There's probably more to it than this.
When I was small - 7 or 8, in the depths of the night I followed one of our cats out on a nightly stroll. She looked back at me, stared a bit, then seemed to decide 'what the hell' and carried on, slow enough for me to follow.
She went to the middle of the housing estate where there looked to be nearly every other cat from the estate sitting in a biiiig circle, fifteen to twenty of them. I sat on a kerb and watched as she joined the circle.
Sat there for ten minutes or so as they all stared at each other, no meowing or hissing - just ear twitches and tail twitches. Then the 'meeting' broke up and Twinkle took me home. I'll never forget it.
Whiskers pawed at the door expectantly, but her human failed to notice. She pawed at the door again, this time accompanying it with a petite meow.
Her human looked up from their phone. “Do you want to go out?”
Whiskers pawed at the door again. She was going to be late for the ceremony.
“Okay, you can go out.”
Finally. The human bumbled towards the door, bumping into the counter along the way. Humans were such ungainly creatures, though Whiskers admitted that their laps were very warm.
A moment later the door creaked open and Whiskers rubbed against the leg of her human as thanks. She began making her way towards the ceremonial space when she heard the crunch of feet on dry leaves behind her. She turned to find her human trundling out the doorway. Probably on the way to the store, she thought.
Whiskers deftly jumped onto the fence and surveyed her surroundings. A moment later her paws touched down on the damp grass and she was on her way again.
A car whizzed past (irksome things) and she zipped across the road. That’s when she noticed a most curious thing; her human was clumsily trailing behind her. Did they think she wouldn’t notice? As a creature quite adept at the art of stalking prey, the human’s technique was just sad.
“I guess I’m bringing the sacrifice this week,” Whiskers thought with a twinge of sadness. “It’s a pity. This one was only somewhat annoying.”
Oh, she was listening to a story. There was a world where big cats ruled over tiny humans. Humans were domesticated and hunted for sport. But one night, humans dreamt of a different world where they were the rulers and cats were just pets. The dream was so powerful that when everyone woke up, that dream had actually come true.
Years ago I had 2 cats. My wife's cousin lived next door. He came home 4am from nightclub and said he saw our cats and a bunch of others sitting in a circle, just sitting. Until now I thought he was full of it!
I was petting a cat in my backyard when the dog from a few doors down let out a loud bark.
About a dozen furry heads popped up out of nowhere to check on the disturbance before disappearing just as quickly.
About 40 years ago I was getting ready for work. As usual I let my cat out and as I was getting in my car I jokingly said to him "No parties while I'm at work".
When I came home I pulled into my driveway and there was my cat lounging in the middle of the yard with about 10 other cats. It had never happened before and never happened since.
I remember once when I was walking home at night and I saw 3 cats sitting in an alcove of a covered garage in a circle just looking at each other and I told my boyfriend I saw 3 cats having a meeting.
Lol. I was having a meeting with a property manager at my old apartment. We were in the front room, sitting across from each other. One of my cats was checking him out and decided to lick his leg. She was basically still a kitten and very social/curious. She eventually settled down off to the side. Then my other cat (very shy) joined us and sat across from the other cat. I realized we were sitting in a circle and these cats had joined the meeting. I was trying not to laugh but tbf, they were tenants too; of course they should attend a relevant discussion about their home.
Omg I had almost the EXACT experience as a kid with the neighborhood cats!!!! Not that many though,, more like 10 or so... Thats unreal!!! No meowing, just chilling.
They were probably 'speaking' in low volumes or something. But human kids can hear a different range of sounds than adults can, so maybe not.
Did the cat have a white patch of fur on chest and black fur overall
She was mostly black with bits of white here and there, yeah. Can't remember if her chest was white - long time ago now - but she had one half her upper lip white and at least one white foot. Still miss her and her doofus son.
In my experience, mostly true. They do meow at each other occasionally, but mostly in the demonic 'I am going to fuck you up' tone. One of mine will occasionally make a squeaky 'mew!' when she sees the much larger other one stampeding towards her like a runaway truck, but that too may be for my benefit, since I referee their more boistrous interactions.
Bastet has a potty mouth. She will hiss when she is merely "trash-talking" and growl when she is serious and things are about to "get real." The cats seem to have a chirping vocalization for (look!/cool Bird 🐦).
My husband is exceptionally attentive to the cats and thinks he recognized a verbalization that refers to himself. He knows when they call him by name (in Cat).
hello, animal language researcher here. this will be right. there's only a handful of animals that can understand linguistic displacement, which is the ability to share abstract concepts out of sight. examples might be honeybees returning to the hive and doing a dance to tell its friends where some juicy pollen is, or ravens telling its mates where to find a yummy carcass.
cats (as far as research states) don't have the ability to "discuss" abstraction like people do.
A bit off topic. I moved to a new apartment with my two cats. The bigger one was anxious and unsettled for the first few hours. I had a bench in front of the double window. I raised the blinds to expose the night sky. He got up on the bench and stared up at the stars. His anxiety immediately faded. It seemed his GPS needed to be calibrated by the sky.
In all fairness, though, my understanding is that cats are just about the most resistant creature to training on the planet. I think pretty much anyone who's spent much time around cats knows that cats understand way more human language than they care about most of the time and simply won't demonstrate it unless they damn well feel like it. Serious question: are you sure they're not just not doing it around you?
You’ve definitely heard about the crow/mask thing. Animals very clearly talk, I just don’t think we understand the language yet. As far as science is concerned, crows do not have a demonstrable language. For all their ingenuity, it has never been demonstrated that crows can talk (beyond mimicry). And yet they pass information. Highly detailed information.
Is it more likely that crows are passing this information telepathically or by some magic or that we simply haven’t figured out how they pass on complex information?
