My cat is kinda weird. No real proper meows, but a few sounds and mannerisms that tell me what he wants and one which I genuinely have no clue about.
- A kind of low volume, breathy, “heh”. He only really does this if we are already close to the food. If he’s anywhere else, he doesn’t say anything, he just behaves differently to how he acts when he wants attention. Way more mischievous and annoying.
- He wants attention frequently, but only in certain spots. For example, in my room he will only sit at the foot of my bed. He won’t sit on my desk or the chair next to me, nor will he move closer if I’m already in bed so I can pet him without moving. So what he will do if he comes in the room and I’m not in position, he goes to his spot, then just purrs or breathes really loudly. It’s super passive aggressive. He wants to let me know he is not pleased to be ignored, but not enough to move to me. Eventually he leaves if I don’t give him enough attention quickly enough. Idk why he can’t just sleep on my bed for a while if he’s just gonna go sleep somewhere else anyway.
- Sometimes he walks around the house carrying stuffed animals in his mouth and makes weird, pathetic sounding noises. Hard to describe. But it doesn’t SEEM like he wants our attention or anything. So, idk.
- Sometimes he walks around the house carrying stuffed animals in his mouth and makes weird, pathetic sounding noises. Hard to describe. But it doesn’t SEEM like he wants our attention or anything. So, idk.
One of our cats does something similar, walks around the house with a toy in his mouth, making very loud, very pathetic sounding “mrrow” noises. Once he finds someone though he drops the toy, sits, and looks at them expectantly. I think he thinks he’s hunting for us, so we reward him with pets when he brings us his “kill”, and that usually makes him puff out his chest all proud and purr like crazy.
The extra strange thing is he usually just leaves afterwards. He doesn’t move into any spot where he’s ok with getting pet.
That sound typically means “I want to be pet. I will flee if you try to pet me, I just want you to know that I want the attempt.”
Manny is…difficult.
I wish mine did the mrrrp. He only does MEEEEOWWWOWWWOWWWWWWWWW.
He’s a Holy Birma, ergo half Persian, half Siamese.
Former cat, Ada, would snuggle up under the covers at night. She would politely wake me to let her under the covers.
Manny screams because his daily fattening is happening 10 minutes later than he prefers.
My former cat Percy would punch me in the head until I let him under the blankets at night!
Which is fair, really.
What did she become after her cat period?
Not alive anymore, ass
That’s a strange move. I would have picked flying tiger in the sky.
Sweetie will chirrup at us (that’s what I call it. It’s not quite a chirp and not quite a purr but man! So to answer your question I don’t know) and then jump in the sink. Sometimes she curls up for pets in the sink, sometimes she wants drinks, sometimes she wants to give me a forehead kiss (do not ask me how I taught her to do that I don’t know) but all I really know is she wants attention
My former cat, Ada, was very human-compatible. She didn’t do feline masking shit. She said what she meant, for better or worse, so she was always understood.
Since she’s dead in a box in my tv stand, her demands are simpler to parse now.
But manny is a himbo cat that sees everything as the beginning of saving private ryan. He’s from the same hood. He’s seen the same shit. And it hit him totally different. He might be broken.
And I’ll soon be inheriting my sisters cat, who I have nicknamed Goose after if tried to blind me because it’s stressed the fuck out by her kids and keeps attacking them and dads about to turn her into a purse and GODDAMNIT WHY AM I BRINGING A PSYCHICALLY UNSTABLE CAT INTO THE HOME WITH IM-GODS-VICTIM CAT HAVE I LOST MY MIND?!
Cats are social animals and I believe they live more complete lives when another cat is in the home. Even if they dislike each other, I believe the life of each will be enriched by the other’s presence. Have you ever introduced cats before? It’s best to give each their own territory to start with, allow them to get to know each other, under a door if possible, before slowly allowing more interaction.
Because you realize that poor stressed-out cat needs a home where someone understands the importance of regular meals even if she’s a little slow sometimes, and is also willing to accept the rejection of pets. Goose and Manny may get along, and/or Goose may give Manny a legitimate reason for his drama. But they’ll work out their boundaries and you’re doing the right thing.
