Monday 26 November 2012

Talking to cats

Cats, so they say, have the ability to make 100 different sounds. Any cat owner, after only short acquaintance with their feline companion begins to distinguish at least some of these.

Casper's favourite form of verbal communication is purring. He has loud purrs, little soft sleepy purrs, quiet purring to himself purrs... when as a kitten at the vet the complaint was often made it was hard to check his heartbeat as all anyone could hear was purring!

We also have 'miaows' of many colours. There is the conversational miaow that we have whilst I am preparing dinner, there is the cross miaow when anyone takes too long about anything (I think it is possibly bad language). 

We also have squeaks and chitters. These are often reserved for intruders in the garden and during playtime.

Then there are the 'yowls' - this is Casper's preferred form of communication. It is akin to shouting. If he is somewhere else and wants to play 'yowl'. If  he is on his own and wants some company 'yowl'. It is not to be encouraged, he has a very loud voice.

He also excels in body language. His tail is extremely expressive from being held as a flagpole when he greets you to content swishing to angry 'intruder alert' swishing and twitching. He does the long slow 'I love you' blink (although not so much the head bumps); when overcome with delight at tickles he sometimes grabs my finger with his paw... and he loves to get physical sometimes when we play.