’ fetched.”

Delgado and her team analyzed data from studies spanning between 2015 and 2023, including more than 8,000 cat owners and 74,000 dog owners.

Fetching is well-documented in dogs, with the behavior linked to their role as pursuit predators and hunting companions.

The new paper’s most surprising finding is the spontaneous participation of cats. Unlike pooches, many cats begin fetching without any training, often initiating the game by bringing an object to their human.

Delgado noted that the roots of fetching in cats may lie in their natural hunting instincts: Cats, are known as ambush predators, which involves carrying prey away after a successful hunt. This behavior could be part of what drives cats to fetch toys and other objects for their owners, even if they are not trained to do so.

The findings also showed that felines that are generally more active and playful, particularly indoor cats, are more likely to engage in this behavior. Certain breeds, such as Siamese, Burmese, Tonkinese and Bengals were more likely to fetch.

These breeds have origins in the Far East and may have retained genetic traits that encourage this playful behavior, according to Phys.org.

As for dogs, the study confirmed that nearly 78 percent of canines engage in fetching, especially breeds known for hunting or working closely with humans, such as Labradors, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds.

In both species, fetching is more common in males, while older animals and those with health issues are less likely to participate.

The authors noted that the paper not only challenges the traditional view of cats as aloof and uninterested in human-directed play, but also reshapes our understanding of feline behavior.

“We hope that our study will encourage further exploration of how fetching is related to play, hunting and social interactions in both cats and dogs,” they wrote.