Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
Cats don’t “speak” anything, as they don’t have the physical mechanisms to form speech as we know it. What I have always found interesting is that for the most part, cat’s don’t vocalize as a part of their social behavior in the wild a great deal unless threatened or injured. Most of their communication is done through eye contact, believe it or not. Cats can recognize speech patterns and intonation, and for that matter studies have shown that they have increased physical responses to their owner’s voices, however, they don’t typically respond in kind. It boils down mostly to behavior patterns that are learned. Cats can learn tricks, although it takes them longer than a dog. I once taught a cat (who was about as smart as a post) to scratch the “air” on command using the phrase, “Go ahead kitty cat. Scratch me!” (A line from a Warner Brothers Sylvester cartoon.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFM9v4xsDzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFM9v4xsDzE Dan (King Kitty) On Jul 5, 2015, at 11:06 AM, WILTON via Mercedes mercedes@okiebenz.com wrote: Several years ago, a neighbor moved away taking with 'im a cat that often came over to visit with me whenever I was out in the yard. What Cat really wanted, of course, was the generous amount of head and tummy scratching that I bestowed upon it. A few months after moving away, the former neighbor came to me and asked if I would adopt the cat, because somebody in the new neighborhood did not like having the cat around. Reluctantly, I agreed to the adoption. Initially, we kept Cat's food and water dishes on the stoop outside the kitchen door, but animals and birds from miles around quickly found the steady and abundant food source and overwhelmed me, especially with their generous deposits left behind, so I brought Cat's dishes inside to a corner immediately inside the door. Cat and I soon settled into a routine: She seemed to always know when I'd enter the kitchen for meals and/or snacks would meow to let her in for a snack with me. She'd always sit beside me and stretch her neck and head up toward my hand for the customary scratches behind the ears. I'd soon tire of that and say, Go ahead and eat. while motioning toward her dishes near the door. After several years of this, grandson #2 (about 8 at the time) was at the breakfast table with me one morning when Cat meowed outside the door. I got up and let her in and immediately went back to my seat. Cat walked back to the table with me and took her usual position beside my chair with her head stretched up toward my hand for her usual scratches behind the ears. As I read the paper, my right hand hung down beside the chair to occasionally stroke Cat's head. After a couple of minutes, I said in a low, firm, but not harsh, voice and without any motion and never looking up from the paper, Go ahead and eat. Cat immediately turned, looked over at her dishes and slowly walked over to them and started eating. Grandson, watching all of this, was amazed and exclaimed, Granddaddy, I didn't know that cat could speak English! I responded, Well she doesn't SPEAK English, but she obviously understands it. So, what about it, does Cat speak English? Wilton ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
Oh, I agree that cats can't speak (was using that term in jest), but I have many times carried on meow conversations with Cat - she and I meowing back and forth in response to each other and even changing her mood by the tone of my meow, especially when I change from high-pitched, friendly tone to low-pitched more aggressive-sounding tone. Wilton - Original Message - From: Dan Penoff via Mercedes mercedes@okiebenz.com To: Okie Benz mercedes@okiebenz.com Cc: Dan Penoff d...@penoff.com Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2015 1:04 PM Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat? Cats don’t “speak” anything, as they don’t have the physical mechanisms to form speech as we know it. What I have always found interesting is that for the most part, cat’s don’t vocalize as a part of their social behavior in the wild a great deal unless threatened or injured. Most of their communication is done through eye contact, believe it or not. Cats can recognize speech patterns and intonation, and for that matter studies have shown that they have increased physical responses to their owner’s voices, however, they don’t typically respond in kind. It boils down mostly to behavior patterns that are learned. Cats can learn tricks, although it takes them longer than a dog. I once taught a cat (who was about as smart as a post) to scratch the “air” on command using the phrase, “Go ahead kitty cat. Scratch me!” (A line from a Warner Brothers Sylvester cartoon.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFM9v4xsDzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFM9v4xsDzE Dan (King Kitty) On Jul 5, 2015, at 11:06 AM, WILTON via Mercedes mercedes@okiebenz.com wrote: Several years ago, a neighbor moved away taking with 'im a cat that often came over to visit with me whenever I was out in the yard. What Cat really wanted, of course, was the generous amount of head and tummy scratching that I bestowed upon it. A few months after moving away, the former neighbor came to me and asked if I would adopt the cat, because somebody in the new neighborhood did not like having the cat around. Reluctantly, I agreed to the adoption. Initially, we kept Cat's food and water dishes on the stoop outside the kitchen door, but animals and birds from miles around quickly found the steady and abundant food source and overwhelmed me, especially with their generous deposits left behind, so I brought Cat's dishes inside to a corner immediately inside the door. Cat and I soon settled into a routine: She seemed to always know when I'd enter the kitchen for meals and/or snacks would meow to let her in for a snack with me. She'd always sit beside me and stretch her neck and head up toward my hand for the customary scratches behind the ears. I'd soon tire of that