I don’t know if its a universal thing but if I’ve ever wanted to get a cats attention I’ve used (I don’t know how to write this without it sounding extraordinarily silly but bear with me) the ‘pushywushy’ sound by blowing air over the top of the tongue.
Without fail it always makes a cat turn around and take notice but early today (which inspired this thread) I noticed a large tomcat prowling around in the field behind my house, it was still about a hundred feet away when I made that noise to attract its attention, it looked around to see where the noise was coming from, I made it again and it literally ran down the field towards me, onto the garden wall and onto my bedroom window meowing frantically the whole time. Maybe it just thought I was going to give it food but it seems to have a more general effect than that.
my chinchilla would make a “wushy” sound sometimes when he was upset or distressed about something. i would imitate that sound.
when i make that sound around the cats that i have that started out on the street, they go wild. my very mild, sweet natured cat came right up to me and slapped me when i made that sound.
could be a rodent sound that means dinner to them.
OMG, I thought our cat Thor was the only one. Seriously, we were doing the “pbthhhpbbt” sound near him when he was about 6 months old, and he ran up and swatted one of us on the arm, looking all shocked and kinda disturbed like “I CANT TAKE IT! STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!! AAAUUGHHHHHHH!!!”
Maybe I’m weird, but I blow raspberries under my tongue. I can blow them over, but those are higher pitched. I also make a raspberry noise with my lips alone, like Victor Borge’s period from his phonetic punctuation.
Is it a raspberry noise, or a hissing air noise? I tend to do the hissing air noise to get a cat’s attention. I would imagine that someone who was feeding the tomcat in the OP makes a similar noise, and that got that cat thinking he had found another meal ticket.
The universal c’mere sound every mother cat uses to call the kittens to dinner goes like this. Some describe it as a trill. You say, “rrrroww?” with a rising tone at the end, like a question. If you can trill your tongue in the process, that’s good, but not necessary. DO NOT look at the cat while doing it. Wiggle the fingers of one hand, while still looking away, and the most aloof cat will approach you.
People with a standoffish cat will be amazed. “He never talks to strangers!”
Make a “sssss” sound like you are imitating a snake. Now, instead of just baring your lips for the hiss, relax them and, while you are hissing, use your lips to make a “puh-puh-puh-puh” pucker motion. This produces the Universal Cat Sound™.
My working assumption is that it:
produces a tone in their frequency sweet spot
sounds like a small animal moving through plants
is sudden and in contrast to the surrounding, ambient noises - and cats, like most predators, are genetically coded to focus on stand-out sensory input, like something moving against a still background.
OK, I’ve produced about 17 different odd sounds while reading this thread trying to follow people’s descriptions of the ‘universal cat sound’. I think we’ll need some clarification – audio file? Video anybody?
This. In their previous lives, most cats have learned that post #1 inevitably foreshadows up to 59 different experimental homo sapien howls, all annoying. Thus wizened in their old age, they now preemptively attack at the very first sign.
it is a wushy sound. we need a distressed chinchilla!
ya know the oooh, oooh, oooh, sound that chimps make? that is a really loud version of the wushy sound. chinchillas don’t have the vocal cords of chimps so it is much breathier and softer. the mouth shape and breath push are the same when a human tries it.
start with chimp sound, keeping you jaw and mouth in the same position just breathe in and out like you are panting (or playing the harmonica), the air will make a wushy sound as it goes in and out.
that is the best way i can explain it, good luck.
cats do tend to have a bit of a violent reaction to it. my three thought i was out of my head trying all sorts of noises to try to get a written example of the “wushy”.
raspberry is a very different sound, as it the universal pssssst, puss, puss cat call.
oregon sunshine, it shocked me as well, i never made the sound near her, unless in an actual emergency and i wanted to call her to me. she was an all black cat and hard to find sometimes in the basement.
under communications the 3rd or 4th sound on the page. greystoke knew i would come running when i heard this sound. he would do it if i was away for a bit. his were a lot breathier.
the 5th one on mating is the one i got slapped by winken the wonderful on.
