Intelligent Cats With A Serious Attitude Problem

Ligers tend to grow to near 1200 lbs (550 kg). As if that weren't bad enough, that mad tree-hugger xenobiologist, Deirdre Skye, grafted just enough human-derived genetic material to make them a heck of a lot smarter.

They live in the Wold, a large and frighteningly sapient forest, and act as the main hired muscle, quiet and agile as only a felide can be, even at that size. So these are not tame little ragdoll cats. They have never been captured alive, never mind tamed.

The worst thing that could happen to my ligers is if they accidentally turned into rubber headed aliens. So my ask here is for you to help me make the ligers sufficiently and felide-stylishly alien.

I've thought of a few felide characteristics that make them different from humans. I used this post as a starting point, but I want more, I want much more:

• Social vs Semi-social -- While they may very well communicate when it suits them, the ligers do not Talk, especially not about the weather;
• Brainy prey vs. Top-of-the-food-chain Cool-Cat -- Ligers are naturally and effortlessly cool and dominant, they find the very idea that one can be afraid of the dark endlessly amusing;
• Physically weak vs Physically imposing -- If a metal-reinforced door were just a minor inconvenience, you'd probably feel the same;
• Opposable thumbs and lack thereof -- but I don't think anyone would make fun of them about that deficit to their face.

So, please help me make these intelligent cats feel truly foreign! More specifically, I'm looking for ways in which they would they be different from humans.

EDIT: Since ligers have never been successfully observed over any significant period, we don't know if they're actually fertile or not. If you wish to go and ask them about their virility/fecundity, go ahead, feel free. It is a fact that their numbers seem stable, insofar as we can tell.

@Would-be-closers edit: I would love it if those thinking of voting to close would first leave a comment to clarify their concern. From my perspective, asking about the specifics of the most dramatic psychological differences between humans and a felide predatory sapience is a pretty narrow question. Also, the thousands of views and the votes suggest that lots of people think it an interesting and upvoteworthy question. But I'm more than happy to edit to take fellow worldbuilder concerns into account. I suggested some differences and opened those for criticism (so I'm not asking for new ideas whole cloth) and also invited worldbuilders to contribute others that I might not have thought about. Since we are all familiar with cats I assumed that the criteria for judging (can I imagine a smarter cat acting that way?) would be obvious.

posted about 9 years ago

Serban Tanasa‭

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