You were talking about how this cat related to your method of petting.
Field = how an object relates to or interacts with another object.
Object = cat
Object = your hand
Field = how the cat felt about your hand
That is what you were talking about, how the cat felt about your hand. How one object related to another object.
You know the image of a finger pointing at the moon, right?
The moon is an object.
The finger is an object.
The finger pointing at the moon creates an invisible "field" between the finger and the moon.
In this case, though, the reactions of the cat are not the moon. The reactions of the cat are the clues as to the relational field between your hand and the cat.
IEE 649 sx/sp cp
No, this is the proper definition of "field":
A field is a physical quantity that has a value for each point in space and time. Defining the field as "numbers in space" shouldn't detract from the idea that it has physical reality. “It occupies space. It contains energy. Its presence eliminates a true vacuum.” The field creates a "condition in space" such that when we put a particle in it, the particle "feels" a force.
The field is independent of the objects; it is like the "medium" in which the objects exist. The field is "that which acts upon the objects"; it is "the conditions" under which an object operates.
In this case, the field would've been my hand petting the cat.
I merely deduced how the cat felt, and in doing so, I detected an "implicit" and "static" property of an "object". It's that simple.