Moonpie.

[conuly]

She eats cat food and is ecstatic about cat treats.
She sits on laps like a cat.
She doesn't bark, in the same way cats don't bark.

And yet, she doesn't purr. We pet her and snuggle her, but I'm always left with a nagging feeling that maybe she doesn't really enjoy this. How can I tell? She isn't purring! (To be fair, I sometimes have that problem with humans.)

She is a complete failure as a cat. OUR DOG NEEDS TO LEARN TO PURR.

Comments

[alatefeline]

I cannot words. <3

[zhelana]

you know you really shouldn't give dogs cat food. The amount of fat in it can give them fatal complications.

[conuly]

Which is why I removed her from the cat food bowl and then put her back at her own bowl, and have also put away the cat treats so nobody can nose through the bag. Though I'm not sure where I can ultimately put the bowl that the cats can access and she can't.

[zhelana]

https://sureflap.com/en-us/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder

[conuly]

Nifty. But a bit pricey. It'd probably be easier to just put less food out at a time and carefully put it away when the respective pets are done eating.

[zhelana]

yes, it didn't let me see the price until after I'd sent it. I just saw it on FB some time. We keep our cats locked in the bathroom when they eat, and they eat on the counter in there. But of course, we have a bathroom dedicated to our cats. :p

[zhelana]

on second thought - that didn't tell me the price until after I watched the video which I kept turning off to avoid waking my husband. We just keep our cats locked in the bathroom to eat.

[hopefulnebula]

Orion was about 18 months old before he figured out purring. Before then he'd kind of try to purr, just enough that I thought at first he was shivering.

Then one day it was super cold out and he was snuggling for warmth, and he kind of coughed a couple times and suddenly: audible purr! He actually startled himself. I call it his "squeaky-voiced teenager" moment.

[conuly]

If our dog legit learns to purr, you can bet I'll post about it :)

give her time

[redbird]

I wouldn't call that a complete failure: she sits on laps and snuggles, which is important. One of our cats purrs a lot, but won't exactly sit on laps, only half drape herself over my leg or sit next to me.

Re: give her time

[conuly]

True, and I do like snuggles. (It's fun to pet her little ears, and as near as I can tell without purring she does seem to enjoy it.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I had a similar problem (long ago) with my bunny Pyewackett: not only did she not purr, she had a totally different dialect of body-language (http://www.toomanybunnies.com/understanding-bunny-languag.html) than either dogs or cats. I speak Dog as a first language, and was instructed in Horse as a youth, but didn't start learning Cat till I was 20 - fortunately, as you say, they do purr.