This will make you smile. Or it should do. I think the cat is copying their owner. Cats do this a lot. They learn by observation. Think about cats learning to open doors for instance.
Either that or there is something behind the camera which has caught the cat's attention and provoked her/him to make these sounds. The second theory is probably the better one. You can see the cat looking intently at something off-camera.
Please remember that embedded videos from social media sometimes fail because they are removed at source i.e. on the social media platform. If this video has stopped working I apologise but I can't control its existence. 😢🙄
P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
Cheetahs have a rich vocal repertoire. And before I go any further, I'm going to stress the fact that it includes a meow which is very like that of the domestic cat. It's a bit louder and a little bit wilder but unmistakably a genuine meow, which doesn't surprise me one bit because this large wild cat species really does have some domestic cat traits.
Captive cheetah meowing. Screenshot.
I've just seen a picture of a cheetah cosying up to a photographer. In the photo the cheetah has a GPS collar around their neck and it's in the wild but they decided that they would like to have a bit of human company. They can be like that sometimes.
It is why, hundreds of years ago, they were tamed to hunt with rich humans in India and other Asian countries for sport. They are therefore tameable and somewhat domesticatable but don't think that they make good pets because they do not.
My thanks to the TikToker 'renn' for the video below.
The cheetah also has a yelp which is a brief, high-pitched yow sounding vocalisation which can travel some distance. A scientist, Mr R McLaughlin, said that he heard the yelp 2 km away.
When the cheetah utters this sound, they open and close their mouth rapidly while their abdomen and head jerk with the effort.
It is a contact call normally made by the mother who has been separated from her cubs or by young cheetahs who have lost their mother or siblings. That information is according to Mr J Kingdon (1977).
Another contact call would be the churr. This sound is used by mothers to call or encourage their offspring and by male cheetahs to relocate their siblings or coalition partners and also in a variety of other circumstances according to Mr TM Caro (1994).
The churr is also called a "stutter". It can indicate that the female is in heat (oestrus) and when males use the stutter, they do so to indicate an interest in a female according to Mr TM Caro (1993).
The cheetah also gurgles. This is a friendly close-range vocalisation. That information, by the way, come from Mr G Peters (1984).
Further, cheetahs occasionally growl when involved in agonistic encounters at a kill. They also moan when they are attacked or threatened by other cheetahs, leopards or lions. That information comes from a variety of researchers/scientists including TM Caro mentioned above.
And finally, the cheetah purrs like a domestic cat during friend encounters and after a meal or when resting. Of course, the cheetah purr is much louder than that of the domestic cat.
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.
The brilliant Ben the Vet on TikTok tells us in one of his inimitable videos that domestic cats do not have regional accents. Is he correct?
He was querying why a cat appeared to have a scouse accent (an accent from a person from Liverpool or environs in the UK). He researched the topic and I feel happy to rely on his research. Also, it seems like common sense to me. But once again I ask if this conclusion is correct.
The cat you hear in the video just happens to meow with a scouse accent. There is nothing in it Ben would say. It's just the way this individual cutey cat is meowing.
What does it tell us that domestic cats can't develop accents like humans? It takes a culture or society or if you like a race of people to develop an accent over a very long time of evolution. English has been spoken in the UK for 1500 years. These English accents evolved gradually.
They probably start with a few people saying things in a certain way because of their anatomy which is linked to their ethnicity and it spreads and then becomes a regional accent as the population in that area grows. Babies are like sponges and pick up the accent.
The accent will be part of their culture. Cats don't have this kind of sophisticated society and culture. And therefore, they don't have accents. If we hear one it is a coincidence. That's my argument but is it true?
Counter argument
The video below, however, states that some animals can have regional accents! We have a discussion on our hands. Perhaps cats do have regional accents by copying the accent of their caregiver? I don't know. It seems possible but unlikely. If animals do have regional accents, they will probably exist by copying humans and if that it true the cat's regional accent is not a genuine one.
This is a fun video from Instagram. It is a 'point-of-view' video as the camcorder is attached to the cat's collar. He's noisy. He' screaming but in a charming way. And I think he is talking to his feline friend.