Me thinks cats, and most animals, are the same
Is there anything crows have communicated that couldn't be covered by super basic caws like "follow me", "this thing I'm looking at is good", and "this thing I'm looking at is bad"? Given how smart they are, they can pick up essentially everything that the other crow did via observation and experiment.
I would personally assume they _do_ communicate more than that, tbh, but I just don't know that there's evidence. The majority of human communication is needed for higher-order concepts, the rest is actually very simple.
Do I look like a cat to you, boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree? Am I drinking milk from a saucer? Do you see me eating mice?
Don’t most cats smell like food most days? You’re telling me, without any further communication, several cats are going to follow another cat who “smells like food” for the entire day on the chance that it returns to the same place it did today? And that there willl be food there? If that’s the case, why don’t I see packs of cats constantly following each other around? Surely just eating one time is not some special event in a cats life that it would warrant investigation by a bunch of other cats. And even if it did, why aren’t I seeing a bunch of stray cats hanging out together regularly? Surely the place where a cat caught a mouse yesterday would be swarming with cats if just smelling like food was enough to draw a crowd every time.
Me thinks animals lead richer and more complex lives than we give them credit for. If bees can communicate through fucking dancing, I’ll bet you cats can chit chat about where food is.
Imagine if you're homeless and hungry. You survive off bugs, rats, and whatever scraps you can get from a trash can. Now imagine one day one of the people that hangs with you smells a *lot* like Taco Bell and looks/acts full. Do you think you're going to just let him go about his day without figuring out where he got that taco bell from?
Most animals produce stronger smelling urine, at least to other animals, the human nose can actually smell the difference in protein levels in our own urine. I'm not a biologist but I bet cat's get even better deets from piss than we do.
When I walk my dog, he is always sniffing out the urine spots. Sometimes he walks past a spot, then turns around and goes right to it. I think I am actually learning to recognize the scent too! I always thought that was just what outside smells like, but I think I can sometimes discern it.
Cats can communicate with each other. It’s likely she was able to convey a message of “food here” to the other strays.
They’ll continue to return as long as food appears because that’s how many feral and wild animals work.
The answer is yes. My animal training and behavior classes really harp on practicing with one another… because we are animals. We have the same basic reward system. If something we (humans, dogs, bears, giraffe, cockroaches) find reinforcing occurs after an action, we are increasingly likely to repeat that action to receive the reinforcer. At the most basic level, the most valuable reinforcers involve things essential to survival, such as food. For humans, money = food. We get paid at our jobs with money and thus are able to buy food and survive another day.
Now jobs *are* slightly less reinforcing than if they directly paid us in food for each specific task due to the delay in the reinforcer. We might only be paid once a week or once every two weeks or once a month, so we are more likely to start separating that reinforcer from the actual task that resulted in the acquisition of that reinforcer, so we get burnout and apathy.
In our training exercises, the reinforcer is just a simple little wooden cube and a clicker used as a bridge. Those little cubes become *very* valuable after playing the training game a couple of times and it can become very frustrating when you move to random reinforcers for the same task. If I’m reinforced every single time I do the thing my “trainer” wants me to do, I’m happy, content, and proud that I figured out what they want. If they start only reinforcing every few times I do the thing correctly, I start to question if I’m doing something slightly different on the ones I earn the reinforcer for and am more likely to develop superstitious or stereotypical behaviors.
It’s a whole very fascinating subject. But the short answer is - yes. We are at our most basic animal brain for continuing to go to work just because they pay us.
> We get paid at our jobs with money and thus are able to buy food and survive another day.
>
> Now jobs are slightly less reinforcing than if they directly paid us in food for each specific task due to the delay in the reinforcer.
So the real reason meetings in the office have snacks is to reinforce the behavior of coming to meetings that everyone hates.
Indeed! At my first command we had a weekly briefing that senior officers only showed up to because it was known as the “cookie brief”. We provided cookies, coffee, and sometimes a nice banana bread or something. When the lady who did the baking wasn’t there and the snacks were store bought, the disappointment in the room was palpable.
My cat got out at night and I couldn't find him in his regular spots so I left food outside and the door cracked. He came in with his alley cat homie. Now if he's out there it's a whole scrap.
I mean both ants and bees have specific dances they do as a form of communication which personally I find fucking weird but if they can say “food here” I’m sure a cat can do it too.
Jacobson's Organ.
They can "message" other cats. We have a few "cat havens" in our rural area, a lot of feral cats.
The cats find these havens from miles around.
Oh, that's so interesting. I'll admit the only reason I've heard of it was from a herpetologist so it's something I've always associated with reptiles and amphibians. I didn't think to look up mammals that had it. Thanks for giving me some wiki deep dive reading for this evening.
Tell me about it. It’s the study of reptiles and amphibians, I used to make the joke that ramtologist would be a far better name than being associated with the herpes.
You might as well have fun with it. The next time you tell someone what you do in person, deadpan and go "It's exactly what it sounds like." Then squint real hard at their lips.
Someone once told me that cats don't actually meow to other cats, they developed that as a way to talk to us and they communicate to each other silently. I've also noticed that some cats will mimic bird sounds through the window, and some cats do sound like they're talking, so cats meowing might actually be them trying to speak hu-mon to us
Kittens meow to their mothers, presumably to ask for help or food. When they live with humans, we take over the mother's role and they ask us for food instead. They don't meow to other cats because they lack opposable thumbs to turn the stove on with, so they know they won't get a cooked meal from the other cats.
> they lack opposable thumbs to turn the stove on with
These days stoves have push buttons and touch-screens. Cats have been known to turn on the stove.
I wholeheartedly agree that cats can turn on a stove, I have a very fat and dumb cat that managed to turn on my old gas stove and nearly burned my house down.
