So How Do You Like Meow??

   So what is is all the cat chat about?  Did you know that cats don’t meow to other cats and that they only talk to us?  Isn’t that amazing?  Cats do communicate to one another, but it's mostly through scent, through facial expression, body language, and touch.  When cats do talk to one another it's through hissing caterwauling, shrieking or my personal favorite, chattering.  When my four guys talk I usually know what they are saying and probably you understand your cats as well..  There is the “OMG I am so happy you are home” meow.  Also the “Feed me before I starve to death” dramatic meow.  Sometimes there is the “Pet me because I am so damn cute” meow.  Oh and the bummer of “Why did you just step on my tail” meow.  (This is the one that is immediately followed by finding where your kitty went and offering massive amounts of guilt treats.) Oh and for those of you with indoor/outdoor cats there is the “I am going to continue to MEOW until that door opens thank you very much” meow.  Now, those are just the ones we understand.  There are, I have read, 16 different vocal pattern to express different kinds of emotions.  Domestic cats have learned how to expand their use of sounds in an attempt to communicate their wants and needs to us silly humans and not that I want to diss dogs or dog people, but I don’t think that Fido has nearly that much to say!  I also have noticed that when my cats starts meowing if I talk back that we can get quite a conversation going and that because I talk back they are quite a bit chattier than they used to be.  So we should all be very flattered that our feline friends thought us worthy of talking to and figuring out how, because as all cat lovers know “Sylvester” doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to!