Note: these embedded videos tend to go wrong after a while so if that has happened, sorry.
You might have heard of the story: a woman recognised the sound of her cat's meow over the phone when she called her veterinarian. I presume that the sounds were in the background while she was talking with veterinary staff who said that the sounds had come from a black rescue cat which had ended up at the veterinary clinic. The woman, Rachel Lawrence, hadn't seen Barnaby in eight months. She had given up seeing him again.
Rachel Lawrence's kids with Barnaby after the reunion. Photo: Rachel Lawrence (SWNS).
She had called her veterinarian because her current cat required veterinary treatment and she was checking on progress. She mulled over the meowing sound that she had heard and developed a conviction that her long lost cat had coincidentally ended up at the same veterinary clinic after he had been found.
In fact, she was confident that it was him. She asked the veterinarian in a subsequent telephone call if he was black and had a distinct white patch on his back foot. The veterinarian confirmed that this was true.
She went to the veterinary clinic to pick him up and it was him by all accounts. She said that she cried buckets. To use her words, "I was howling".
Barnaby has settled in just fine after his eight-month absence. He had changed which is to be expected. She said that he had "loads of scabs and missing fur patches". He had lost a considerable amount of weight which is also to be expected. But he's getting well quite quickly and returning to his old self.
The big question is the one I pose in the title: do you think that you could successfully recognise your cat's meow over the phone in a blind test? I'm not sure that I could. Of course, I know the sound of my cat intimately but the difference between the meow of one cat and another can be distinct but it can also be subtle. I guess success depends upon how distinct the sound of your cat is combined with a bit of luck.
It is probably fair to say that all good cat owners would recognise the sound of their cat in a blind test about 70% of the time at a rough guess. But you couldn't guarantee that you could do it accurately all the time.
I think I have to mention the human mother's innate ability to pick up the sound of their baby when they need help. And there's also a discussion about a baby's ability to recognise their mother's voice. The domestic cat is like a baby too many women and indeed men. People are very sensitive to cat sounds and cats have developed a cry which has undertones of the crying sound of a baby. This has been developed over thousands of years to elicit a response from their human caregiver. This modification has taken place both to the purr and the meow. All these are influencing factors on whether a woman or man can recognise the sound of their cat in a blind test.
You may have met with this somewhat baffling feline behaviour. I'll describe what my cat does. In fact, he did it about an hour ago when I came in from buying a newspaper. My cat and I have set up a routine. When I come in the front door he expects me to give him some prawns - a treat.
Cats can make a demand in a meow even though they do not want anything. Image: MikeB
And over the years this has created habitual behaviour; a pattern of behaviour which includes a request by my cat in the form of a meow for prawns. The point is though that he will still meow and ask for prawns even though he does not want them.
I can put them in a bowl and he can go up to them and licked them but he won't eat because he is not hungry enough to eat them. His meows are simply part of the scenario that both my cat and myself have created. Part of that interaction is that he meows for food. It can be a 'hollow' meaningless meow for food when he is not hungry and has no desire to eat it.
This is an example of where habits and routines outstrip reality. The players, humans and cats, create a situation in which the players do certain things and it no longer matters that the objective of the routine is unviable. The routine is the objective not the goal.
The end result is that I have to put the prawns back in the box and put the box back in the fridge. I will bring them out at another time when I think that his demands are genuine. Although of course it is almost impossible to make an accurate decision about that.
It is a classic case of informal positive reinforcement training. The instigating action is my arrival at home. My cat gets an urge to eat prawns as it has been positively reinforced in him to do that. He has been rewarded for asking for prawns. He gets them which reinforces further his behaviour.
A study carried out in 2003 and published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, probably discovered what we already know but I think it's worth briefly discussing here.
They wanted to test how well cat owners understood the calls that their cats made. They used experienced cat owners and inexperienced cat owners. They classified domestic cat sounds into two groups: single calls and "bouts of calls". I take the latter to mean the situation when domestic cats produce a series of meows and meow-like sounds.
Oriental Shorthair meow-honk. Screenshot plus words added.
They found that experienced cat owners were better at interpreting feline sounds than inexperienced cat owners, which is to be expected. They also found that there was a better understanding of bouts of calls compared to single calls.