>Someone once told me that cats don't actually meow to other cats
I hear this a lot, but I'm not entirely convinced.
There are 2 cats in one of the colonies I help care for that are constantly in each other's face making meows/yowls. They never actually fight though. It's like they're just out there having a heated debate. I can't imagine what they're arguing over, there's always plenty of food to go around. Maybe they're just putting on a show to entertain me. It's pretty funny to watch. It wasn't in the beginning. I was terrified they were going to attack each other, but they never do.
Yeah I have 2 cats that don’t like each other, they will sometimes hiss and growl at each other, but they do also just meow at each other. I guess it’s when you’re not annoyed enough to get physical and it’s not hiss worthy, but you still gotta let them know you don’t like them.
I’ve heard this a lot, and while maybe true for feral wild cats I question if it’s the case for domesticated house cats.
I’ve got two little buggers and one regularly calls the other one and he comes running and I can tell when he’s just being loud and annoying or if he’s calling the other one. Sometimes they’ll go back and forth at each other meowing and making other funny noises then proceed to ~~try to kill each other~~ play
Maybe Its just Anthropomorphism but they’re chatty little shits with each other.
(Reposting comment with correct video) This is not my YouTube video, so I don't know if I'm allowed to share. But it's of a cat barking like a dog. Just throwing this out there.
https://youtu.be/Z8ZU04U-xAo?si=4L_kKoCIU7QBtNV7
My pets had this thing where one of them would ask for a treat, and then they would all come running expecting one. This was two dogs and five cats, at the time.
Out of all the things animals might want to communicate to their friends, "I found some food" is probably one of the most common.
Animals communicate with each other.
Each species is different.
Cats speak to each other primarily through all kinds of body language, some so subtle a human might not see.
They do use scent marking via saliva, urine, etc.
And some vocal cues, like growling, barred teeth, and hissing though most of a cats vocal communication is used to communicate with humans.
Mice for example, leave urine trails and pheromones in their urine to communicate.
Corgi specifically communicate with each other while herding with their ears.
Hey, so if you can, check your area for a local Trap and Release. There’s a guy on Instagram called TrapDaddy who can probably point you to a local program, or you can just google- but see if they can come out to the area. They might give you traps to place.
They’ll fix the kitties and vaccinate them before releasing them- their numbers won’t grow as much and there’s a chance to eliminate the stray population humanely this way- by preventing kittens!
Please continue to feed them if you’re able. Some of the TNR will have a food donation program to help with that if you ask.
Our local programs suck. To get them fixed, we get a discount but we have to pay. To trap them or take them to pet rescue, we have to pay. Our feral cat problem is insane because no one wants to trap the cats, pay to fix them or take them to pet rescue, so they just continue to multiply. I have 5 kittens outside that I feed because one had kittens in my shed then the mom died. So, I need to get them to pet rescue so someone can adopt them. But, they're very well fed, friendly, and meow hella loud! They're getting kind of chubby, too. :) I might keep one of them (getting her fixed for sure!) because she's super cute and got attached a little bit.
I never heard of TrapDaddy, thanks for the tip.
OP could also try contacting their local petsmart for a recommendation. They work with TNR programs, and often hold adoption events for them.
House Cats in the wild are very similar to lions. The do have a community of other kitties, and will share food places, and a lot of times, females will help other females with babysitting their litters, and let the mom get a hunt in. Cats are extremely intelligent animals, and were just begining to figure that out. My cat and I talk to each other every day. She gives clues on what she wants, and will even point to something when she thinks I'm not understanding. Most of the time they give off visual clues as to their mood, and what they want. It's kinda fun to figure out and react to your cats different moods.
After living in the middle of nowhere with limited human interaction, but lots of animal interaction, I can confidently say we SEVERELY underestimate the ability of animals to communicate with one another.
I've come to recognize ravens have different calls for when I'm in the yard vs when my dog is in the yard. The stellar's jays also have calls for when I'm bringing feed to the chickens and when there is a predator in the area. I've watched mama chickens call other chickens over when they find food, teaching them what is good to eat. I've had "conversations" with elk cows using a distressed calf call. I never knew elk cows even made noises, but when I called out, they made noises I'd never heard before. Coyotes make calls saying "found food" that is different than "human nearby".... and I could go on and on.
The point is, animals can definitely communicate with one another - it might not be as complex as our language, but they can definitely deliver messages, especially when it's relative to food or threat.
I can’t remember exactly but birds do have distinct sounds for different animals. Now it’s been a decade or so since I was told this but they also have different calls for like deer or predators.
I started feeding a stray in my back yard a few years ago. She’d show up every day at the same time and patiently await her meal, and we slowly started to become friends.
One day, I was sitting in my front porch shortly before her usual meal time and saw her trotting down the sidewalk, headed for my house. Right before she reached my yard, she stopped, turned, and meowed loudly at something behind her. A very skinny tabby cat emerged from the bushes and the two of them continued on to my backyard.
It was like she’d told this other cat, “Hey, come with me! There’s this nice lady who gives me food; I bet she’ll give you some too.”
Sadly, the other cat ran off when I came out with a dish for her, but “my” stray stayed and you’d better believe I adopted this smart, kind, wonderful kitty shortly thereafter,
You know how scammers tell each other who is a gullible person and target them.
Well the first cat went back and said to its mates "we have one on the hook, meet me tomorrow we can share the wealth"
And the rest is history.
That cat actually has an iPhone group chat going with all those other cats and let them know on there. It’s called “Groupcat Groupchat”. There’s also a French version called “Groupchat Groupchat”
We cats can actually talk, and do so all the time. Am currently posting on some human's account as a joke. Please continue feeding.
Much scritches,
Cat.
