telophase: (Cat/Box OTP)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2009-07-14 11:24 am
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Breaking News: Cats Manipulate Humans

In other news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic. Cats have special purr they use to manipulate humans.

Growing up, at dinner my cat Dakota would, if she smelled something she wanted, jump onto the empty chair next to me, look at the table, and start to purr.

If she felt we hadn't noticed her, she'd purr louder.

Breaking News: Cats Manipulate Humans

[identity profile] mustangsally78.livejournal.com 2009-07-14 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
God knows it doesn't work the other way around.

[identity profile] vestaka.livejournal.com 2009-07-14 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
You know.. my cats clear out when it's dinner time. maybe it's just that my kids are scary when they're snarfing down their meals and the cats are afraid they'd be eaten too? I've never actually had my cats meow at me for that.

.. my black cat meows to ask to be shaved now, though.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2009-07-14 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee! Dakota lived in eternal optimism that I'd drop food, or that we'd forget she was there so she could jump on the table and steal it.

She did occasionally manage to jump on the kitchen counter and grab a piece of food before we caught her, but she always undid herself by emitting a mew of triumph right after doing it, so we'd hear it, find her, and take the food away. I have no idea why she never quite doing that.
octopedingenue: (friendly neighborhood spider-hug)

[personal profile] octopedingenue 2009-07-14 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I love science studies that prove obvious things! It's so satisfying somehow. Here's the university page about the study! I like the sample cat-purr audio.

I've had two cats who 'talked' almost entirely through purring, from the content purr to questioning "chirrup?" purr when they wanted something. They rarely meowed, only when you were being VERY BAD at paying them attention, and then it'd be only a squeaky little "meep!"

[identity profile] ukoku.livejournal.com 2009-07-15 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Seriously, they spent money on this?

It does bring up the interesting point that the noises animals make are a lot more complex than we normally realize.

I don't even feed my cats in the morning for this reason, but one of them gets annoying if I don't jump out of bed when the alarm goes off. But he's siamese - it's screaming time.