They also concluded that "classification accuracy was significantly above chance, but modestly so". This, on my interpretation, means that cat owners indicated that they understood their cat's meows but only slightly above a level of pure guesswork. This is why the title to this post is that cat owners are not great at understanding their cat's meow sounds.
Well, I can't read the entire study which would help me because I am only allowed to read the summary. But the big point is this: cat owners interpret their cat's meows in the context in which they are produced. In fact the context is probably more important than the sound. It's the timing of the sound which is the context.
The timing of meows is part of the routines and rhythms of human-to-cat interactions.
The meow sound is a request, normally. The study scientists refer to this as "negatively toned". They also said that the meows were non-specific. I get that but if you read a meow sound in context the sound is specific.
So for example if you feed your cat when you get up in the morning and your cat makes a meow sound at that time then you know that your cat is requesting food. And if you let your cat out into the backyard at 4 PM every day through the back door and your cat makes a meow sound at that time then you know that your cat wants to be let out into the backyard! It's about context. Non-specifics become specifics under those situations.
But if you try and read and understand the meow sound out of context it is difficult because you know your cat is requesting something but you won't know what it is unless you put into context. This is because the meow is non-specific. They are all the same out of context.
The study: Classification of domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalizations by naive and experienced human listeners.
This is a cross post because I think the subject matter is interesting on a number of levels (see the other post by clicking here). Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the video is that it shows quite clearly that domestic cats can have strong and clear facial expressions. A lot of people don't see facial expressions in domestic cats. They consider them as aloof and inscrutable. Or they don't believe they have them. This video should correct this misapprehension.
If you weren't sure that cats have facial expressions this will change your mind. Deeply annoyed and irritated cat probably a Burmese. Screenshot.
And also the sound of the cat makes is interesting. It's a bit like a dog's bark. Sometimes domestic cats do bark like dogs. It's wrong to pigeonhole their vocalisations into well-defined categories because it doesn't quite work like that. Each individual cat has their own range of sounds which can be categorised but which are far more fluid and variable than people sometimes think.
Cat annoyed by owner and asks to be put down. Screenshot.
When you take the facial expression of clear annoyance and irritation together with this strange non-feline sound it is quite clear what the cat wants to say to his/her owner. He wants to be put down because he's being held in the wrong way and in any case he doesn't want to be picked up and filmed like this. I think the woman is deliberately provoking this kind of reaction in her cat for the camera to make an interesting video.
MA’AM, I HAVE A BAD AND A GOOD NEWS: BAD NEWS, I THINK YOUR CAT IS BROKEN. HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BARK. GOOD NEWS, CONGRATULATIONS, HE’S BILINGUAL 😂 pic.twitter.com/sYKTh3O7Wr
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
Once again, this is a mild form of cat abuse in order to gather a large number of viewings to a video. We see a lot of this. It irritates me but I'm not making a strange sound and I don't have a strong expression of annoyance!
What I like about the video is what I've said namely that it kind of proves that domestic gas can have very strong facial expressions. I think the cat is a Burmese and Burmese cats are talkative and they express their views in the sounds that they make! They are also loyal and friendly but not immune to being annoyed if mildly abused!
This is the typical response when a domestic cat strongly feels that they must protect their food from their owner. It is not that uncommon. It has happened to me and my cat. Scenario: your cat is enjoying his food and you want to move the food perhaps or for some reason take it off him and he'll start growling. He may carry the food away to a secure place. It's just typical wild cat behaviour which is firmly embedded in the brain of domestic cats.
Domestic cat refuses to give up his KFC and growls when attempts are made to take it off him. Screenshot.
The players in the video on TikTok are Karter, the cat, Faith Lim, the woman and TikTok account holder and her boyfriend Max Chapman. The place is Melbourne, Australia. We don't know the background of the story but I suspect that they gave their cat the KFC and then videoed Karter while they tried to take it off him perhaps knowing that he would start growling. It is always amusing to see this kind of feline behaviour. It's a great reminder that ultimately, we live with a domestic cat whose wild traits are just below the surface.
