Cats play fetch, too — as long as they're in control, a study finds

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/15/ [login to see] /cats-play-fetch-study
If you think of a game of fetch, you might picture a dog running back and forth, eagerly retrieving a ball. But a new, first-of-its-kind study in the journal Nature shows that they're not the only pets that like the game: Cats play fetch, too, just on their own unique terms.

Academics at the University of Sussex and Northumbria University in Great Britain surveyed almost 1,000 owners of 1,154 cats to find out if – and why – they fetch, which was defined as an animal retrieving an object that's thrown.

According to their findings, nearly 95% of the cat owners reported that their cats fetched items instinctively, in the absence of overt training. One survey respondent said their cat returned the toy completely unprovoked.