The Truth About Sassy (Homeward Bound)

Cats rule and dogs drool

Contains spoilers for a movie that is over 30 years old.

I thought that this time it would be fun to look at a movie where the cat is a main character. I also tried to avoid Persians, having already covered Mr Bigglesworth and the cat from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Somehow I managed to pick a Himalayan, which is basicially a Persian with Siamese markings. Seems like something I should have known as a Cat Scientist really, but every day’s a school day.

In this film, two dogs (Shadow and Chance) and a cat (Sassy) inexplicably don’t want to live with an awesome woman on a ranch with loads of space and other animals, so run away to get back to three incredibly annoying children. Pretty unrealistic already if you ask me. To get home they must travel across an unspecified amount of American wilderness for an unspecified amount of time facing such dangers as bears, a porcupine, a mountain lion and a crying child. (Note: I won’t be covering the wildlife aspect of the movie because I live in a city in the UK, where the most dangerous wildlife you will come across is a particularly angry squirrel.)

I don’t normally read reviews of the films I write about, but I stumbled across Roger Ebert’s piece. He says of the movie, “… the adventures are exciting almost precisely in proportion to their impossibility … we have given up looking for credibility, and are waiting for the animals to start solving mathematical equations and picking out simple tunes on the piano.” So is he right? Does this movie stretch the bounds of reality? Let’s find out by asking a few questions.

Question 1: Can cats and dogs communicate with each other?

First things first, can cats and dogs understand each other? Sassy, Chance and Shadow appear to communicate psychically since their mouths don’t move, although when they are eating it sounds like they’re talking with their mouths full so who knows. Also, no other animals can talk. Can only domesticated animals talk in this world? If so, why do the chickens not talk? Is it just domesticated mammals? Let me know your thoughts because I don’t understand.

It's not totally clear how dogs and cats communicate cross-species in real life. It does appear though that they can be quite good at reading each other’s body language, despite the fact that a particular movement for a cat can mean the total opposite to a dog. For example, a wagging tail in a dog probably means something like “I love you please give me more attention” while a wagging tail in a cat is more likely to mean “please go away immediately or I will bite you”.

It’s quite nice that Sassy and the two dogs have an amicable relationship, although it’s a bit more hostile at the beginning. Despite often being portrayed as mortal enemies, cats and dogs can actually cohabitate really well. Most cat-dog relationships within a household are reported by their owners to be friendly, or at least indifferent, with very few aggressive relationships. The relationship can be impacted by their age and the order in which they are introduced, and there are also ways to introduce cats and dogs to make a good relationship more likely.

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

Question 2: Do cats have a homing instinct?

The answer is maybe. Homing instincts in animals aren’t well understood in general, although a prevailing theory is that magnets are involved. There are a couple of really old studies in cats (that you can read about here) that indicate they do have a homing instinct, but it’s not nearly enough data to make any meaningful conclusions and I didn’t read them because they weren’t particularly ethical.

Anecdotally, there are several stories of cats finding their way home from large distances, such as Howie, a Persian cat who travelled 1000 miles across the Australian Outback over the course of a year. So it does seem rare but possible.

Question 3: What are the chances of finding a lost cat?

Most cats are found very close to where they were lost. A worldwide survey of 1210 cats reported that 75% were found within 500m of where they escaped. In another study, most cats (66%) returned home on their own.

The worldwide survey reported that one of the most successful methods for finding a lost cat was to go out and look for them, which the family in this movie didn’t seem bothered doing. Posters were much less successful (although this might be influenced by the amount of time animals are missing before people start putting up posters). I kind of feel like the parents in this story did pretty much the bare minimum.

Addendum: The vet in me can’t end this article without advising to get your cats microchipped, which is the law in the UK as of earlier in 2024, even for indoor-only cats. Also keep your details up to date with the microchip company and take measures to keep your cat safe when moving house.

Overall:

• Cats can’t talk

• Cats and dogs often do get along well

• Some cats have found their way home across huge distances

• Something something magnets probably

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey Cat Facts scientific accuracy score: 5 out of 10 cats, which is incidentally the same as the number of times I cried watching it.

References:

Feuerstein, N.L. and Terkel, J., 2008. Interrelationships of dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus L.) living under the same roof. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 113(1-3), pp.150-165.

Huang L, Coradini M, Rand J, Morton J, Albrecht K, Wasson B, Robertson D. 2018. Search Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found. Animals 2;8(1):5.

Lord, L.K.; Wittum, T.E.; Ferketich, A.K.; Funk, J.A.; Rajala-Schultz, P.J. Search and identification methods that owners use to find a lost cat. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 2007, 230, 217–220.

Menchetti L, Calipari S, Mariti C, et al. Cats and dogs: Best friends or deadly enemies? What the owners of cats and dogs living in the same household think about their relationship with people and other pets. 2020; 15: e0237822.

Thomson JE, Hall SS, Mills DS. Evaluation of the relationship between cats and dogs living in the same home. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 2018; 27: 35–40.