KFC is perfectly okay for a cat in small amounts may be in big amounts! But it should not be part of their regular diet because it contains too much salt probably and it is not fully balanced. Commercially prepared cat food is complete and balanced. You should always look for the "complete and balanced" description on the label. Sorry for that little lecture at the end.
I hope that you enjoy the video. Another problem is the bones in KFC. Although there is quite a strong argument which states that cats should be allowed to chew on bones because this is what happens in the wild and it is good for their teeth and gums.
Please note that this the video is 'embedded' into this website with code and if the video is removed from TikTok it will obviously disappear on this page. If that has happened, I apologise.
This is NOT about why cats purr but how they do it. I'll say it again for Google, this article is about how cats purr. And I'll tell you right away that the scientists are slightly unsure even today how they do it. There have been several theories postulated over the years.
One looks very outdated now which is based upon turbulent blood passing through a cat's veins and heart causing the sound of the purr. I think we can dismiss that categorically for obvious reasons.
Another theory was called the "false vocal chord (cord) theory". This theory refers to the presence of a 2nd pair of chords thought to be the secret behind the extraordinary purring mechanism. That theory states that purring is no more than noisy breathing of the type that humans indulge in when they are asleep i.e. snoring.
I think we can dismiss that theory too. The modern theory is the one stated in the video below.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
This states that the laryngeal muscles are the source of the famous cat purr. These muscles are responsible for the opening and closing of the glottis, which is the space between the vocal cords. They separate the vocal cords. Studies have apparently shown that the movement of the laryngeal muscles signal from a unique neural oscillator in the cat's brain.
Like I said it is all very mysterious and hard to visualise. I would love to see an animated film on it to allow me to better understand it. One important factor about the cat purr is that it takes place on the in breath and out breath i.e. on inhaling and exhaling which means that it is produced during the entire respiratory cycle. Vocalisations such as meowing occur on the exploration of the breath.
Kittens purr while suckling. They drink and vocalise the purr at the same time.
Image in public domain and created by MikeB.
There have been some studies (not many!) on how cats purr. One was 1st published in January 1991 titled How Cats Purr. It's published on the ZSL Let's Work for Wildlife website. It is highly complicated but they measured the purring in domestic cats, mountain lions and cheetahs. Some large cats can purr but the big cats can't. They can roar instead although the roar is a long-range call whereas the purr is obviously a short-range vocalisations.
The study states that the frequency of the domestic cat purr is 26·3 ±; 1·95 (S.D.) Hz. The frequency at mid-expiration exceeds that at mid-inspiration by 2.4+ or -1.3 Hz. Mid-expiration means the middle of the outgoing breath and mid-inspiration is the middle of the incoming breath. The frequency of a domestic cat's purr does not change with the age of the individual.
Cats can purr simultaneously with other vocalisations. They can also of course drink simultaneously with purring. The scientists used two-channel acoustic measurements and they confirmed that the "primary mechanism for sound and vibration production is a centrally driven laryngeal modulation of respiratory flow."
This supports the statement made above. They are saying that the laryngeal muscles alter the flow of airflow while breathing causing the purring sound.
On an associated subject, one study published June 28, 2020 titled Emotion Recognition in Cats states that domestic cats are able to recognise human emotions in detecting visual and auditory signals. In other words, they are recognising the sounds that humans make and their body language and movement in order to assess human emotions. That's what I glean from the summary. I would argue that they also employ their knowledge of the history of the relationship through rhythms, habits and routines.
Domestic cats are very much into the rhythms and routines of life in a human home. They understand and recognise the movements of the human companion and caretaker. When that changes, they can read something into it when combined with the human's voice i.e. vocalisations and their body language. That's my take on the conclusions to the study but I've added a little bit to it.
It's interesting but judging by the viewing statistics very few people want to know how cats purr. I put quite a lot of effort into this page but nobody is viewing it! I don't mind that much but it would be nice if they did. And while I'm adding an update, I will tell you why cats purr. It is not simply because they are content, although cats do purr when they are content, it is also delivered when they need friendship. You could say purring is a thank you for friendship given and a request for friendship needed. That's why you will see (correction: hear) domestic cats purring sometimes when they are frightened and in pain. It is said that the frequency of purring can heal which may explain why they sometimes purr when they are in pain.
