Cat OWNER Behaviour

[Martin]

It just occured to me that there could be a good discussion on what sort of daft things cat and dog OWNERS get up to! I, for one talk to my cats constantly, but that's pretty tame, I'm sure there are some of you out there who want to confess to a lot worse than that?

[Fuzzy317]

My fiancee picks up our Rosie and holds her like a little baby. Eventually Rosie will get tired of being held, and squirm out of her arms. My fiancee always wanted a little girl.

[lhg0962]

I'm probably a bit sillier with my dogs than I am my cats. Thank Heavens you didn't ask about them! I talk with both of them often, in fact give them lectures about getting along with each other. I'll be telling someone about it and say something like "I told Mimi that she had to do better", and my daughter will immediately ask me what Mimi said to that. I'm here alone with all the animals a lot, so I get into some deep conversations. I've said before that I might get committed if anyone ever hid a camera in this house.
I think we're all guilty of letting our cats control the position we ultimately sleep in at night. How many times have you slept in a funny position, or sat in a different chair, all because your cat was all comfortably settled where you wanted to be??
I've done it a lot in the past 11 years with Mimi!

[4 feline house]

I may be the goofiest in the silly department. I know most people baby talk to their pets, but over the years, starting with my mom, our family has evolved from "baby talk" to "speaking cat". It involves a special voice used only when speaking "cat" as well as a unique dialect composed of really bad grammar (she seen him do that), some southern white (that "yunder" cat is some big "feller"), some southern black (my cat just had kitttens, and she produced a fine "fambly"), and yankee ("dese" cats keep drinking out of the "terlet") colloquialisms and accents along with several infusions of child's mispronunciations added in over the years (he likes to get under the "cubbers" to sleep). My son and I have expanded it to include such things as "gotta fight it" for the squinty-eyed look cats get (started when he was watching some kittens losing the struggle to stay awake lest they miss some fun)and "smelling the hot clothes" (begun when one day, amazed again at how fast the cats found a basket of fresh laundry he declared they must be able to smell hot laundry). It really has developed into a language of its own, but I am so afraid of being labelled a kook that no one outside of my family has ever heard more than bits or pieces of it! I'm a certifiable kook!

[thelmalu99]

Oops! I know that special cat-talk voice! I use it all the time with Charlie...and when I talk to him, it's always like this:

"You takin' a nappy-nap?"
"My Sunshine want some foody-food?"
"Let's go sleepy-sleep."
"What's that on your nosey-nose?"
"Charlie, can you answer the phoney-phone?"
"Momma's on the phone with Granny-Gran."

I hope the neighbors can't hear...they may call the men in the white coats to come and get me!
Oh, I also LOVE to nibble on his ear...he seems to like it, too.

[wolflady]

I'm guilty of all of the above. Isn't it funny how animal people just have this unique bond with their animals as well as other people with animals? We're a special group that share common experiences. I always kitty-baby talk with my Marius. Does anyone immitate the way their cat meows? I read in a cat book somewhere that if you immitate your cat's meow, you can get a conversation started. It really works!! When my cat meows...I meow right back at him and then he does it right back! It's so funny. Sometimes I wonder what I'm saying...
We also kitty nose kiss. Marius always gets in my face and puts his nose to mine. It's so cute!

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[bookitty1231]

Fuzzy317, I can relate to your fiance. My youngest cat Wylie. After he eats lunch each day he come to me to be held and likes for me to hold him until he goes to sleep. Just like he's a baby. I enjoy it though and if I'm not home for lunch I feel bad about it.

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"As we all know, cats now rule the world."
--John R.F. Breen

[thelmalu99]

Wolflady,
Charlie and I have lots of meow-conversations, too. I actually think I'm very good at it, but I wonder what he thinks!

[wolflady]

Thelmalu,

I agree Sometimes I do get an odd expression from my cats... But, most of the time, the 'conversation' goes for a few rounds. My husband has even started in on the meow fun Now that's a funny sight...and sound for that matter

We also hold our kitties like babies, after all, that's what they are!

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[Martin]

Wow! the postings are coming in so fast, I can't keep up!

Logan; I occasionally concede on the sleeping position, but I always win the fight for the chair!