Okay, I have to chime in here, if only because I not only do this, but somehow distinguish 9 different sets of various meows.
I don’t have a favorite cat, but Honey Pie…well let’s just say I’m her favorite. She and I bonded a lot when she was a kitten because her back legs are incredibly weak, so it took her a while to figure out how to use the litter box without making a mess of litter on her legs.
So she spent a lot of her kittenhood gazing up at me adoringly while I cleaned poopy litter out of her fur.
Anyway, for whatever reason instead of a normal meow, she has something verging much more on a screech, and since she needs help getting certain places (you’d be amazed how few she can’t manage though) she has a lot of different screeches that she uses to tell me what she needs.
Sometimes she wants to go in the window, sometimes up on her favorite dresser, sometimes she just urgently wants to sit in my lap and wants me to pick her up even though she could make it with her front paws - as literally happened as I started writing this.
Anyway, my point is, I’m not sure there is a sound that instantly melts my heart like her insane screeching does. I love it and I can hear it from the other room, through music, whatever. It isn’t uncommon for me to randomly get up and dart into the room mid conversation but my wife understands.
She’s amazing and I could talk about her forever but I will just pay the cat tax:
I’m trying to think how many meows my cats have. I can think of five off the top of my head, and they change their tone depending who they’re talking to (they call for my wife with a different meow than they call for me). I have just always kind of thought of them as 2 year olds with damaged language centers of their brain. I just talk to them and they meow back, and I pretend that we both understand each other.
That being said, there are a few words they’ve come to recognize. Like when I yell WHERE MY KITTIES AT they come running from wherever they were hiding for treats and cuddles. Very, very helpful when we had to evacuate.
aw. I’m melting.
I had a boy with a weak back left leg, Pipo. He trained out the disability, so it was probably not as serious as whatever Honey Pie has. I made a litterbox with a step so he could climb in, but he didn’t need it long. He also wasn’t particularly vocal…
She can move her hind legs a bit, and even walk a very little bit if she can get her back feet under her, but once she wants to move at any kind of speed she is fully just dragging herself by her front legs.
So her front legs are incredibly, like ridiculously strong, and her hind legs are quite atrophied, and we have to do manual stretches with her.
She can move very quickly and she can climb almost anywhere she wants to get to, and where she doesn’t, she’s got her screeches.
Cats are amazing the way they adapt. I love watching her figure things out.
Neat ! she lives inside ?
Fully, yeah. We live in quite an urban area, but some of my cats do like to go out in the backyard with me to act like they are hunting birds and butterflies, but that’s generally minutes at a time and fairly rare. I did recently install a catio in the small space between my house and my neighbors and she (and almost all of our cats really) loves that.
Before we got our kitten (2 years old) our older cat (8 years old) only had a handful of very similar meows. Sure, there would be tone so you could kinda guess what he wanted, but they were all variations of the same. The new kitten comes in, and she’s a chatter box. She makes so many different sounds, you can always tell what mood she’s in, what she’s doing, and what she wants. It’s lovely.
The problem with this is that she’s started teaching the older cat new sounds, so on top of his normal sounds he’ll occasionally make one that I’ve never heard him make before. And it’s absolutely disorienting. He’ll make a noise and look at me expectantly, and I will have absolutely no idea what he wants. He’s always good to show me what he wants, but man must he think I’m an idiot now.
I saaid “mraow,” what part of that do you not understand, hooman?!?
Sometimes my grown ass cat would made this really pathetic kitten squeak and I would pick him up like a baby and kiss him. He did it when he wanted attention and cuddles. I think cats are like kids, where you end up with these extremely specific “games” that everyone knows the rules to, but nobody would be able to write them down lol
I mean it sounds a little like something in an obsessive compulsive direction. And our Poor Goober is on Prozac and yells at us if we miss his bedtime (because one of us are his bed)…
Only one of my cats is a chatterbox, but I have no idea what any of his meows mean. He looks somewhere, screams, looks somewhere else, screams again, looks at me, screams. He doesn’t even differentiate at all, because he uses all of his different meows for the same things. I think he just likes to talk, because he’s been like that since he was a kitten.
