Our youngest cat, a relatively house-bound calico, makes the noise only for squirrels. And at least one of the squirrels resents it and she and squirrel will sit on opposite sides of the upstairs window making these noises at one another.
My wife contends that we are very lucky we don’t speak either language (squirrel or cat)- we would be very embarrassed by their vocabulary.
TV
Weird. My family has had something like 20 cats during my life and I’ve never heard any of them make a noise that even remotely resembles what you people are describing.
You sure they were cats and not racoons or something? 
I can assure you that elfkin’s pets weren’t raccoons, because when a domesticated raccoon wants a human’s attention, it makes a similar sound (only much faster, with its tongue against its teeth) in incerementally louder fashion until you’d do anything to SHUT THAT RACCOON UP!!! And that’s what we’d be reading about in elfkin’s posts. 
One of my cats not only makes this sound at birds outside the window, but when we train a flashlight around the room, especially on the ceiling.
Sometimes she actually tries to climb the walls to get to the spot of light.
It’s really cute.
Sheri
Found this site last night - it’s a list of dos and don’ts kitties should follow:
http://www.geocities.com/bad_pets/BadPets/BadKitty.html
Sheri
Nice to see other people familiar with this phenomenon. I always called it “monkey fussing,” since Beru sounds like a chimpanzee chitterring when she does it.
It is probably just her version of the food torment song.
I’m going to eat you little birdie,
I’m going to eat you little birdie,
‘Cause I like eating birds!
That’s funny, I can’t remember any of my cats making the rat-a-tat-tat noise, but they always make a trilling or chirping noise. They sit on the windowsill and open their mouths and go “eh-eeh-ehhh-ehh-eeh” in a high tone of voice. They also trill, the only way to imitate it is to vibrate your tongue like you’re imitating them purring but at the same time make an upward crescendo with your voice. It’s very cute, they do it when they want something or if they see something interesting, or are looking for someone else to play. Risse has done this all her life, and has taught it to each of the 3 kittens. I’ve never seen anyone else’s cats do it as much as ours though. Ah well, that was a nice tidbit of useless information.
My apartment seems to have sprung a leak.
I arrived home from work on Friday to find a cat in my kitchen.
On Monday I returned home from work to find a different cat in my stairway.
I don’t know how these cats are getting inside, but it appears that with the cold weather moving in, my apartment has sprung a leak.
Muffin, you know what I think? I think Fate might be sending you some new cat friends, maybe because you miss your kitty. Seriously, sometimes it’s funny how stuff like that happens.
Do you think you’d be ready to adopt a new kitty yet?
Just a thought!
Thanks for asking! I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and given the incursion of cats the last few days, I wouldn’t be surprised if my diggs are being sized up in a feline open house now that there are no longer any cats resident here. They are probably checking out the newly unclaimed territory.
I don’t think my apartment is a very good environment. Way too small for an indoor cat. But unfortunately, I live in a neighbourhood which has a few cat haters (two cats – including one of mine last year – have been poisoned with antifreeze), and which has too much traffic (one of my cats was run down while walking with a neighbour – the neighbour jumped clear in time). Based on this, I’m hoping not to end up with another cat until I move to a better environment in a year or two. Perhaps I’m just spooked, for I’m used to my cats passing of old age, not dying suddenly of various nasty things.
That being said, cats do seem to find me and follow me, so if another stray happens along, of course I will take it in. That’s how I ended up with my last batch – a very pregnant mom-cat collapsed on my stoop but manged not to die (it was a very close thing – down to under four pounds just prior to birthing), and delivered five kittens a few days later, leaving me with my own two cats, the mom-cat, and five kittens, all in an apartment that is really no more than an attic room. What a blast that was! Now through a combination of finding loving homes for most and sadly having several meet horrid fates, I have no cats for one of the few times in my life. I miss my kitties terribly (particularly Yoda who passed away a couple of weeks back from the leukemia he had been born with), and someday I will again have cats, but I don’t think now is a good time despite how much I adore cats.