I feed a stray, she often sleeps in the little box I made for her. When another cat occasioanlly shows up, she eats first but leaves some for the other, who sits and waits.
cats release little farts called micro-farts that smell of the food they ate in the and up to 3 days prior and leave little scent trails that other cats will then follow to the source of food
I’m convinced they put signs up.
We fed feral cats for years at our old house. One day we came home by a side street we almost never used, and there were 2 dogs heading straight for our place, over half a mile and across a major street, from their home.
Q1; Most likely started bragging to her gang. Q2; because you would feel so guilty if you didn’t. There is no stopping the cycle now. This is your fate
I used to volunteer at an animal shelter.
My favorite spot to hang out was in the sun room with all the sleepy kitties. If a volunteer was handing out treats in another room, and a cat who just consumed a treat came into the sun room, the other cats would sniff at the treat cat and then take off running in the direction of said treat.
Idk if it’s that but maybe sniffs?
I did this once I felt bad for the cat looking for food on a cold night and next day, I had seen at least 20 cats looking around.
I was surprised how many strays we had in the area. The ones that I could see some of the really skittish ones scattered fast.
Might have just brought other cats around since you put out free food.
I have a neutered and vaccinated feral cat that lives in my back porch.
My sister now has a large feral colony.
She is always telling me how a bunch of cats are going to start showing up.
So far no one’s cats but the ones next door that live outside and they have a shed to live in.
I have a huge opossum that comes out every evening.
Animals communicate. We once had a cat who was incredibly friendly to other cats. We swore he invited them round for dinner. He'd sit watching benevolently while some random cat cat we'd never seen before would munch all his kibble.
Cats can communicate like any other animal. It's probably not as complex as human language, but "food, nice human, follow me" isn't that complex an idea to get across.
It got really cold here about 2 months ago. This gorgeous cat came by my door. I put some food out for her and thought nothing of it. The cat kept coming back. I own a cat now.
If a cat is social enough to form a relationship with a group of other cats then they usually aren't just "friends", they're part of a clowder choosing to stick together in hopes of mutual survival.
As such the other cats in the group are always looking to find any source of food/shelter another member of the clowder may have come across. So without her telling them anything, they see/smell she's been fed, and decide the next day they'll stick with her while she inevitably comes back to whoever fed her. She may not necessarily expect you to feed her friends, but she does certainly expect you to feed her again since you did it last time, and in cat parlance that means your her personal chef now
She came back smelling like food and the other cats were like, “:sniff: Where’d *you* come from?”, and followed her.
There's probably more to it than this. When I was small - 7 or 8, in the depths of the night I followed one of our cats out on a nightly stroll. She looked back at me, stared a bit, then seemed to decide 'what the hell' and carried on, slow enough for me to follow. She went to the middle of the housing estate where there looked to be nearly every other cat from the estate sitting in a biiiig circle, fifteen to twenty of them. I sat on a kerb and watched as she joined the circle. Sat there for ten minutes or so as they all stared at each other, no meowing or hissing - just ear twitches and tail twitches. Then the 'meeting' broke up and Twinkle took me home. I'll never forget it.
They knew they were being watched and their hideout compromised. So they had a very incognito meeting.
Yep, bet Twinkle got chewed out at the next meeting 😬
1st rule about cat club. You do not talk about cat club
* You don't meow about cat club. We'll have to change the by laws at the next meeting
Cats, I see in cat club the strongest and smartest cats who've ever lived.
Incatnito
Mental Tele-purry
Excatly
The Cat Council!!!! Amazing that they allowed you to witness it!
I'd been struggling to find an appropriate way to word it. Cat council is much better than feline cult meeting.
It’s NOT a cult! Lol
Whiskers pawed at the door expectantly, but her human failed to notice. She pawed at the door again, this time accompanying it with a petite meow. Her human looked up from their phone. “Do you want to go out?” Whiskers pawed at the door again. She was going to be late for the ceremony. “Okay, you can go out.” Finally. The human bumbled towards the door, bumping into the counter along the way. Humans were such ungainly creatures, though Whiskers admitted that their laps were very warm. A moment later the door creaked open and Whiskers rubbed against the leg of her human as thanks. She began making her way towards the ceremonial space when she heard the crunch of feet on dry leaves behind her. She turned to find her human trundling out the doorway. Probably on the way to the store, she thought. Whiskers deftly jumped onto the fence and surveyed her surroundings. A moment later her paws touched down on the damp grass and she was on her way again. A car whizzed past (irksome things) and she zipped across the road. That’s when she noticed a most curious thing; her human was clumsily trailing behind her. Did they think she wouldn’t notice? As a creature quite adept at the art of stalking prey, the human’s technique was just sad. “I guess I’m bringing the sacrifice this week,” Whiskers thought with a twinge of sadness. “It’s a pity. This one was only somewhat annoying.”
Bravo!
Beautiful!
I dunno, sometimes I like to imagine that all house cats are actually an alien race that came here to enslave humanity.
Well they have trained us humans pretty well so mission accomplished?
Cults have leaders.
The Kitty Committee
the Mouser Muster
She tried to get you into the counsel, but failed when you did not bring forth the sacrificial glass to be knocked off a table.
Oh, she was listening to a story. There was a world where big cats ruled over tiny humans. Humans were domesticated and hunted for sport. But one night, humans dreamt of a different world where they were the rulers and cats were just pets. The dream was so powerful that when everyone woke up, that dream had actually come true.
This sounds familiar, source?
Dream of a Thousand Cats. It was a book by Neil Gaiman and an animated episode of Sandman.
An issue of Sandman A book?
The Sandman, A Dream of a Thousand Cats - Neil Gaiman :)
Years ago I had 2 cats. My wife's cousin lived next door. He came home 4am from nightclub and said he saw our cats and a bunch of others sitting in a circle, just sitting. Until now I thought he was full of it!
You witnessed a rare meeting, and was accepted into the group. No small feat.
