My smart cat (as opposed to my really dumb one) once called my ex “mama.” Total fluke, of course, he was actually trying to say “dinner.”
This particular cat is very dog-like and my father had taught him assorted dog-tricks including to “speak” when he was a kitten – this explains most of the “talking.” Just like getting a dog to bark on the command “speak.” He has a pretty consistent set of “words.”
Father: “Well, what do you say?”
Cat: “Mwa-wap-wap-wap-wah!”
No my cat doesn’t talk, but he does have an excellent comprehension vocabulary (favourite words are “dinner,” “cheese,” “beans” and “chip”) – the extent of his “talking” will be to mimic the number of syllables and your tone of voice of his favourite words when you say it first in context. (And with the implied promise of a tasty reward.)
(Okay, so he really likes Heinz “Pork 'n Beans” in a can and will yell multi-syllabic responses – totally ruining the illusion of speech.)
He will also “walkabout” (walk on hind legs) and “circle” on command.
Sometimes, if he wants a cat treat (we call them “chips” because my father originally trained him with Doritos). He’ll spontaneously start saying all the “words” he knows. Not true speech though – more like parroting.
I don’t think I can call it “talking,” exactly, but my cats sometimes produce these incredible, long, liquid strings of vocal tones–usually when they’re excited about something (usually about food, when the more pointed cries of Now! Now! Now! haven’t made the human serve up dinner quickly enough). When one of the cats starts off on her spiel, I think, “Put a few consonants in there, and that’s a complete sentence!”
I remember reading somewhere (how’s that for a cite?) that the more you talk to a cat, the more vocal the cat will be. I don’t know how true that is generally, but I do notice that when I speak to them, I usually get a response. If I say, for example, “Hi, kitty,” Austen will answer with a “Mmrp!” I wonder how much she does understand: Is there enough going on in that furry little skull for her to know that we’ve exchanged greetings? Or, if I make the same kind of sound every time I come in the door and see her, does she just make her own same sound back?
I’d say they have decent abilities as far as comprehension (my cat knows the difference between “beans” and “cheese,” for example, and responds to his name but not the other cat’s).
As for “talking” on their own with no mimicry: My old cat, Snowball, used to practically serenade me with catsong when I would come home. One day I realized that I could actually sing along with him – it wasn’t random vocalizations, he used the same vowels and muddy consonants, in the same order, with the same tone/notes each day. It was entirely consistent. Same song with the same words unless there was an interruption to the routine (ex. if I had a guest with me or someone opened a can of food mid-sentence.)
I’m not sure I’d say it was a “launguage”, but it does appear as if they have attibuted certain sounds (or groups of sounds) to specific conditions. You say “hi”, Austen says “mmrp.” (BTW my cat answers “mmrp” too.) I say “dinner,” my cat says “wa-wap.”
I kinda want to know if my other cat understands what my smart cat is saying, or if it’s just a vocal exhange between pet and human.
That’s exactly how my cat Peter got his name. Good thing too, he was almost Bucky. (And yes he is part Siamese. Has all his teeth, though.)
My mom used to have a cat that would sit at the back door and yell “OUT!” after dinner. Our current cats gather in the kitchen and yell “NOW!” when they’re hungry. Her cat Mayhem will sit by the cabinet door where we keep their food and ask “Now?” every time someone stands by it. Peter will sit at my bedroom door and yell “MOM” if he wants in or out. Pip just runs around the house and worries. I haven’t heard her saying anything yet.
Jeez, you folks are lucky to hear something akin to language. “Purr Monster” (aka “Mud”) is snoring (yup, snoring - I can hear her three feet away from me) right now, and she has a bit of a whistle on the intake. Normally, the only sound I get from her is a throaty gargle when she goes tearing through the house.
Occasionally my boyfriend’s cat will say hello to me - “Miawwo!” and when he’s feeling especially affectionate he’ll say “Miaow Muv Moo” (“I love you” in catspeak).
I’ve often wondered about this–cats and dogs and how much language they really do understand. As far as names go, I haven’t seen Austen respond to her name, even though I’ve had her for nearly two years now. Lucia knows hers even though I’ve only had her about 10 months.
I’ve only seen one remarkable example from Austen. It wasn’t anything she said, but what she seemed to understand that I said.
When I first brought Lucia home from the SPCA shelter, I put her in the cats’ playroom while she got used to her new surroundings and I went up to visit her regularly, to talk to her, pet her, and just see how she was doing. Austen was miffed about having access to her playroom cut off, but for most of that first day she was not aware that there was another cat inside.
The last time I went up to visit Lucia just before going to bed, Austen was out on the landing when I came out and the cats saw each other for a moment through the open door. There was a puffed tail on one side, and a hiss on the other. After I went to bed, Austen went back upstairs to sit outside the closed door and taunt Lucia with questions and perhaps various personal remarks. So I went up and said something to her along the lines of, “You are not getting in there and the other kitty is not coming out, so stop howling, come downstairs with me and settle down.”
To my complete astonishment, she did.
It’s a little spooky when a cat does what you tell her to.
This only lasted about half an hour, however, and then Austen went back upstairs to resume her interrogation of the newcomer. I was almost asleep at this point and didn’t want to have to go up and downstairs all night to get her to be quiet, so I just left her this time. She returned to me a short while later, presumably having said her piece, and settled down for the rest of the night.
Yes, that’s what I was thinking. The same sorts of sounds come up in similar situations, so I have to wonder if a particular sound means something specific to the cat.
From what I’ve observed of my own cats, they don’t talk to each other often, unless there’s a squabble. They normally communicate by body language rather than vocally.
They don’t do it so much now that they’ve gotten used to each other, but when Lucia was new to the house, I found it fascinating to watch their interactions as Austen established her position as top cat. The strangest thing she would do was what I call “the Tall Kitty”: she would come at Lucia with her head held high and her forelegs stretched out stiffly (imagine a cat doing a Frankenstein’s monster impression), to look as tall as she could. She didn’t puff her fur out, though; she was going for height rather than overall size. And Lucia would crouch down, suitably submissive before this fearsome display. I had to be careful not to laugh when they did this kind of thing, or they would both look at me scornfully, as if to say, “Do not mock our ways, Human.”
[sup]I’m sure glad someone straightened out that Son-of-Sam thing![/sup]
[sup]It must be one of those generational gaps.[/sup][/ul]