The title to the video tells us that this cat has an adorable meow. She certainly has. This is a conversation between human and cat and the meow has a hint of the human language in it perhaps because of its intonation. A cute little video with a duration of a mere 10 seconds but a nice record of an interaction between human and cat.
This is the conversation:
"Do you love your blanky?"
"Meow"
"You do?"
"Do you want to see me?"
"Meow"
"Peekaboo"
"Meow"
Cat with the sweetest meow converses with her human guardian. Screenshot.
About the video: This embedded video may (almost certainly will!) disappear one day because it is held on a server other than Google's server and therefore, I have no control over it. Sometimes videos do disappear like this one because the people who control the original video sometimes delete it for whatever reason. The video you see on this page is "embedded" through an <iframe> tag.
Take this scenario: my cat is allowed outside and he sees a badger in my back garden. Last night he would have seen a fox walking down the right of way behind my house where I feed them. So, on numerous occasions he has seen and even encountered, in quite close contact probably, other animals who live close to my house. And, of course, he bumps into other domestic cats. In fact, he has a friend, a female black-and-white semi-long-haired cat. Humans have names for these animals but do domestic cats? Do they have a special list of names of the animals that they are likely to meet in their lives and which have been taught of by their mother?
Maine Coon photo by Armand Tamboly. I know I am in breach of his copyright but I hope he will forgive me as I am promoting his photography and encouraging a sale.
We don't know! It seems highly unlikely because domestic cats do not have a constructed language as humans have. They communicate in various ways and of course domestic cats create sounds which are highly variable and which have a meaning either in terms of a long-distance call or a close encounter form of communication but they don't have a language in the sense that we mean it.
Therefore, we have to conclude that domestic cats do not label the wild and domestic animals that they meet with names. They probably simply see them as other creatures and recognise them as either potentially friendly, friendly, potentially hostile and actually hostile. They probably innately understand whether an animal is hostile in the way that they understand that snakes are dangerous.
We know that they understand that snakes are dangerous because they adopt the appearance of a snake when they curl up. This applies to tabby cats which is the original coat. And of course, we all know that they hiss like snakes. This is an adaptation, part of their evolution, to deter predators. But domestic cats won't have a name for the snake. They just know that that particular creature makes a hissing sound and that it is a danger to them.
It seems that only the human has been able to classify animals and give them labels. Domestic cats simply recognise other animals but in one sense they do classify them: hostile or non-hostile. This allows them to avoid or approach respectively.
Yes, they are talkative but there are two ways to answer the question: the conventional and the unconventional way. The conventional answer pretty clearly states that Abyssinian cats are talkative. Gloria Stephens, a cat show judge and a person with considerable knowledge of the cat breeds, describes the Abyssinian cat as an individual that "loves to talk with people in a euphonic voice". Fair enough.
Abyssinian cat. Photo: Helmi Flick.
A pretty distinct and clear answer. The unconventional answer comes from me but of course I defer to Gloria Stephens. However, I don't think that you can say with certainty that Abyssinian cats are talkative. Firstly, it depends on the individual cat because even within a cat breed there will obviously be variations between individuals as to personality and personality has a bearing on whether the cat is talkative or not.
Secondly, the amount of vocalisations that a cat makes depends upon the environment in which they live. If you have a tremendously loving human caretaker in a close relationship with an Abyssinian cat, the cat is liable to be quite talkative to that person. It's simply an extension of their relationship.
Thirdly, cat breeders normally focus on the appearance of the cat they are breeding and their behaviour comes second. You never hear of cat breeders selectively breeding for a cat that is talkative. It is not on their radar to declare to themselves that a particular cat is very talkative and therefore to put that cat in the breeding line to ensure that offspring and their offspring are going to be more vocal. To the best of my knowledge, they don't do that. They don't focus on a tendency to vocalise because they are fully focused on the appearance which takes precedence over everything else.
The Siamese cat is known to be vocal with a particularly characteristic voice as it happens. But even with the Siamese there is variation. The point that I'm labouring on explaining is that Gloria Stephens makes a definitive statement about Abyssinian cats being vocal but I wouldn't go that far. I would answer in a more cautious way because I don't think you can brand an entire cat breed with the description that all the cats in the breed are talkative and vocal.