and say, Go ahead and eat. while motioning toward her dishes near the door. After several years of this, grandson #2 (about 8 at the time) was at the breakfast table with me one morning when Cat meowed outside the door. I got up and let her in and immediately went back to my seat. Cat walked back to the table with me and took her usual position beside my chair with her head stretched up toward my hand for her usual scratches behind the ears. As I read the paper, my right hand hung down beside the chair to occasionally stroke Cat's head. After a couple of minutes, I said in a low, firm, but not harsh, voice and without any motion and never looking up from the paper, Go ahead and eat. Cat immediately turned, looked over at her dishes and slowly walked over to them and started eating. Grandson, watching all of this, was amazed and exclaimed, Granddaddy, I didn't know that cat could speak English! I responded, Well she doesn't SPEAK English, but she obviously understands it. So, what about it, does Cat speak English? Wilton ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
Yes, my wife brought an Italian speaking cat to our marriage. Scopa, which means broom, would immediately cause the cat to run for cover. My mother-in-law used a broom to administer correction; brandishing a broom would have an even greater effect. Once we went to Wisconsin to visit my mother, and for some reason we had taken the cat. One evening the cat got into the attached garage, got scared and climbed up into the rafters, well out of reach. No amount of calling, pleading, or cat food would coax her down. I had SWMBO stand at the door leading to the house and call the cat. I found a broom, yelled Scopa! and charged. This produced the desired response, as Cat rapidly exited the garage back into the house. My wife would sometimes curse the cat in Italian, which I'm sure she also understood quite well. -- Max Dillon Charleston SC '87 300TD '95 E300 ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
Hey Max you must be over in Yurp! Friends have a pair of these Asian tiger or leopard cats or something, they are half house cat and half wild whatevers from Malaysia or some place, and look sorta spotted leopardish. Anyway, they are wicked smart and are actually fairly tolerable and quite engaging. They do various tricks and pick up on things quite quickly, and will obey commands to go fetch toys and what not. --R On 7/5/15 9:01 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes wrote: Yes, my wife brought an Italian speaking cat to our marriage. Scopa, which means broom, would immediately cause the cat to run for cover. My mother-in-law used a broom to administer correction; brandishing a broom would have an even greater effect. Once we went to Wisconsin to visit my mother, and for some reason we had taken the cat. One evening the cat got into the attached garage, got scared and climbed up into the rafters, well out of reach. No amount of calling, pleading, or cat food would coax her down. I had SWMBO stand at the door leading to the house and call the cat. I found a broom, yelled Scopa! and charged. This produced the desired response, as Cat rapidly exited the garage back into the house. My wife would sometimes curse the cat in Italian, which I'm sure she also understood quite well. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
About the only times I knew cats to 'talk' were when mother cats would call the kittens to put them away for the night, or the way two toms tell each other it's time to open a can of whoop-ass. Mitch. On July 5, 2015 at 1:04 PM Dan Penoff via Mercedes mercedes@okiebenz.com wrote: Cats don’t “speak” anything, as they don’t have the physical mechanisms to form speech as we know it. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT - English-speaking cat?
True Leopard cats (from Asia and parts of Indonesia) are protected by law and cannot be brought into the US. They’re probably hybrids, which are known as Bengals. Bengals are the result of outbreeding between a Leopard and a domestic cat, and until you’ve outbred to the F4 (fourth filial generation) you’re going to have a cat with a lot of feral characteristics. I knew a guy here in Tampa who had two of these, one was an F2 and the other an F3. The reason I knew him was because a breeder recommended me to him for some behavioral advice, not realizing that the guy had F2 and F3 cats. Had the breeder known it at the time he would have been told, “Good day!” and left to fare for himself. These cats were truly feral. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. They completely destroyed a really high end apartment this guy owned. When I went to visit, I was totally stunned at the damage they had inflicted on the place, and worse yet, how they were the farthest thing from a pet (cat) I’ve ever seen in my life. Unapproachable, aggressive and really, really dangerous, I thought. I told him to find a refuge for them and that he was an idiot for getting them in the first place. He thought it would be “cool” to have a couple of wild cats in his apartment. He obviously did no research prior to buying them, and they weren’t cheap. It appeared to me that this was some doofus who had more money than brains. I asked him about licensing and he said the guy who he bought them from, “Never said anything about needing a license. I reported him to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife people the next day along with alerting a local refuge, Big Cat Rescue. I’m amazed the guy was alive. Dan On Jul 5, 2015, at 3:44 PM, Rich Thomas via Mercedes mercedes@okiebenz.com wrote: Hey Max you must be over in Yurp! Friends have a pair of these Asian tiger or leopard cats or something, they are half house cat and half wild whatevers from Malaysia or some place, and look sorta spotted leopardish. Anyway, they are wicked smart and are actually fairly tolerable and quite engaging. They do various tricks and pick up on things quite quickly, and will obey commands to go fetch toys and what not. --R ___ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com