But getting back on topic, all my cats over the years have chirpped (or whatever that call is called). Usually it would occur when they saw something they wanted to eat, such a bird or squirrel in a tree. As a kitten, Squeaker had a habbit of chirpping and then attacking my leg in the middle of the night. Going for toes I can understand. Even going for feet is within the realm of conception. But this little guy liked to go at my quads, full bore, kitten fangs out. It was laughable, for he was so tiny. Fortunately he outgrew it and became a wonderfully gentle cat with a sweet, curious disposition, but for a few months I didn’t sleep too soundly, and had to get used to sleeping in jeans (he chewed through two pairs in as many months). For me, the chirping was like an urgent alarm clock, for I knew that if I didn’t wake up and act fast by snatching up the kitten first before he pounced, then he would be chewing on my leg within a few seconds.
Many years earlier, my cat B (my sister named him B) was moved to a new home which had a flock of several hundred starlings in the back yard. B looked out the window at them and started chirpping very loudly. I asked him what was up, so he looked at me and chirpped some more. I told him that he really didn’t know what he was getting into, but he just looked back out the window and continued to chirp as loudly as he could. So I opened the door a crack and out he shot into the middle of the flock. The flock took off on mass, which scared B so much that he hightailed it back into the house, dived under the closest upholstry-skirted chair, and stayed there for two weeks, only emerging to eat and vist the litter box. He never chirped at a bird again.
The worst chirper was Mehitabel, who had a thing for pizza. I used to have to scrap with her over who would get to eat the pizza. As soon as she smelled a pizza, she would start chirping, then pounce and shred. If I was quick, I would slip past and leave her locked out, tearing away at the door. If I was slow, she would knock the pizza carton out of my hands and then tear into it. There was no stopping her – she was a cat on a mission. The tricky part was not knowing where she would pounce from – the tree by the car, the roof of the garage, the porch roof, the walkway shrubbery, the open closet door, the side hall – had I known she would be like this, I would have named her Cato. The only warning I ever had would be when she chirped prior to pouncing.
We used to have a calico Angora (Sandy) who would go into a hunting crouch and make an “ak-ak-ak-ak” noise whenever she saw a bird outside. She did the same thing for helicopters (ignored airplanes and balloons, though). Our other cats have mostly just crouched and lashed their tails, with occasional “I want it” whimpers. A couple have basically ignored anything outside the window (if I can’t catch it, it’s not real).
As for other weird cat behaviours, Sandy would also lie along my thigh when I was sitting down, and go to sleep with her head hanging over my knee. If I stood up without lifting her off first, she would hang on head down for 10-12 feet before finally letting go. (Needless to say, I only tried this when wearing thick pants.) Our family cat when I was a kid would spend hours watching the reflections of passing car headlights on the walls of my darkened bedroom.
My little kitty goes throughout the house hooting like an owl around midnight! Its not like the typical “hoooot” its more quick and French sounding.
And I thought my cat was just being plain weird. My sister’s cat didn’t do that as far as I know.
I wonder if that’s a sound of frustration? The only time I think he does it is when he sees a target that he somehow realizes he won’t be able to reach. I mean, if he was actually hunting that sound would give him away immediately.
We have this ritual that we go through every night. He’ll get up from his blanket (I have a king size bed, and his sleeping blanket sits in the middle of the foot area) and crawls up to my left side. After kneading the comforter for a couple minutes, he’ll settle down at my left side with his front legs on my abdomen. Then he’ll stay there for a while until he gets tired of my breathing. Then he crawls back to his blanket to go to sleep.
Muffin, you’re lovely. I didn’t name my Muffin after you, but if I’d seen your kitty-stories before I got her, I would have
Here’s to one day wanting another kitty to love. Cheers!
My one cat, Bandit, always makes this noise at birds outside the window. When my other cat, Smokey, hears it he always comes running to see where the fun is. So it appears that cats, or at least my cat, know(s) what it means.
Yeah, our cat does it. Only when she inside looking out.
Sometimes if it’s a particularly tantalizing specimen, she’ll frantically run around the house to all the other windows to see if she can glimpse it out those too.