Sebastian (our random semi-feral interloper) did something totally new yesterday

[conuly]

He sat by the food bowl and mrowped at me.

Well, no, he didn't. Not quite. He opened his mouth at me as though he was going to mrowp, but the action was totally silent. He clearly is missing an important piece of information on How To Talk To Humans.

Comments

[gwydion]

Aaaaaaw!

[bibliofile]

Awwww. Progress!

[muninnhuginn]

cathealth.com has an article about The Silent Meow. He may just be reeaally hungry.

(I wish my cats would silent meow at 5.00am when they're asking for breakfast. But, no, they're loud.)

[conuly]

In this case I think it's just that he doesn't realize that humans can't hear him if he isn't speaking in a louder, deeper voice.

[siliconshaman]

That probably wasn't silent, it was just at a frequency too high for you to hear. 90% of cat vocalisations are in the ultra-sonic range, the same as their prey species, but cats have learnt to pitch their voices low enough for humans to hear.... however, it takes practice to get it right.

[conuly]

Yes, and as a semi-feral cat he hasn't had much reason to practice.

[sallymn]

Awww... he wanted to!

[jhetley]

The Silent Meow is a known ploy. It's even a book title.

[conuly]

As a semi-feral cat I'm not sure he has ploys.

[greenwoodside]

Awww.

New title for a children's picture book (if there aren't dozens of that name already):

the cat who lost his meow.

I'm sure it ends happily for the cat who rediscovers the ancient feline art of standing on his human's chest at 3am, peering at them nose-to-nose, then yowling fortissimo until food happens.

[conuly]

Oh gosh I hope not. He's enormous. Absolutely huge.

[minoanmiss]

Aw kitty!

[dhampyresa]

Gold star for effort.

[conuly]

He's trying!

[med_cat]

Aww hee

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I would bet that he said the word, but at cat frequency rather than human frequency. He forgot that he needs to lower his tone and really bellow for most humans to hear him. Cats typically converse with each other on a level that most humans don't hear.

Re: Well ...

[conuly]

Forgot would imply he really knows that in the first place :)

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Fair point.