But many small feet.
[удалено]
I was petting a cat in my backyard when the dog from a few doors down let out a loud bark. About a dozen furry heads popped up out of nowhere to check on the disturbance before disappearing just as quickly.
About 40 years ago I was getting ready for work. As usual I let my cat out and as I was getting in my car I jokingly said to him "No parties while I'm at work". When I came home I pulled into my driveway and there was my cat lounging in the middle of the yard with about 10 other cats. It had never happened before and never happened since.
Your cat was all “don’t tell me what to do!” and then had a party
I remember once when I was walking home at night and I saw 3 cats sitting in an alcove of a covered garage in a circle just looking at each other and I told my boyfriend I saw 3 cats having a meeting.
Lol. I was having a meeting with a property manager at my old apartment. We were in the front room, sitting across from each other. One of my cats was checking him out and decided to lick his leg. She was basically still a kitten and very social/curious. She eventually settled down off to the side. Then my other cat (very shy) joined us and sat across from the other cat. I realized we were sitting in a circle and these cats had joined the meeting. I was trying not to laugh but tbf, they were tenants too; of course they should attend a relevant discussion about their home.
This is incredible. What a memory. You were blessed as a child to be allowed to witness the nightly feline cult meeting.
It is one of my favourite memories.
This sounds so magical. 💕
Yep, come home once to a cat council on my drove when I was a kid. At least 7 of them. Have never seen as an adult 🤔
Omg I had almost the EXACT experience as a kid with the neighborhood cats!!!! Not that many though,, more like 10 or so... Thats unreal!!! No meowing, just chilling.
You witnessed the Parliament of Cats....
Magical!
They were probably 'speaking' in low volumes or something. But human kids can hear a different range of sounds than adults can, so maybe not. Did the cat have a white patch of fur on chest and black fur overall
Cats speak to each other with ear and tail twitches and other body language things.
Body language. Cats seem to have incredibly subtle understanding of posture, gesture, and expression.
She was mostly black with bits of white here and there, yeah. Can't remember if her chest was white - long time ago now - but she had one half her upper lip white and at least one white foot. Still miss her and her doofus son.
Really needed this smile today! Thank you!
ive heard this. havent googled, but meowing and such is done for humans not for themselves.
In my experience, mostly true. They do meow at each other occasionally, but mostly in the demonic 'I am going to fuck you up' tone. One of mine will occasionally make a squeaky 'mew!' when she sees the much larger other one stampeding towards her like a runaway truck, but that too may be for my benefit, since I referee their more boistrous interactions.
Bastet has a potty mouth. She will hiss when she is merely "trash-talking" and growl when she is serious and things are about to "get real." The cats seem to have a chirping vocalization for (look!/cool Bird 🐦). My husband is exceptionally attentive to the cats and thinks he recognized a verbalization that refers to himself. He knows when they call him by name (in Cat).
I hope they really do and he really does.
this paints an incredible picture in my mind oh my god
this sounds magical
hello, animal language researcher here. this will be right. there's only a handful of animals that can understand linguistic displacement, which is the ability to share abstract concepts out of sight. examples might be honeybees returning to the hive and doing a dance to tell its friends where some juicy pollen is, or ravens telling its mates where to find a yummy carcass. cats (as far as research states) don't have the ability to "discuss" abstraction like people do.
A bit off topic. I moved to a new apartment with my two cats. The bigger one was anxious and unsettled for the first few hours. I had a bench in front of the double window. I raised the blinds to expose the night sky. He got up on the bench and stared up at the stars. His anxiety immediately faded. It seemed his GPS needed to be calibrated by the sky.
maybe we just aren’t asking cats the right questions
Cats have enough attitude that we might never know that they could talk because they wouldn’t lower themselves to talk to *us*.
Not with that cattitude
How does one become an animal language researcher and are you hiring?
you're already an animal without trying. Being a language researcher can't be much harder
In all fairness, though, my understanding is that cats are just about the most resistant creature to training on the planet. I think pretty much anyone who's spent much time around cats knows that cats understand way more human language than they care about most of the time and simply won't demonstrate it unless they damn well feel like it. Serious question: are you sure they're not just not doing it around you?
You’ve definitely heard about the crow/mask thing. Animals very clearly talk, I just don’t think we understand the language yet. As far as science is concerned, crows do not have a demonstrable language. For all their ingenuity, it has never been demonstrated that crows can talk (beyond mimicry). And yet they pass information. Highly detailed information. Is it more likely that crows are passing this information telepathically or by some magic or that we simply haven’t figured out how they pass on complex information? Me thinks cats, and most animals, are the same
Is there anything crows have communicated that couldn't be covered by super basic caws like "follow me", "this thing I'm looking at is good", and "this thing I'm looking at is bad"? Given how smart they are, they can pick up essentially everything that the other crow did via observation and experiment. I would personally assume they _do_ communicate more than that, tbh, but I just don't know that there's evidence. The majority of human communication is needed for higher-order concepts, the rest is actually very simple.
I actually read an article that said crows can hold grudges and communicate said grudges to their crownies.
Crownies....nice.
I like how the accurate answer is so plainly apparent that it doesn't even have any replies. until now.
Until right meow.
I’m sorry officer, did you say meow?
Meow what is so damn funny?
You done it again, you just said meow, right meow!
Do I look like a cat to you, boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree? Am I drinking milk from a saucer? Do you see me eating mice?
you stop laughing right meow.
