Does Your Cat Do This?

Of my two cats, Biddy displays significantly more intelligence than Walter. He communicates well, he finds loopholes in all of the barriers I present between him and food, and his test scores are off the charts (unfortunately, those scores are for glucose).

For example, here’s Biddy digging through an old game prototype from years ago. His dexterity is impressive.

Compare that to Walter. Oh, Walter.

However, one thing Walter does really well is communicate when he wants snuggles and head rubs. He’ll sit next to you (well, maybe not you, but me) and purr while you scratch him, and if you move your hand away, he’ll lift up his paw and touch your hand to say, “More.” He knows the word “more”! I caught him doing this on video today:

How do your animals communicate?

5 thoughts on “Does Your Cat Do This?”

  1. Here’s the breakdown of our cats.

    Gershwin (7 years): At night, she will cuddle up like a teddy bear, even held in your arms, but she doesn’t allow this during the day. If you’re lucky, she’ll hop up on your lap and knead once or twice if you’re the chosen one for a second. Otherwise, she’ll occasionally chirp for attention but usually just do her own thing. If another cat tries to rough-house, she hisses.

    Voltaire (7 years): The smartest of the troop, he will walk around the house calling for you if he wants you (and he expects you to answer). This is fair, however, since he will answer you – either vocally or come running in person – if you call his name. He will sit and wait next to you if he wants to sit on your lap, sometimes meowing to remind you of his presence or even tentatively pawing you, because he is too polite to jump up without an expressed invitation. He also likes to hold hands.

    Brahms (6 years): She will meow when being fed. Otherwise, she primarily communicates in snores (unless she’s being chased by one of her siblings, then she hisses. A lot.)

    Rousseau (2 years): Usually, he’s pretty quiet, but he’ll chat with you if he has something to say. Normally, though, he’s content with rubbing against any part of you that he’ll pass on his way to his very important things to do. If you put a hand over his head, he’ll sit up on his hind legs to reach up and rub his face on it. He doesn’t like to be picked up and held, but if you catch him on the bed or couch, you can cuddle up next to him.

    Apollo (1 year): He’s a chatty Cathy. He will run around the house chattering his mouth off to anyone who might listen and, if he’s not satisfied that there’s been an adequate response, he will jump up on you and repeat himself. He also purrs quite a lot, but he rarely sits down long enough to enjoy it. He’s always off to chat with the next person about the next big topic.

    It’s so fun seeing and experiencing all their individual personalities and the combinations their characters yield. Apollo and Rousseau are best buds, and sometimes Voltaire gets in on it, too, but the girls really don’t know what to think of the youngest.

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    • LOL this is fantastic. I think my favorite descriptions are about the vocal natures of Voltaire and Apollo and how they like you to answer.

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  2. I’ve been told that I share a unique language with Daisy. Everyone else hears her bark, but I can somehow hear subtle changes in the bark to translate what she wants. She has slightly different barks for the following:
    I’m hungry/thirsty.
    I need to go out.
    You forgot my nightly treat.
    It’s too hot outside.
    I want to play.
    I want a belly rub.
    There is a suspicious person walking down the street.

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  3. My cat would do what Walter does with her paw, lifting it up and trying to encourage you to use your hand to pet her. Her previous owners had declawed her, so she really didn’t like anyone touching her paws for any reason, but after having her for years she randomly started doing that. I thought it was cute and encouraged it, and then came to slightly regret my actions. It’s really hard to walk away from a cat looking up at you with a paw held out when you need to do things and it’s been about half an hour of petting!

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