Science taught us a few new tricks about our pets in 2025

Recent scientific studies revealed fascinating insights about pet behavior, from dogs showing addiction-like obsession with favorite toys to the discovery that leopard cats, not house cats, first lived alongside humans in ancient China until around 200 A.D. Researchers found that humans rely heavily on environmental context rather than body language to interpret dog emotions, often misreading their pets' moods, while geneticists finally located the specific DNA deletion responsible for orange fur in cats.