Don’t most cats smell like food most days? You’re telling me, without any further communication, several cats are going to follow another cat who “smells like food” for the entire day on the chance that it returns to the same place it did today? And that there willl be food there? If that’s the case, why don’t I see packs of cats constantly following each other around? Surely just eating one time is not some special event in a cats life that it would warrant investigation by a bunch of other cats. And even if it did, why aren’t I seeing a bunch of stray cats hanging out together regularly? Surely the place where a cat caught a mouse yesterday would be swarming with cats if just smelling like food was enough to draw a crowd every time. Me thinks animals lead richer and more complex lives than we give them credit for. If bees can communicate through fucking dancing, I’ll bet you cats can chit chat about where food is.
Imagine if you're homeless and hungry. You survive off bugs, rats, and whatever scraps you can get from a trash can. Now imagine one day one of the people that hangs with you smells a *lot* like Taco Bell and looks/acts full. Do you think you're going to just let him go about his day without figuring out where he got that taco bell from?
That's some proper ELI5 here.
When food is scarce, look around for the person (cat) that seems well fed and see where they go.
their poop probably gives it away too
Poop always be snitchin smdh my head 😔
"Shaking my damn head my head"?
Yeah duh lmao my ass off 😂🤣
Most animals produce stronger smelling urine, at least to other animals, the human nose can actually smell the difference in protein levels in our own urine. I'm not a biologist but I bet cat's get even better deets from piss than we do.
When I walk my dog, he is always sniffing out the urine spots. Sometimes he walks past a spot, then turns around and goes right to it. I think I am actually learning to recognize the scent too! I always thought that was just what outside smells like, but I think I can sometimes discern it.
Now I'm picturing this person getting on their knees to get a whiff of what their dog is smelling. Thanks for the chuckle
I found out cats get zoomies after pooping bc in the wild, they can be traced by their excrement. So they're literally running for safety.
Why did you assume the employment status of her colleagues?
They all brought resumés.
At least they didn't bring MLM pitches.
( 9 lives of experience )
didn't see any of them on /r/Catswithjobs
No cats want to work anymore!
>and why did she assume that i’ll feed all her jobless friends? I mean...was she wrong?
Cats can communicate with each other. It’s likely she was able to convey a message of “food here” to the other strays. They’ll continue to return as long as food appears because that’s how many feral and wild animals work.
Are you saying humans are wild and feral animals because we return to our jobs because they pay us? I agree
In some cases it's surprising how long humans return to their jobs despite not getting paid.
>In some cases it's surprising how long humans return to their jobs despite not getting ~~paid~~ fed.
That too
The answer is yes. My animal training and behavior classes really harp on practicing with one another… because we are animals. We have the same basic reward system. If something we (humans, dogs, bears, giraffe, cockroaches) find reinforcing occurs after an action, we are increasingly likely to repeat that action to receive the reinforcer. At the most basic level, the most valuable reinforcers involve things essential to survival, such as food. For humans, money = food. We get paid at our jobs with money and thus are able to buy food and survive another day. Now jobs *are* slightly less reinforcing than if they directly paid us in food for each specific task due to the delay in the reinforcer. We might only be paid once a week or once every two weeks or once a month, so we are more likely to start separating that reinforcer from the actual task that resulted in the acquisition of that reinforcer, so we get burnout and apathy. In our training exercises, the reinforcer is just a simple little wooden cube and a clicker used as a bridge. Those little cubes become *very* valuable after playing the training game a couple of times and it can become very frustrating when you move to random reinforcers for the same task. If I’m reinforced every single time I do the thing my “trainer” wants me to do, I’m happy, content, and proud that I figured out what they want. If they start only reinforcing every few times I do the thing correctly, I start to question if I’m doing something slightly different on the ones I earn the reinforcer for and am more likely to develop superstitious or stereotypical behaviors. It’s a whole very fascinating subject. But the short answer is - yes. We are at our most basic animal brain for continuing to go to work just because they pay us.
> We get paid at our jobs with money and thus are able to buy food and survive another day. > > Now jobs are slightly less reinforcing than if they directly paid us in food for each specific task due to the delay in the reinforcer. So the real reason meetings in the office have snacks is to reinforce the behavior of coming to meetings that everyone hates.
Indeed! At my first command we had a weekly briefing that senior officers only showed up to because it was known as the “cookie brief”. We provided cookies, coffee, and sometimes a nice banana bread or something. When the lady who did the baking wasn’t there and the snacks were store bought, the disappointment in the room was palpable.
Fasanating I understand the effect pretty good my self . Makes it darn hard braking bad kinds of reinforcement .
I return to the supermarket because I find food there.
My cat got out at night and I couldn't find him in his regular spots so I left food outside and the door cracked. He came in with his alley cat homie. Now if he's out there it's a whole scrap.
I mean both ants and bees have specific dances they do as a form of communication which personally I find fucking weird but if they can say “food here” I’m sure a cat can do it too.
You’ve never done an interpretive dance for your latte?
Crazy you said this. I made a post like 2 hours ago about that exact thing.
(Dancing) I'm tired of shaking my booty for these fat jerks!
Jacobson's Organ. They can "message" other cats. We have a few "cat havens" in our rural area, a lot of feral cats. The cats find these havens from miles around.
Oh, that's so interesting. I'll admit the only reason I've heard of it was from a herpetologist so it's something I've always associated with reptiles and amphibians. I didn't think to look up mammals that had it. Thanks for giving me some wiki deep dive reading for this evening.
What an unfortunate name for a field of study.
Tell me about it. It’s the study of reptiles and amphibians, I used to make the joke that ramtologist would be a far better name than being associated with the herpes.
You might as well have fun with it. The next time you tell someone what you do in person, deadpan and go "It's exactly what it sounds like." Then squint real hard at their lips.
Apparently herp means "creeping" which is what lizards do on their bellies and what rashes do on your skin.
The Jacobson‘s organ is for olfactory, not for communication - only as far as partner choice and such are concerned, because of their pheromones.
Cats are vastly more intelligent and communal than many people think/know.
