Cat Conversations

We all talk to our cats, but the question is do they listen to us? I think they do but as is the case with humans, some are better listeners than others.

Molly is the best listener of my bunch, she knows and responds to her name (usually with a murp, chirp or coo) and seems to concentrate intently when I am speaking. She usually stands on me and looks directly into my eyes when I am telling her things so how could she not be listening I wonder.

Casper is immediately off the hook in this debate because he is deaf. He neither comes when he is called nor does he appear to understand when I talk to him. He does however respond to one hand signal and when he looks up at me and meows I look back at him and open my mouth as if I am meowing too. He seems to nod and then move on as if some message has passed between us although I’m not certain what it is.

I have said before that as the alpha cat Casper sets the tone around the house. This is usually a positive thing but in this case Ben and Archie see that he doesn’t respond to my voice so they don’t either and basically just ignore me. I have always had cats who came when they were called so I find this behaviour frustrating.

Ben is one and a half years old and I really think he should know his name by now. He does look at me when I am talking and I hope he knows I’m saying I love him and that he is such a good boy, but alas I see no understanding behind his big, soulful eyes. Archie I fear has ADD and even if he did understand me he has no patience to listen to what I’m saying. He gets distracted so easily and is always rushing headlong from one thing to another, that I don’t think he has ever looked me in the eyes.

So it would seem that my boys are either deaf, dense or disinterested and therefore, in the memorable words of Paul Newman from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate”!