tips for understanding your cat
If you’ve ever lived with a vocal cat, you’ve almost certainly
asked yourself this question. After all, who could resist wanting
to know what your feline friend is thinking as she meows
plaintively at your sleeping face early in the morning or weaves
her way between your legs while crying herself hoarse?
Most of the typical in-the-wild feline sounds—like hissing,
spitting, growling, and that hair-raising high-pitched screaming
thing cats do when they’re fighting and mating—are
self-explanatory: They’re angry, scared, or hoping to impress. But
the plain-old “meow” can seem confusing to us humans.
Behaviorists say that cats meow at humans because they want
something and, most important, because meowing gets results.
And that’s undeniably true. Meowing works. But
why?
Interestingly, some experts say that the sound “meow,” as we
know it, developed at least in part because we humans associate it
with the needy cry of an infant. But it’s also undeniable that
kittens meow when they want something. So it’s no stretch to assume
cats didn’t learn to associate meows with requests.
But cats can meow at varying frequencies, pitches, tones,
volumes, and lengths. A meow imploring you to open the back door,
for example, can sound completely different from the excited, “I’m
about to be fed” meow, which is totally different from the meow
that happens right before you scratch her right behind her ear at
bedtime.
As anyone who’s ever heard two different cats meow knows, no two
feline voices are ever exactly the same. But beyond the vagaries of
voice box machinery, most of the variation comes from the cat’s own
personality. And there’s no predicting how the interaction of any
given human-cat personality pairing will affect meowing. After all,
when some cats learn that meowing brings them satisfaction, the
very act of meowing can become satisfactory in its own right.
So what do you do when the vocal requests get continuous or turn
into an obsessive, repetitive behavior? It’s always a good idea to
take kitty to the veterinarian’s office to make sure nothing is
awry. If the veterinarian doesn’t find any physical problem, you
may want to seek out a certified animal behaviorist or a
board-certified veterinary behaviorist to get the answer you
need.
But rest assured, the vast majority of vocal cats are not
pathologically afflicted. Quite the opposite, most are simply
voicing their healthy demands—pleasurably.
This article was written by a
Veterinarian.
Source:
http://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/why-does-my-cat-meow-at-me?WT.mc_id=cc_aol%3Bcats_meow&WT.mc_id=Outbrain_8283910