Cats

[MarPar]

My GF has two whack-job black cats. They are nice, but goofy. This one is experiencing a deep moment of Freezer Door Contemplation.

View attachment 1970232

 

[64BEL]

18 year old Andy in his usual spot - napping on the Mrs.

Last week he ventured out onto the deck for a a couple of minutes on a mild day - looking for his chipmunk friends who are in hibernation.

He's in an indoor cat, though.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

I'm down to one that looks like the one at 3 o'clock around the bowl in your picture. I've called her Calico but should name her Spooky because she's wild and not friendly with people. She never learned how to bury her waste. So, she must've been on her own since she's a kitten.

I call that one at 3 o’clock Chai, actually a friend came up with the name, and she has an almost twin sister that I call Latte. Chai is super affectionate but does not want to be indoors, I captured and fixed her. Haven’t been able to catch Latte yet, not nearly as friendly.

 

[Sahara]

A update on our most recent Mexican rescue, Nito. Now that we’ve had him home for a while we know and understand him better. He is a more complex cat than most, and those are the cats that interest me.
As a street feral he is a little different than most domesticated cats. First off, he has this amazing coat. Our vet says it’s very rare. He has a glossy black outer coat with a very subtle tiger stripe to it. But he has an off white soft under coat. If you brush his fur with the grain he is black but brush it backwards and it is white. Never seen another cat like it. Because he is furry and black from a very sunny hot country he is the most nocturnal cat we’ve ever seen. He finds a dark secluded spot to curl up in and sleeps all day. About 09:00 at night he gets active and is wide awake and active from midnight to about 07:00 in the morning, when he goes back to sleep. And he is terrified of direct sunlight, like a vampire. Very strange. When we tried to take him outside during the day he went batshit crazy and tried to literally ram through our door to get back inside. It was very traumatic for him and we won’t do it again.
As a semi feral he is not used to having people around, or dealing with them. He is quite skittish in that he must have had things thrown at him in the past. If I carelessly toss my clothes on the bed or even toss a treat to him he will run away terrified and hide for hours. He loves being loved and belly rubbed but will not seek it out. You have to go get him and pick him up, he will not come to you under any circumstances. He is a tiny, timid cat but at supper time that sort of changes. He is in no way aggressive, he just head butts our very much lager male cat out of the way and takes over the food dish. This is also the only time that he is vocal and he cheeps and chirps kind of like bird. He’s a beautiful little guy. We are lucky to have him.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

Nito reminds me of one cat I have named Jane, she just shoves things out of the way with her head, including the cup I am pouring the food from. Has made me spill a couple of times.
Also the part about stuff being throw triggering him, reminds me of the Chihuahua I used to have. Once I walked in the room with a hanger, she looked at me and screamed. These street animals can have a really bad life.

 

[themechanic]

Blackie is back this morning. He and Calico ate breakfast and he's been trying to mount her for about an hour now.

 

[themechanic]

 

[RemCharger]

A friend's cat Leo at new years ..

 

[OneWheelPeel]

A little vid, which needs the sound turned up. This is Kitsune.

 

[Fran Blacker]

A little vid, which needs the sound turned up. This is Kitsune.

Daughters cat has a growling purr, it's funny to listen to him.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

Daughters cat has a growling purr, it's funny to listen to him.

I can never catch it on vid, but often he yawns as I walk by and then tries to meow thru the yawn. I don't catch the other cats doing that.
I found him in the park when he was really small all covered in ringworm sores (which I then caught) and really angry all the time. Only took like a week for the anger and stuff to fade away.

 

[YY1]

We got a couple that purr-snore.

A purr is very similar to a snore, but you can tell when they are doing both at the same time.

 

[themechanic]

I saw a cat expert video talking about how cats are more vocal with humans than with other cats. I've just recently started observing cat behavior in my neighborhood. So, I really would not know if that's true. I do know cats use a lot of posturing and other body language to communicate with one another and their keepers.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

I saw a cat expert video talking about how cats are more vocal with humans than with other cats. I've just recently started observing cat behavior in my neighborhood. So, I really would not know if that's true. I do know cats use a lot of posturing and other body language to communicate with one another and their keepers.

I feed a bunch of neighborhood cats and there are a few that vocalize to each other, maybe a 50/50 split between something kind of aggressive and what seems like a "Hey hi!" to each other.
The indoor cats seem to be more vocal but just to me.

 

[YY1]

They are all "individuals" and behave as such.

However, for the most part, the inflection of their vocalizations are exactly the same as ours.

It is relatively easy to tell a question from a "no", or a kind greeting, from a warning.

 

[Sahara]

We’ve been studying the cats we rescue for a few decades now, just for our own entertainment and knowledge. As far as we can tell most, but not all cats have about seven “words” or sounds in common that they use to communicate. They do indeed use the same inflections that humans use to indicate a question or comment. Ferals are generally quieter initially but learn to be louder as they hang out with domesticated cats.
We had one feral that I found in the middle of nowhere that did perfect bird calls. And I mean perfect. She also had six toes on each foot and was otherwise a quiet cat. Two of our Mexican rescue ferals speak a different language from our Canadian cats AND from each other, but our other Mexican rescue speaks the common language, loudly.

 

[YY1]

They also have different vocabularies (again, just like us).
Some have few "words", some have many.
We had one buff cat with an incredibly extensive and diverse collection of words...none of which were even remotely close to "meow".
This cat also used a rudimentary form of echo location when tracking something he was interested in.
I had to do quite a bit of research to figure out what his clicking sound was.

 

[Nutso]

Our year old cat is a talker…she has a noise and inflection for just about everything. The previous cat was pretty quiet, he had a snarl for the vet and a meow when he was hungry. They definitely have unique personalities.

 

[themechanic]

 

[64BEL]

Our 18 year old Andy has gotten more and more vocal as he's gotten older. He greets us at the door with a lot of super loud meowing - especially when we've been gone over night. He definitely has specific noises he makes depending on the situation and his mood.