Communicating with Cats (Plus Examples)

communication with cats isn't difficult, a close friend watched my cat ask me to babysit for new born kittens, while she went to eat etc. My friend was in stitches, although she had no idea what the cat was asking for. I knew almost instinctively, took me a second, then I knew! "oi you! watch the babies while I go out for dinner tonight, won't be long" :-)

I always try to connect with animals on a psychic / extrasensory level -- they're so sensitive and focused on the moment, unlike people.

Animals can be the greatest teachers, and are capable of providing us with the purest forms of love.

They covet absolute respect. Once they realize you respect them unconditionally, then you've got a true friend, for life.

reply to post by darkbake

Hi Darkbake good thread. Me cat is named Baggs because an elderly couple found her
late night tied up in a plastic bag & thrown away in a dumpster. They brought her to
the ER Vet & I rescued her. She was not suppose to make it & I tube fed her for 3 days.
She thinks she's a dog, was raised by my Border Collie. She comes to the recall whistle with or
without the dogs.
She speaks very well as I understand when she wants to go outside, be fed, play, & etc. She
also sits on command & gets her little dog biscuit.

I too had a squirrel & a crow. You DO NOT need to slit any tongues that is cruel
& inhumane & an old wives tale. Yes I have heard of people doing that but it is not
necessary for in order to talk. My crow Brom (Gaelic for Raven) spoke just fine & no slit tongue.
I understood him well too, he was brilliant. I had him for 10 1/2 years as a rescue. He was already an
adult so I'm not sure of his age when he arrived. I was just teaching him how to play soccer
when he past away. They live up to 22 yrs in captivity. I miss him & me squirrel. Funny thing is ALL my animals got along squirrel, cats, crow, parrot, & dogs. Which ever bird was out was the boss of the rest. Parrot will go & lay by the bloody cat...LOL! Baggs does not like other cats & stays right with the dogs when she outside.

Cheers
Ektar

Most cats are worthless for the most part. Unlike a dog, they show no appreciation. They want what they want, or don't want, right now or they will shrug you off in a heartbeat. Or just bite you. Ask your cat what I said and tell me what it says so I know why they are that way please.
Firepiston

reply to post by darkbake


This is interesting; I've always believed one could communicate with dogs based on eye contact and thought.

Here is one for you... I dont know if this says more about me.. or cats!!

Cats HATE me. I think theyre pretty, but Im not a cat person... mainly because they hate me. My mother is a cat person and even when a child, her cats would very literally attack me. I could walk through the living room and a cat would run full bore from under the couch and climb up my pigtails to attack my head and face. I can scare a cat just by being around it or looking at it. Even in the damned petsmart area where they have the cats. One of my kids likes cats so we always have to go there and look at them. Rawr... hiss.. they HATE me.. even through plexiglass. The feeling is very mutual at this point. I can smell a cat a mile away... as in their actual skin and fur smell.. not the pee/box. I dont find it overly pleasant in the least.

I would never harm a cat and wouldnt allow a cat to be harmed in my presence. Id aid a cat if it were injured ( if it didnt try to kill me first) and really DO think they are pretty! Id feed one if it were hungry. I dont HATEcats exactly.. but they definitely hate me with a passion.

I am a dog person. Vicious dogs.. they like me. Yappy dogs... they like me. Hybrids.. they like me. Ive built a pack and it functions pretty well Id say. Other animals of all types have NO problem with me. A buddy of ours trains bear hunting dogs with a real bear he has had for darned near 20 years from a cub... and even his goofy brown bear likes me. I breed tarantulas.. tarantulas like me for Gods sake. I can walk outside and just grab a snake for a pet if one of my kids wants one and there is a garter or black snake out there. There is this crazy crow that Ive been friends with for several years.. it hasnt pecked my eyes out yet... so Id say we're on good terms.

What the hell is wrong with cats?? Weird creatures!

FirePiston
Most cats are worthless for the most part. Unlike a dog, they show no appreciation. They want what they want, or don't want, right now or they will shrug you off in a heartbeat. Or just bite you.
Firepiston

Pfffft!! Substitute the word 'humans' for 'cats' in your post....(lol)

It's been my experience that animals are like people...they have unique and individual personalities. If they have been abused or abandoned in the past...it can take a long time for them to trust you. On the other hand, they seem to know when they have been rescued, and are often very loving and grateful.