This super cute, handsome caracal kitten is making a very interesting sound in this video. The kitten is captive. You can tell that by the carrier on which he or she stands. This must be a caracal version of a meow. Apparently she was hungry and is demanding food. She is very insistent; typical of the domestic cat. It got me thinking about caracal vocalizations.
The experts say that this medium-sized wild cat species has the 'basic felid vocal repertoire' by which it is meant that the sounds made are typical of cats and include meowing, gurgling, hissing, growling, spitting and purring. These are all sounds barring gurgling that the domestic cat makes. They also make a sound called the wah-wah call. Other wild cats have this call namely, lynxes, pumas, jaguarundi, servals and the Asiatic and African golden cats (you can read about all these cats on PoC).
One expert, has reported hearing caracals making a harsh, hissing bark when a strange animal was introduced into an enclosure.
You'll also notice the beautiful ear tufts. The caracal has the longest ear tufts on any cat, domestic or wild, on the planet and it is thought that they assist in communication but the function remains unknown. They may accentuate facial expressions. They may facilitate the location of sounds. One expert, Kingdon, believes that they are a 'decorative signalling structure'. I have a post on this: click here to read it.
Sources: Wild Cats of the World by Mel and Fiona Sunquist and my thanks to the video maker.
The cat meow might be a learned response to attract the cat's human caretaker's attention. In other words, the domestic cat learned to meow within the domestic environment as a means to get something. It was found to be effective which furthered the self-training of this feline vocalisation (this is the "learned response'). The domestic cat meow is not designed to specify a reaction in humans but to provoke the human into action.
You might already know that the cat meow is very rarely heard in cat-cat interactions. It is far more commonly heard in cat-human interactions. In a study (Farley 1992) it was found to be possible to train a cat to meow 2 times per minute for a period of 2 hours or more when the cat was food-deprived. The cat's meow varies in frequency, duration and form quite substantially. The cat's meow is also modified by other feline sounds such as trills and clicks.
Dr Bradshaw1 says that the cat's capacity to learn that the meow is an effective way to get human attention indicates that it is a product of domestication but he makes the point that the sound itself is not the product of domestication. I am not sure what he means by that but perhaps it is this. That the domestic cat has the innate capacity to vocalise the meow but learned to use it in the human environment to get attention.
Apparently, the use of meowing as human directed vocalisation is also supported by the fact that domestic cats produce a higher pitched and shorter meow in comparison to feral cats and the wild cat ancestor, the Near Eastern Wildcat. Also the "solicitation" meow is more urgent and less pleasant. I guess it is more demanding.
Listeners rate the domestic cat meow as much more pleasant than the meow of the near Eastern Wildcat. Does this further support the argument that the domestic cat miaow is designed to be directed at people?
1. The author of The Domestic Cat; The Biology of its Behavior
There is a difference between tame and socialised. That might be obvious to a lot of people but I'd like to see it I can define the difference. I have just made a simple video called 'Jaguarundi Vocalisation' (see below). It is in the singular because it concerns the bundle of sounds jaguarundi kittens make when fighting over food. They remind me of the sounds F2 Savannah kittens make when play fighting. These are the sounds of wildcats - (turn the volume down on your computer!). Although F2 Savannahs are really domestic cats with a hint of the wild (F2 means: second generation from the wild serval). Read about jaguarundi sounds.
Jaguarundis are meant to make reasonable domestic animals. People have tamed them. I hesitate to say 'reasonable domestic companion animal' because I don't think a tamed wildcat, albeit a small one, can truly become a companion animal. I could be wrong but there is a barrier that prevents the kind of connection that you get between the domestic cat and the person. That barrier has been broken down by 10, 000 years or so of domestication. It takes a long time.
Which leads me to the difference between a tame cat and a socialised cat. A tame wild cat will be subdued and you can live with such a cat. The wildness has been more or less taken out of the cat. They become 'tractable' (capable of being controlled or led).
