…or your dog, or hamster, or Tasmanian devil, or sea slug…
Admit it, you speak to your pet(s) in a silly voice, don’t you? Of course you do! Everyone does.
Well, I certainly don’t! I speak to my pets in General American News-speak. That’s proper. Nothing embarrassing about that, for sure.
OK, for my more “high-brow, hoity-toity” pets I speak in a somewhat affected Mid-Atlantic tone (if it’s good enough for William F. Buckley, Eleanor Roosevelt and Thurston Howell III, it’s good enough for me!). Remember to jut out your lower jaw when speaking this way.
And, yeah , when addressing Sir Bentley, my most pretentious pet of all (a cat, of coarse), speaking Queens English is the only proper way to proceed (so what that I’m a slightly overweight dude from New Jersey).
So, fess up. Tell how you speak to your pets. Then admit with whom you’d be most embarrassed hearing you speak to your pets (Mom? Kids? Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio? Other pets?…)
Confession: sometimes (and only SOMEtimes) I speak to my cat, Tibby, in a voice somewhat like Bullwinkle J. Moose, and I’d be embarrassed if my probation officer heard me speak that way.
It’s nearly impossible for me (and most people, I think) not to talk to our neotonized pets in high pitched singsong icky poo voices. But I also talk to cats and dogs in regular adult language. Less often, though.
I was chatting loudly with my Gomba Biddles cat who was sitting on the roof of my car tonite, when I guy came by walking his dog. I was embarrassed and said “Sorry, I was talking to my cat” and he said if it weren’t for his doggo, he would prefer not to talk to anyone.
I talk to our dogs and parrot all day and never really thought about it. Recently my brother messaged me about his eccentric neighbor who he overheard talking to the dog he was walking! I waited for the punchline, but my pet-less brother thought the neighbor was nutty for talking to his dog.
Not at all. I think of talking to your cats as the equivalent of them purring (or hissing) at you-- they’re responding to your tone of voice: friendly (hey, how’s my buddy?) or angry (GET OFF THE DAMN COUNTER!!)
I think I talk to them in a normal tone of the voice, most of the time. Unless I’m saying something like ‘Get off the counter!’ in which case I might shout; which they ignore entirely.
I do get pretty repetitive sometimes; including frequently repeating the obvious. ‘Yes, you are a cat!’
No, I’m not embarrassed about it.
ETA: and I somehow hadn’t read the post just above mine before posting – pure coincidence.
I haven’t had pets since I was a kid. But my younger sister talks to her cats in a normal voice, and uses the baby voice to her daughter’s boyfriend’s dog.
My twin sister used to talk to her cat(s) in the baby voice.
I do talk to my car, though. But just good morning and good night and stuff. I call her Pearl, as she is Jeep Cherokee whose color is velvet red pearl.
Benny the Dog, of course, must be addressed in accordance with his behaviour. When he is being a very good and handsome boy who does nice boy things, then a goofy and adoring voice is used. When he is doing things that are not nice boy things, well, it’s adoring but stern.
I’m usually pissed off at the cat, unless she’s snuggling, and then she must be told in soothing tones what a nice sweet little chonky kitty she is with a nice belly.
Not at all. I think of talking to your cats as the equivalent of them purring (or hissing) at you-- they’re responding to your tone of voice: friendly (hey, how’s my buddy?) or angry (GET OFF THE DAMN COUNTER!!)
Nope, I address the cats in a normal voice, usually to greet them (again), to inquire after their health or state of hunger, and to tell them to stop doing whatever they are doing. One of the two cats is very vocal and talks a lot to me. In fact, we seem to have great conversations, even if we don’t know what the other is saying. I have come to the conclusion that cats - mine, at least - feel the need for a social life with both humans and other cats and like to converse with humans. Note that cats in general do not meow to each other, except in the mating season.
I get the feeling that cats recognize a person’s voice but not their names.
I talk to my dog, and I’m not embarrassed at all. She has always been very receptive and communicative. She talks back. She went deaf, and I still talk to her. And, she still talks.
