Cat Lingo

               That term could mean a number of things.  Cat lingo could be the words we use to communicate with our cats…but that’s laughable - what cat would listen to a human?  Cat lingo could be the words we humans use to describe our cats, and that is what I intended to write about today.  But then I started thinking about their very own cat words that they think in their furry little heads when encountering the world, and that seemed too interesting to pass up.

               I have a pair of unrelated black and whites who love each other very much, but they couldn’t be more different.  Both are about a year old so they still romp and play like kittens from time to time.  Roger has long luxurious fur with plenty of pristine white fluff for showing off.  He is intelligent and gorgeous, and brags about it constantly.  My kids call him a “Diva” and the term fits.  Lyra, on the other hand, is a runt.  She is small, squishy and has the brain to match.

               Roger’s cat vocabulary is full of demands.  “You must offer me a treat promptly,” and “This would not be a good time to pet me.  You may adore me from afar for now.”  At mealtime he bounces around the kitchen, as if an alarm has gone off, to scream his preference to be fed before all others. 

After play time outside he comes prancing through the cat door and announces, “Your day is about to get better, because I am here now!”  When Roger gets bored he will make demands for attention, and if ignored, will delicately knock our favorite things off of high surfaces, one at a time.

               Lyra’s repertoire of cat words is more limited.  Her utterances are mostly one and two word phrases.  “Wow,” she mutters as she watches water drip down the door of the dishwasher (her absolute favorite activity).  “What’s that?” she stares as the car tires slowly roll past her on the driveway.  This little girl spent her first few days as an outside cat stranded at the top of every tree in the vicinity – happy to climb up, but clueless about getting down.  The fact that she no longer climbs trees at least proves that she is capable of learning, eventually.  At mealtime Lyra comes to the kitchen along with the other animals, but doesn’t make the connection to eating.  She just looks around and says, “Huh?”  Once the bowls are filled and the other pets are gobbling up their meals, I show her the bowl, but she still doesn’t realize that she has to meet the bowl in order to eat the food.  I almost always have to pick her up and position her face over the bowl.

               We are quite happy to be approaching the first anniversary of our adoption of these animals.  There was a time soon after bringing them home from the shelter that we feared Lyra would quickly meet an unpleasant end.  Luckily her Diva brother is very smart and has taken her under his paw.  The two cats entangle into a dog-pile and groom each other from head to tail on a daily basis.  I would love to hear him coaching her through the hazards of the outside world, as well as the conversations these two felines have at the end of the day!