But a socialised cat has gone a step further to the point where he or she can relate and interact more with the human companion. There is a deeper connection. Socialisation takes place during the first 7 weeks of life of the kitten when the kitten gets thoroughly used to being around a person (and other animals if needed).
The difference is not black and white. They is a grey scale because a poorly socialised domestic cat will be similar to a thoroughly tamed wild cat.
I have met tamed servals (see: Morpheus and Penelope). One of the servals was socialised (neither Morpheus nor Penelope are socialised). However, you feel the wild character underneath the tameness. This is good. A wild cat should be that. They are at their best when magnificently wild; terrifying, aggressive, top rate predators and survivors. We are better off admiring them from afar. They are better off too.
If you socialise a wildcat in the same way you socialise a domestic cat, you get more than a tamed wildcat but less than a socialised domestic cat.
My cat sounds quite a lot like the frog cat. The frog cat is a large frog that screams like some cats might scream (but not many!). He is on YouTube. You can see the frog cat at the beginning of this video. I "borrowed" that bit of the video - sorry.
The sort of cat that screams like this frog is a Siamese. They have loud voices and very particular sounding voices. They like to demand attention using their voices. Well, my three-legged cat has some Siamese in him even though he is all black! Perhaps Siamese are black cats except for the middle bit! He has a long face in between the Modern Siamese and Traditional Siamese. You could say he has an oriental appearance (in cat fancy language) except he is a bit fat!
It is a pretty basic video and Charlie is quite dark in this video. There is a simple explanation. He was hungry at about 5:30 in the morning. When he is hungry he tends to scream at me. It was dark outside or there was a dawn light. I was lucky to get this bit of video. His bit of the video was boosted in light level and contrast using Sony Vegas video making software.
The sound he is making is a meow in my opinion except it is a bit of screaming meow because he wants me to know that he wants his breakfast.
The prusten is a sound made by certain wildcats when in close proximity with other cats that is of low intensity and short. It is a snorting call. The wildcats that make this sound are: clouded leopard, tigers, snow leopards and jaguars. The clouded leopard makes similar sounds to the tiger.
The prusten sound lasts less than one second. It is a soft sound a bit like a horse snorting. Air is expelled through the nostrils. The larynx plays a part too. It is used in friendly encounters. It serves a similar function to gurgling and puffing. In the early part of the video below the tiger does a prusten. Note: videos are sometimes removed by YouTube without notice.
This is not as stupid a question as some people might have us believe. Domestic cats have about a dozen calls but an almost infinite variety of calls between these standard sounds. Read for example about the famous barking cat.
I list below the spelling of some domestic cat sounds:
Meow - this is the normal spelling. I have seen alternatives such as "mew". There are a wide range of meow sounds. One odd one is made by the cat who cries out at night for attention (not sexual activity related).
Purr
Hiss
Growl
Gurgle
Yowl - this is also called a "caterwaul". Heard during sexual activity - calling etc.
Trill (Maine Coons are known for this sound but other cats make it)
The wild cats have a wider range of formally recognized sounds. You can read about them on this page. They include such strange words as "prusten" and "wah-wah".
How far can be go when communicating with our cat? What I mean is how sophisticated can our conversations be? What kind of information can be transmitted between us and our cat?
Unbelievers or people who don't like cats will say that you can hardly communicate with your cat at all. I disagree and I am sure many if not all cat lovers would agree that you can understand the desires, emotions and thoughts of your cat companion provided you have a knowledge of cat sounds and have an empathy with your cat. Routines and body language also play a large part in understanding your cat.
How far can and do we go when communicating with our cat?
The video above has examples of the sounds our cat makes. There are a lot of nuances to the standard meow for example. The meow is a vowel sound. But it seems to merge with trills and grunts (murmur sounds) and other unclassified sounds. I describe the classification of sounds in the video.
It appears that cat sounds are work in progress from a scientific point of view. I am thinking both of the subtle variations on the basic sounds and their meaning.
A lot of the time the sounds our cat makes are expressions of an emotion, much in the same way that we make an exclamation when we are surprised.
But they are more than that. When we are intimately aware of our cat's preferences, his or her various vocalizations, routines and body language, we can better understand our cat's desires and feelings and be a better cat caretaker as a result.