Animals use instincts that we have long forgotten (or masked with numerous products, such as scent). If cats react badly to you, perhaps you had an incident long ago, where you were scared...and you unknowingly still put out that 'fear'....and they sense it....?
I've met some pretty stand-offish animals, but I've never met an animal I didn't like.
jacygirl

Great thinking.

If you were to use the foulest words to someone who didn't understand the language, yet you used a delightful tone, it is likely they would be positively re-enforced towards those specific words, at least until he discovered what they truly meant. Cats, however, can never denote what words mean according to how we define them, only with how we use them, that is, according to what cues we exhibit when we speak them.

Tone isn't the only aspect of communication that cats understand, as body language, movement, environment all come into play. When we think we are communicating with cats, or other animals, it is only that they are reacting to whatever it is we are doing.

Aphorism
Great thinking.

If you were to use the foulest words to someone who didn't understand the language, yet you used a delightful tone, it is likely they would be positively re-enforced towards those specific words, at least until he discovered what they truly meant. Cats, however, can never denote what words mean according to how we define them, only with how we use them, that is, according to what cues we exhibit when we speak them.

Tone isn't the only aspect of communication that cats understand, as body language, movement, environment all come into play. When we think we are communicating with cats, or other animals, it is only that they are reacting to whatever it is we are doing.

I was just about to agree with you....but...did you read what I posted earlier, about my friend's dachshund? It seemed to be the 'tone' of voice that I was using, that caused the dog to get super-excited and urinate. In subsequent visits, when I changed my tone, the rest of my behaviour was exactly the same...but the dog was calmer, and didn't pee himself anymore (lol).
So tone is still part of the communication....yes?

jacygirl

reply to post by darkbake


Cute.

I think that the human being and pets are evolving together in a mutual co-dependent or interdepentant manner, and that therefore, eventually, their vocalization will begin to form actual words including yes/no and other basic word annunciations.

FirePiston
Most cats are worthless for the most part. Unlike a dog, they show no appreciation. They want what they want, or don't want, right now or they will shrug you off in a heartbeat. Or just bite you. Ask your cat what I said and tell me what it says so I know why they are that way please.
Firepiston

See the Leopard post above yours, and then you'll know

www.abovetopsecret.com...

redhorse
reply to post by darkbake

 

I liked your reference to "polite" and "informal", and that indication of a sort of... cat culture.

In the video those vocalizations are very similar to how mamma cats talk to their kittens, but they use those vocalizations less and less often as the kittens get older, and much less often between adult cats. It seems a lot like how we do "baby talk" to infants. Which means our cats might use a sort of "baby talk" with us; which I think supports your theory about subtly. If you are on it, and speak "cat" well enough you can catch the subtler cues without the vocalizations at all.

There was some tid-bit coming to mind (although I can't remember the source, so take it for what it is) that cats are much more vocal with humans than with other cats, and even further, that domestic cats that cohabitate with humans vocalize much more than wild or feral cats, even among each other. Which begs the question of just how much they are trying to bridge the gap and accommodate our communication styles and even culture. How much do they understand about verbal language?

On that last note, we did have a tom cat here (this is a mini-farm), that when we would come outside he would flat say "Hello" "HI" "Hello" in a steady stream as he approached us. He would up-turn the tone at the end so it sounded like a question ("Hello?" "Hi?"). The vocalizations ceased as soon as he got to us and we would stroke his back. It was a very close mimic to human vocalizations. We have video of this, but I don't know how to embed.

You just need the [ yvid ] number [ /yvid] string.

We were once asked to help house train a feral cat and her five kittens - she would go up to each kitten, brush her body against and make a little rrrr-meoow sound, and the kitten would answer by either going mee--owww (hungry) or purring (content). She'd leave it for the kittens to do the cute sit-in-the-middle-of-the-room-looking-helpless and beg for food.

Our cats can definitely tell the difference between words; each one knows their own name, and the words; tuna, biscuits and chicken.
We were confused at one time by one who would sit on the kitchen table and put his paw in the air. It was his way of saying I want to be lifted up and cuddled. But they all understood that if I double-patted the chair beside me, that meant they could come up and get some attention.

