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Cat Rescue Ed 101: What You Say?
CAT RESCUE ED 101 - WHAT YOU SAY?
To a cat, “meow” is an all-purpose word. They say “meow” as a greeting (“Hey, how ya doin’?), a command (“I want up, I want down, more food now”), an objection (“Touch me at your own risk”), or an announcement (“Here’s your mouse”). Some people have watched their cats walking around the house meowing to themselves… just like some people talk to themselves.
Chirps and trills are how a mother cat tells her kittens to follow her. Aimed at you, it probably means your cat wants you to follow him, usually to his food bowl. If you have more than one cat, you’ll often hear them converse with each other this way.
Purring is a sign of contentment (usually). Cats purr whenever they’re happy, even while they’re eating. Sometimes, however, a cat may purr when she’s anxious or sick, using her purr to comfort herself, like a child sucking his thumb.
Growling, hissing, or spitting indicate a cat who is annoyed, frightened, angry, or aggressive. Leave this cat alone.
A yowl or howl (they sound like loud, drawn-out meows) tells you your cat is in some kind of distress - stuck in a closet, looking for you or in pain. Find your cat if he’s making this noise. However, in unneutered and unspayed cats, these sounds are part of mating behavior. If your cat is elderly, he may be suffering from a cognitive disorder (dementia) and may howl because he’s disoriented.
Chattering, chittering, or twittering are the noises your cat makes when she’s sitting in the window watching birds or squirrels. One of KD’s president’s cats also does it any time she or her husband sneezes in addition to watching the nature show on “Kitty TV” at their large living room window. Some experts think that this is an exaggeration of the “killing bite,” when a cat grabs her prey by the neck and works her teeth through the bones to snap them. It’s also speculated that the chattering is a sound made out of frustration that they can’t get to the prey they see.