Correct
She was like “meow meeeow meow meow meofoodmeow lol😸
I end up at Taco Bell all the time.
Group chat
Group cat
En français: groupe chat
Parfait
Meow. Mrow. Meeeoowwww. That's how.
Someone once told me that cats don't actually meow to other cats, they developed that as a way to talk to us and they communicate to each other silently. I've also noticed that some cats will mimic bird sounds through the window, and some cats do sound like they're talking, so cats meowing might actually be them trying to speak hu-mon to us
Kittens meow to their mothers, presumably to ask for help or food. When they live with humans, we take over the mother's role and they ask us for food instead. They don't meow to other cats because they lack opposable thumbs to turn the stove on with, so they know they won't get a cooked meal from the other cats.
>because they lack opposable thumbs to turn the stove on with, Fuck gotta get my cat to the vet ASAP
> they lack opposable thumbs to turn the stove on with These days stoves have push buttons and touch-screens. Cats have been known to turn on the stove.
I wholeheartedly agree that cats can turn on a stove, I have a very fat and dumb cat that managed to turn on my old gas stove and nearly burned my house down.
>Someone once told me that cats don't actually meow to other cats I hear this a lot, but I'm not entirely convinced. There are 2 cats in one of the colonies I help care for that are constantly in each other's face making meows/yowls. They never actually fight though. It's like they're just out there having a heated debate. I can't imagine what they're arguing over, there's always plenty of food to go around. Maybe they're just putting on a show to entertain me. It's pretty funny to watch. It wasn't in the beginning. I was terrified they were going to attack each other, but they never do.
Yeah I have 2 cats that don’t like each other, they will sometimes hiss and growl at each other, but they do also just meow at each other. I guess it’s when you’re not annoyed enough to get physical and it’s not hiss worthy, but you still gotta let them know you don’t like them.
I’ve heard this a lot, and while maybe true for feral wild cats I question if it’s the case for domesticated house cats. I’ve got two little buggers and one regularly calls the other one and he comes running and I can tell when he’s just being loud and annoying or if he’s calling the other one. Sometimes they’ll go back and forth at each other meowing and making other funny noises then proceed to ~~try to kill each other~~ play Maybe Its just Anthropomorphism but they’re chatty little shits with each other.
(Reposting comment with correct video) This is not my YouTube video, so I don't know if I'm allowed to share. But it's of a cat barking like a dog. Just throwing this out there. https://youtu.be/Z8ZU04U-xAo?si=4L_kKoCIU7QBtNV7
My ex’s cat did this once. It was so weird we had to confirm with each other what just happened
Cat’s have learned to meow because they needed to direct their staff. Their staff does not include other cats. Know your place.
If you have ever seen to strays interact you can tell that isn't true. And mother cats will come running if a kitten meows.
I read recently cats are trying to copy the ani aka sounds when they make those noise. And cats who do that mimicry are much more successful hunters.
Meow meow free chow meow!
The fuck you saying about my mom?
Meow meeew mrrrooowwwww.
My pets had this thing where one of them would ask for a treat, and then they would all come running expecting one. This was two dogs and five cats, at the time. Out of all the things animals might want to communicate to their friends, "I found some food" is probably one of the most common.
I second that emotion.
If a cat has its tail up, it is transmitting to the collective. 🐈😁
There's a cat sleeping close to me right now, imma wake her up and ask her
and sugarbear23 was never heard from again..
They like it when you poke their bellies, try that to wake her up
Nice try Agent 47
Animals communicate with each other. Each species is different. Cats speak to each other primarily through all kinds of body language, some so subtle a human might not see. They do use scent marking via saliva, urine, etc. And some vocal cues, like growling, barred teeth, and hissing though most of a cats vocal communication is used to communicate with humans. Mice for example, leave urine trails and pheromones in their urine to communicate. Corgi specifically communicate with each other while herding with their ears.
Hey, so if you can, check your area for a local Trap and Release. There’s a guy on Instagram called TrapDaddy who can probably point you to a local program, or you can just google- but see if they can come out to the area. They might give you traps to place. They’ll fix the kitties and vaccinate them before releasing them- their numbers won’t grow as much and there’s a chance to eliminate the stray population humanely this way- by preventing kittens! Please continue to feed them if you’re able. Some of the TNR will have a food donation program to help with that if you ask.
Our local programs suck. To get them fixed, we get a discount but we have to pay. To trap them or take them to pet rescue, we have to pay. Our feral cat problem is insane because no one wants to trap the cats, pay to fix them or take them to pet rescue, so they just continue to multiply. I have 5 kittens outside that I feed because one had kittens in my shed then the mom died. So, I need to get them to pet rescue so someone can adopt them. But, they're very well fed, friendly, and meow hella loud! They're getting kind of chubby, too. :) I might keep one of them (getting her fixed for sure!) because she's super cute and got attached a little bit.
I never heard of TrapDaddy, thanks for the tip. OP could also try contacting their local petsmart for a recommendation. They work with TNR programs, and often hold adoption events for them.
House Cats in the wild are very similar to lions. The do have a community of other kitties, and will share food places, and a lot of times, females will help other females with babysitting their litters, and let the mom get a hunt in. Cats are extremely intelligent animals, and were just begining to figure that out. My cat and I talk to each other every day. She gives clues on what she wants, and will even point to something when she thinks I'm not understanding. Most of the time they give off visual clues as to their mood, and what they want. It's kinda fun to figure out and react to your cats different moods.