I think you are on to something, keep at it!

Cats are great healers of their own bodies, they communicate through purr to heal people as well,

When a cat purrs within a range of 20-140 Hertz, nearby humans may be therapeutically benefiting from these vibrations. Purring has been linked to lowering stress, decreasing symptoms of Dyspnoea, lessening the chances of having a heart attack, and even strengthening bones.

- Source

Pic from source click to enlarge -

I almost didn't click on this, glad I did!
Ive had my cat for almost 5 years now, and speak to him just like my other 3 young boys. I always felt weird for meowing back at him sometimes, thinking he probably thought I was mocking him haha. S&F for you, great thread.

reply to post by darkbake


While I have never had a problem reading my cats' needs (I have 3 currently), we have one that rarely meows out loud, but rather gives us the silent meow. I gather this meow is below or above our hearing range, as his mouth opens and moves just like he is meowing, but you don't hear a sound. He has to be quite excited about something before you hear a meow from him, and then it is just as likely you will hear human words as cat language. A feral/stray, this Russian blue boy has got us both puzzled.

Simba, our Maine Coon, just pointedly stands in front of the offending bowl, and stares at us til someone gets up and deals with it. If the litter box isn't clean enough for him, he just does his business in the middle of our bed.

Karma, our youngest, is the most vocal of the bunch. She woofs like a dog when she's mad, and she will bite if you don't pay attention to her warning.


They also have a meow that tells you they are in serious, lifethreatening trouble, and there is no mistaking that sound if you hear it only once. It will wake you from a dead sleep.

Great job OP!! I've always been able to read our cats- always know what they want. I'm definitely interested in furthering my knowledge.

SK

reply to post by SweetKarma


karma is a very sweet name for cat

peace.

Excellent OP! You obviously understand cats in a way I probably never will, but I really like the idea of judging the cats demeanor by it tonal characteristics. I wonder if you can help me here...

I have a real old cat, and love the little bugger. He is now going on 21 years old.
He starts out his day absolutely howling, like in a jungle movie. Sometimes my dog gets so upset that
he takes off into another room until it is over.

I have taken him to the vets a few times about this, and they are saying to me that he is becoming hard of hearing, and also losing some of his eyesight. They say that the howling is a symptom of senility, and that he basically does not realize that he is doing this.

I disagree, because there are times when I pet him or when he is just basically relaxing by the fire, where he seems totally content.
Then, all of a sudden, it starts up again....

The howls are really screams. They are very loud . The most common sound he makes starts low, goes very high and ends mid tone.
I guess this is your code for it: " _/-_ ", and is not a meow, but more of an "AaaaaROWWWwww "

He does this just walking around the house, like there is nothing wrong...
If I say something loud, he stops and looks at me. I know he is probably trying to convey something to me, but it totally eludes me.
I wish I could post sounds here on ATS , so you could hear it. The sounds remind me of jungle sounds in old Tarzan movies.... really freaky.

Thanks for anything you might suggest.

I had a very deep and other-worldly communication with my recently deceased cat, Zooey. With my other cat, Yoshi, it's different. He does communicate, and he is very sweet and loving, but the connection isn't the same. The only time he gets really mad and vocalizes his anger is when he is chilled out on my computer desk chair and I try to move him to his super-comfy, specially designated spot on my computer desk. It becomes like a tragic opera--all, "Noooooooo! Grrrrr! I'm-going-to-kill-you-in-your-sleep! ARRRGH!" drama. All I do is pick him up *gently* and move him, but you'd think from his attitude that I was actively torturing him. He HATES being moved once he's settled into a spot. I suppose I can't blame him, but seriously--he gets extremely dramatic about the whole thing.

But most other times, he grabs my hand and licks me and behaves very protectively towards me. So I guess I can tolerate his intolerance.

What a wonderful thread. Thank you darkbake, I love the way you are able to break these ideas down into words.
I think many of us 'get' the messages, but didn't know how we were understanding exactly. Love the tonal concept, this is true with horses as well, and probably most species. Thanks so much.
Also thanks seasoul for posting that beautiful video, I had not seen it and it is certainly worth watching!