I think he just likes to talk, because he’s been like that since he was a kitten.
Talk back to him, maybe he just wants a conversation 🥰
Can confirm. My orange loves conversation. Just make up what he says in your imagination and go from there :3
They see that for us humans communicating is a big deal, and they want to be a part of it in our lives ❤️
Yeah, but you train well.
Oh, sure. Cats, and dogs, too, can learn how to speak in their own sort of language like that. It’s simple, but effective sometimes.
For my cat, it’s mostly limited to:
- hello
- hey (to get my attention)
- I want something
- expressing happiness
- expressing unhappiness
- I am angry
- I am scared
From my last 2 dogs, one could let me know a number of specific things based on context. (Including, the spin that means: I need you to open this specific gate, or I’m just going to jump it, and not come home for a day.)
The other one just had I need something NOW, and then various emotions (and being hungry was an emotion, and he had it all the time lol).
There’s a lot more, but we have to start bringing in the non vocal markers in (cat) speech to understand I think. Like how furrowing your brow often implies you’re thinking. Or how the cat’s tail moves when it’s screaming at you
My cat was born from a stray, and I took it upon myself to raise her. She acts like she doesn’t remember what it was like to be outside for two years of her life, as she has completely adapted to her regal lifestyle with no interest in going back outside ever. She is convinced that water straight from the tap is better than water straight from the tap into her bowl. She also will drink from the puddles on the floor after a shower, because that is somehow also better than water in her bowl. She also scratches at doors she wants open. She also was mad at me for an entire day for the two or three drops of flea medication.
should get one of those cat water fountains. they prefer running water instinctually, so the fountain will make the water bowl much more intetesting to them.
The issue with this is that one of my other cats doesn’t understand the concept of running water. He tries swatting it and biting it.
they prefer running water instinctually
I’ve heard that before and it makes sense, but my cat also likes to stick is head in whatever container outside is filled with old rain water
Like, I’m not saying I understand how ancient people worshipped cats.
I am saying that I’m not sure how future archeologist will be able to determine that I don’t.
We have a shower chair. Oh meow lord help us if we don’t pull the chair out where The Goober can stare at us while soaking his harbls on the leftover shower water in the chair. He will let us know.
You can’t say all that and not post a pic!
So precious 🥹
Such a baby
Just good parenting
Cat parents? We hoomans are just mere caretakers. Butlers. Slaves.
I do like to butle
Cats and dogs. All my pets over the years, I could decipher different wants and needs from sound or body language. They train us just as much as we train them.
Truth.
Cat parents Your cat is a grown ass adult. You’re a grown ass adult. You’re not the parent of your cat. It’s your pet, your friend, or your family member. But it’s not your kid.
your family member (…) not your kid
Aight, yeah, that’s such a helpful and unambiguous distinction. For the last couple of years, I was confused whether my cat is my biological child and not just some creature I took into my home that’s utterly dependent on me. I was wondering why he was doing so poorly in school and thought he had the ADHD, but that clarifies it. Thanks for this profound insight, I now only have to find out if the cat is maybe my brother or cousin, which I guess is still possible.
Somebody must have hurt you real bad at some point, and I’m sorry for you.
Your cat is a grown ass adult
Actually I’ll think you’ll find he is, in fact, a darling widdle baby boy.
My parents and I are all grown ass-adults.
All family members are members of the family.
I’m guessing your parents didn’t adopt you as an adult. Nevertheless I’m sick of this pet parent thing .I have a human child and when we were recently visiting my wife’s brother, who has 2 lovely cats, he couldn’t stop comparing his cats with our kid. Like when we were talking about how our kid is like this or like that, he would always reply “yes I totally understand, my cat is the same way!”. It’s so obnoxious. Like I’m super happy you love your cat but it’s really not the same! He even dared to say we had it easy because he and his girlfriend were both working full time while my wife currently does not work, so we must have an easier time caring for our newborn baby than they have caring for their two adult ass cats who sleep 16 hours a day! It’s insane. I’m going insane! It’s not the same!