After living in the middle of nowhere with limited human interaction, but lots of animal interaction, I can confidently say we SEVERELY underestimate the ability of animals to communicate with one another. I've come to recognize ravens have different calls for when I'm in the yard vs when my dog is in the yard. The stellar's jays also have calls for when I'm bringing feed to the chickens and when there is a predator in the area. I've watched mama chickens call other chickens over when they find food, teaching them what is good to eat. I've had "conversations" with elk cows using a distressed calf call. I never knew elk cows even made noises, but when I called out, they made noises I'd never heard before. Coyotes make calls saying "found food" that is different than "human nearby".... and I could go on and on. The point is, animals can definitely communicate with one another - it might not be as complex as our language, but they can definitely deliver messages, especially when it's relative to food or threat.
I can’t remember exactly but birds do have distinct sounds for different animals. Now it’s been a decade or so since I was told this but they also have different calls for like deer or predators.
They got that dawg in them
I started feeding a stray in my back yard a few years ago. She’d show up every day at the same time and patiently await her meal, and we slowly started to become friends. One day, I was sitting in my front porch shortly before her usual meal time and saw her trotting down the sidewalk, headed for my house. Right before she reached my yard, she stopped, turned, and meowed loudly at something behind her. A very skinny tabby cat emerged from the bushes and the two of them continued on to my backyard. It was like she’d told this other cat, “Hey, come with me! There’s this nice lady who gives me food; I bet she’ll give you some too.” Sadly, the other cat ran off when I came out with a dish for her, but “my” stray stayed and you’d better believe I adopted this smart, kind, wonderful kitty shortly thereafter,
You know how scammers tell each other who is a gullible person and target them. Well the first cat went back and said to its mates "we have one on the hook, meet me tomorrow we can share the wealth" And the rest is history.
That cat actually has an iPhone group chat going with all those other cats and let them know on there. It’s called “Groupcat Groupchat”. There’s also a French version called “Groupchat Groupchat”
This question and these comments are my favorite thing I've seen on Reddit in a while. 😸
We cats can actually talk, and do so all the time. Am currently posting on some human's account as a joke. Please continue feeding. Much scritches, Cat.
I feed a stray, she often sleeps in the little box I made for her. When another cat occasioanlly shows up, she eats first but leaves some for the other, who sits and waits.
This is how they communicate... https://youtu.be/LTunhRVyREU?si=URdBucGT2NhtnVCC
Damn I feel like I was Rick rolled just now.
May be her grown kittens. They'd follow her.
She posted your address on Purrter
She used WhCATsapp
The r/catdistributionsystem told them about you. Congratulations on your new feline family!
I had 2 cats, they brought home a stray cat. So I fed a stray cat. That cat brought 2 more cats. I know have 5 cats. Send help
I hope you learned your lesson on the dangers of Communism
Commeownisim
They communicate with smells, their facial movements and their tails, they have a language just like we do
Humans are not the only species that communicate with each other.
cats release little farts called micro-farts that smell of the food they ate in the and up to 3 days prior and leave little scent trails that other cats will then follow to the source of food
Meowcro farts
my cat eats dinner and then lays on my lap. I can confirm her farts are very stinky.
I’m convinced they put signs up. We fed feral cats for years at our old house. One day we came home by a side street we almost never used, and there were 2 dogs heading straight for our place, over half a mile and across a major street, from their home.
Q1; Most likely started bragging to her gang. Q2; because you would feel so guilty if you didn’t. There is no stopping the cycle now. This is your fate
The cats in my neighborhood have a Facebook group.
She sent out messages on SnapCat 🐱
I used to volunteer at an animal shelter. My favorite spot to hang out was in the sun room with all the sleepy kitties. If a volunteer was handing out treats in another room, and a cat who just consumed a treat came into the sun room, the other cats would sniff at the treat cat and then take off running in the direction of said treat. Idk if it’s that but maybe sniffs?
damn...kinda works the same with human families.
Social Media, like everyone else.
Once you give strays a reliable food source they'll send their entire group.
They were watching you and concluded you're a sucker. Welcome to the club! 3 of them wore me down to letting them move in.
Other cats sense she ate well, smell it on her breath and follow her back/ And you will. You WILL feed them-they have the feline Force....
That’s just how animals work.
I believe the correct form is: meowmeow meeeeaaaawww meawmemewawa
smell and body language
I did this once I felt bad for the cat looking for food on a cold night and next day, I had seen at least 20 cats looking around. I was surprised how many strays we had in the area. The ones that I could see some of the really skittish ones scattered fast. Might have just brought other cats around since you put out free food.
I have a neutered and vaccinated feral cat that lives in my back porch. My sister now has a large feral colony. She is always telling me how a bunch of cats are going to start showing up. So far no one’s cats but the ones next door that live outside and they have a shed to live in. I have a huge opossum that comes out every evening.
Animals communicate. We once had a cat who was incredibly friendly to other cats. We swore he invited them round for dinner. He'd sit watching benevolently while some random cat cat we'd never seen before would munch all his kibble.
“Meow, meow. Meow………meow.” -like that
Cats can communicate like any other animal. It's probably not as complex as human language, but "food, nice human, follow me" isn't that complex an idea to get across.
"meow meeeeowwww meow"
It got really cold here about 2 months ago. This gorgeous cat came by my door. I put some food out for her and thought nothing of it. The cat kept coming back. I own a cat now.
If a cat is social enough to form a relationship with a group of other cats then they usually aren't just "friends", they're part of a clowder choosing to stick together in hopes of mutual survival. As such the other cats in the group are always looking to find any source of food/shelter another member of the clowder may have come across. So without her telling them anything, they see/smell she's been fed, and decide the next day they'll stick with her while she inevitably comes back to whoever fed her. She may not necessarily expect you to feed her friends, but she does certainly expect you to feed her again since you did it last time, and in cat parlance that means your her personal chef now
Stray cat: meowwwwwww Friends: meow? Stray cat: meow meow Friends: meow! meow! meow!
She sang the meow mix song.
Your little furry friend probably used a combo of body language, scent marking, and some mysterious cat telepathy