Two of my cats come when you call them by name. So I just have to yell over and over, “Here, Maggie-Maggie Maaaagiiieeeee!” or “BUUUUUUFFFYYYYY…here Buffy, Buffy-Buffy-Buffy!”
For the other four, I do the pursed-lips kissy noise, or “here kitty kitty”.
My cats both come when I call them. The tuna training is highly effective.
A strange cat might come to you if you make mewling noises like a kitten, and the strange cat is a female. They have an extremely high maternal instinct (I faked my cats out by pretending to cry a couple of times. They’re onto me now, however.) Of course, a strange male might come to you too, to kill the interloping kitten.
And I disagree that cats aren’t very linguistic. My cats talk all the time.
Open a can, preferably of tuna. This will generally call all cats that happen to be around. With our cats, I just have to open a new jug of milk. All three want that fresh milk jug ring!
The “psspsspss” thing in conjunction with rubbing the fingers together has always worked remarkably well for me when calling strange cats, and I’ve always wondered why. I can only assume that sound means something to them. No clue about the finger-rubbing, though. I’ve tried to determine if it’s that specific sound and gesture that are meaningful; I’ve sometimes vary the sound and/or just extend my hand and hold it still, but the “psspss” and finger-rubbing seem to work most consistently.
My cats come when I make the kissy noise and - believe it or not - when I snap my fingers.
me, i regularly use cat-talk when i want to make the acquaintance of strays.
a soft “brrr-owwww?”, with the rising question-inflection, normally gets their attention most of the time. crouching down and offering a lowered hand is also part of the approach. at that point, the decision is up to them, the outcome depending entirely on their overall friendliness/feral-ness.
trying to approach a cat moving away from you is generally useless and doomed to failure.
oh yeah – when calling my own cats, using their names normally works. Minion answers to her name, or “Fluffy cat”. if you really want Patter to come, call Minion’s name loudly. Patter’s other name is Jealous-cat.
It seems to me that every cat I see on the street is completely different. Usually they just run away, but some cats will come to me automatically–I don’t have to call them. These cats just want somebody to pet them, and they have no fear of strangers.
My husband’s cat never came when called, then we moved in together, and I would call my cat to come for tuna, and Max figured out very quickly that me calling my cat would end up in tuna, so now she comes when called, too. They can move pretty quickly when there’s tuna on the line.
I use the psspsspsspss thing. But for me it’s really a slurring of “puss puss puss puss”. I would say “brrroooww?” to my own cats sometimes, they usually responded with some kind of vocalisation.
There’s a black-n-white cat a few doors up from me that only responds to my psswwsswwssswwwss about 30% of the time. The other %70 it just turns it’s head and looks at me with the “leave me in peace you insignificant speck of flab” look.