Okay I’m going to make allowance for the fact that of course you are insane from the intense responsibility of having a tiny human who’s completely dependent on your wife and you 24/7.
Been there, and yes it’s different from a cat or even a kitten. Mostly scarier.
For instance a cat’s fur and claws mean a plastic bag on their face won’t kill them. And they might get into trouble climbing all over the house at night but if they fall, or you drop them, they’ll land on their feet.
Try to breathe, and remember, the nights may last forever but the weeks fly by.
Appreciate the intensity of your love, but don’t begrudge your wife’s brother’s love for his cats.
The time will come when your kid becomes an adult and you can relax a little bit. And unless you really fucked it up, you’ll still be their parents, bound for life by love.
Your wife’s brother, who is just trying (failing but trying) to relate, will at some point be grieving the death of those cats, and I hope you’ll do a better job of understanding his feelings than he is of yours.
Honestly a lot of that comparison from my wife’s brother would be okay. But once he claimed we had an easier time then him, I actually got a bit offended and this statement from him has since infested my mind for months. But as others have already said this is probably not the right place to post this drama and I guess they’re right. Thanks for your message.
(Well yeah he’s completely wrong about that part. But I’m sure your wife knows better, so give her and your kid a hug and don’t let it rankle.)
This sounds like a conversation you should be having with your brother-in-law.
I am fully aware that my cats require far fewer resources than my stepsons, but that doesn’t prevent me from counting them as a valuable part of the family unit.
Also, we adopted all of our cats as very young kittens.
I’m totally okay with counting them as part of the family as stated in my first comment. I had cats myself from 9 to 23. Thinking of getting cats again in the future. It’s strictly the parent label that irks me the wrong way.
Is there a right way to be irked?
Why does that specific label bother you? What defines “acceptable” parenthood to you?
They have “real kids” so they’re special now.
Jesus Christ you seem quite miserable. I’m not sure what you’re going through, but I genuinely hope it gets better for you, and that you’re able to find some peace soon.
why do you care? genuine question. ask it of yourself and mull over what the answer says about you. if you can’t come up with one, i recommend talking to a professional.
I would define being a parent as either having adopted a human being or having conceived a human being. Why do I care? I think words should have a useful meaning. If we broaden it to anyone who has a pet then we would require a new word for those that have a human child because in some cases that distinction is important because it is truly fundamentally different in several ways. If someone organized a local meetup group for new parents it should be understood that people who have recently adopted a cat would not be welcome. If the word parent is broadened in this way what would we then have to call that group, a “new human parent group”?
I can ask you: what are you missing in the term “cat owner” that you feel you need to use “cat parent” instead?
TL;DR: “I had a child and now that makes me THE MOST SPECIAL PERSON IN THE WORLD and why doesn’t anyone RECOGNISE how special I am for God’s sake PLEASE VALIDATE ME”
Either it wears off or the brat ends up a serial killer…
No one here is using the word parent alone. In the top post they specifically say cat parent. Do you really think that will confuse people? I think you are angry due to personal reasons and are taking it out with people that used the word in a pretty clear way.
No one is broadening anything. People don’t say “I have two kids” and then show you cats, they say “I have two cats, they are my lovely kids!”. It’s not confusing.
If you are annoyed that your family members compare your kid with their cat, as another user told you that’s a conversation between you and them, that isn’t happening here, there’s no need to introduce drama where there’s none.
Calm your tits bruv.
While I do recognize your resemblance to a feline blossom, that is not reason enough for you to be on this community.
Yup, totally agree, the whole “cat mama” shit is weird to me. Like mental.
I love cats etc, but people are really weirdly thinking about them. I honestly think some should get tested for toxoplasmosis.