4felinehouse; I don’t normally give out advice but in your case I’m going to make an exception; keep all that sort of behaviour to yourself, otherwise, as Thelmalu pointed out, the men in white coats will be round to your place! ….Oh, and don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us!
(…anyone got the number of a sanitarium?)

Thelmalu; Clearly you need to watch it too!

For my part I say things like;
“You’ll be in trouble if Red sees you doing that!”
“You little monkey!”
…when they turn up looking dishevelled; “Have you been feightin’ agin?” (fighting again)


Wolflady; Yes, I talk back to Red in the same pitch that he talks to me in, but Black’s voice is too high for that, and yes quite often it seems like we’re in a conversation. I don’t know what’s being said but he knows when the conversation’s finished!

[Dorothy C]

Originally posted by Martin:
It just occured to me that there could be a good discussion on what sort of daft things cat and dog OWNERS get up to! I, for one talk to my cats constantly, but that's pretty tame, I'm sure there are some of you out there who want to confess to a lot worse than that?

Martin,
Not only do I talk to my three cats all the
time, but I also speak to the 2 males in
English and the female only in French! (I
adopted her from an owner who spoke only French). Of course, I have no idea whether he SPOKE to her (Caresse - the name he gave
her). As if this isn't crazy enough, I've
invented special words for the pets and us, and dreamt up some other weird words for other animals, weather etc. I call this cat
language, and thought maybe of one day
publishing a book - "Cat Language: a short
vocabulary." They are, "little kids," people
are "big kids." Dogs are "woof woofs." Food
is "foodies." I think I had better stop there! Of course, my cats understand everything I say to them!

Dorothy C

[wolflady]

Martin,
I know what you mean about how they always know when the conversation is finished! They always seem to get the last word too! LOL
Dorothy, welcome to pet talk and the crazy world of pet owners like us! I think everyone has petisms (so to speak) for different words and pet talk. Hopefully nobody will be visited by those men in the white coats...

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[Pam]

Martin....When I give my kitties canned food I always read the label to them and let them know what they are about to be served. Occasionally I call Trevor Mr. Orange Man and Andy just simply gets called Widdle Andy since he weighs about 1/2 of what Trevor does. They both get lots and lots of kisses all the time and Andy especially loves to be kissed by his ears. That really starts his motor running! He is a drooler too!

[This message has been edited by Pam (edited February 15, 2001).]

[Martin]

Hello Dorothy C, I think that’s a totally excellent idea! an English – Cat dictionary or an English – Cat phrase book! (or French - Cat!) It could be a best seller! Does anyone know how we could do that on this site?

Incidentally, here’s a bit of nutty behaviour:- One of my cats, I think it was Black, was asleep on the window sill with his tail hanging down the wall, fairly straight. For some reason I wanted to know if he was really asleep so I started talking to him but I got no reaction. Then I said his name “Blaa-aack” in my cat voice and his tail curled up and fell back down! It was quite funny so I did it a few times and it worked every time. No other movement, just the curling tail! After a while I thought “I wonder what he’ll do if I call out the other cat’s name?” so I said “Re-ed” and it went up again – but not quite as far! So, there I was experimenting, calling out “Blaa-aack” and “Re-ed” and there was a definite pattern; when I called out “Blaa-aack” about ½ his tail curled up and when I called out “Re-ed” only ¼ of his tail curled up! What does that prove? Probably nothing but it was fun for a while!

Pam, I hope you're only reading them the flavour (Eng sp) of the cat food and not the small print too!

... did you say kissed BY his ears? ...it's no wonder he drools - I bet his eyes water too! You try kissing your ears !




[This message has been edited by Martin (edited February 16, 2001).]

[Fuzzy317]

My fiancee(I will start calling her by her name, Lynn, in future posts) had a cat named Sylvia. Sylvia would go on a platform on top of the climbing post and nap.

Lynn said they could go up to her, and talk in a really loving voice, "Sylvia, oh Sylvia" several times. Sylvia would begin to wiggle her tail and make body motions in her sleep. If they did this long enough, Sylvia would roll off the platform.

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Fuzzy317 - Recently adopted by a dog, 3 cats, and my fiancee