I used to own cats. I do not have any right now, though I visit many people who do. What does it mean when a cat meows at you? Yes, I know when they want food, or outsdie, but just meow. Do they think they are greeting you? What if you’ve been there awhile?
I don’t expect a factual answer, just observations.
Hello! I’ve missed you. I lay about all day and then I looked out the window and saw some squirrels I could catch them if you’d let me outside No squirrel can get away from ME I sure could use some petting I like petting especially when you scratch the base of my tail I love you Will you feed me now?
'Sup?
One of my cats greets me at the door when I come home. He does his little “happy dance” . . . rolling back and forth on his back, while watching me and meowing. He also meows to himself when he’s alone in a room. The other cat meows and squeaks when I’m preparing their food. I’ve had other cats that never meowed . . . one meowed for the first (and last) time while he was dying).
I think there are as many reasons to meow as there are cats.
I’d say it runs the gamut from “There’s nothing stopping me from murdering you in your sleep and eating your face…” to “Mrrrowww, pet my tummeh!”
Zippy definitely has a language, and sometimes she tries to imitate ours. She has different noises for “outside”, “treat”, “night-night”(which she uses to try to herd us off to bed), and just general talking(which she uses when she tells us about her day when we get home in the afternoon.) This may come from the fact that we never use baby-talk in front of her.
Most cats have a huge repertoire of meows, signifying a lot of things.
Both our cats answer to their name, but one, whenever he hears his name called, just says, “Yes?” In catspeak, of course.
I’ve read many times that feral cats almost never meow. It is something they pick up from their humans. Do you ever look at your cat and pretend to speak to it by making cat noises? Turns out that’s what they were doing to you all along!
My cat squeaks and trills at my husband; they mean “good morning daddy!” “belly rub time!” and “whatcha doin’ huh huh huh?”
She meows at me. Her meows mean, variously, “hey, I was comfortable there” “this water bowl is filthy” and “where’s the 'nip, bitch?”
Rarely, she’ll cry at night, in a series of loud monotone meows. I think that means “just because I slept all day doesn’t mean I don’t want to play NOW”
Chloe has a meow for “The water bowl is not to my standards. Please get up and turn the faucet on for me or refill the bowl” and another one for “You’ve been in bed too long. Get up…it is my turn to lay there.” Then there is a different , pathetic little one for “I’m not feeling so good, could you scritch my ears for me for ten minutes so I can die happy?”. And then there are the basic greeting calls from all the cats. And the “Wow, the stairwell echoes!!!” meows.
My lil snot rocket has quite a vocabulary, ranging from the usual hello, feed me, im out of water, pet me, scritches please all the way to telling mrAru ‘give me treats, butthead’ =] I think she ate a siamese sometime, she is very chatty.
Damncat has a sound that means “I see a bird’ - I have heard other cats make the same sound for the same reason.
She has another that means " I see a bug/fly on the ceiling, hold me up so i can grab it”
She has one that she makes when we both go outside and leave her alone.
She has a complaining one that means “Don’t stop rubbing my head”.
She has one that she makes when I sneeze or cough. We aren’t sure why she makes that sound. If for reason she doesn’t make it I can ask her “where is the meow” then she will answer with the right sound.
She has several others that sound similar to each other and we can’t decide if they are tied to any particular situation or not.
Me out? Prowl now? Wow!
Yeah, some of them have a “vocabulary” of meows - if you played a recording I could tell you if it was Edison saying “This belly ain’t gonna rub itself, bitch!” or “Food! The food is right here! Did you forget where the food is? Feed us!” or “You’re touching my butt!”
i’m forever chatting up the superkitties, but i’m doing it in human-speak. both are extremely vocal with the cat-speak, altho not at siamese levels, thank onig.
the more i talk, the more they apparently absorb and bounce back at me, so who knows what they’re *really *saying… :eek:
to be on the safe side and ensure i wake up with all body parts firmly attached, i make sure the food and water bowls, plus the litter box, are up to snuff daily; otherwise things could get… cranky. 
Last night our cat tricked us. About 2 in the morning, she started doing her ‘hey guys, I’ve caught a moth/spider/monster and I want to tell the world about it!’ routine.
We turn the light on, and she’s standing in the doorway of our bedroom with one of my hair ties in her mouth.
We’ve had a couple of kitties who meet my husband when he comes home from work and walk him up the sidewalk to the door just talking away like mad. He tells me they say I am abusing them.
I’m with others of you who always speaks to my cats the way I would speak to people and because of this they appear to understand a number of English words.
Both our present cats find us wherever we are in the house when they come in and greet us before going to check out their food dish. Sometimes it’s that cute little hop that ends in brushing against your leg. Other times it’s that wonderful trill. I think that is a great honor. I’ve noticed that they use that when they are talking to their kittens.
Funny story, sandra_nz! They can be deceptive little rascals, can’t they?
One of my kitties is a hunter and the other, Saami, doesn’t care to hunt. The other morning Saami woke me with that excited sound that means, “Look what I’ve got for you.”
I thought to be polite I’d get up and admire her gift. Turned out to be an old, dried-out mouse she’d brought in from outdoors. "Oh sure, " I thought, “bring me your sister’s leftovers and act like you caught it.”
Recently, my cat meowed and it was translated as follows:
I heard on CNN a report that says tuna is being seriously overfished. Do you think that’s true? I mean, there are a whole lot of variables that couldn’t possibly be analysed in a five minute report, right? This is just more media fear mongering, am I right? But suppose there is some truth to this matter, humans would still designate a certain amount of the tuna harvests for consumption by housecats, wouldn’t they? Surely, they wouldn’t keep it all for themselves? I can understand some rationing if there were an emergency, say, but really, you are considering this aren’t you? I don’t have to write my congressman, do I? Since cats are not allowed to vote yet, I doubt that such a letter would do much good. And by the way, why don’t cats have the right to vote? Hey, I’m talking to you…
Betty does the silent meow. If she makes eye contact with me through the door/window she’ll just mouth it, can’t be bothered to make the actual noise.
That’s got to be the height of laziness.
hahahahahahahahah…I used to have a cat who I thought knew I was deaf, b/c to me, she just mouthed “meow” Turns out she had a very deep meow that I couldn’t hear.