They understand, don't they?

[fuzzmom]

A couple of months ago I had to take my foster cat for his yearly physical. This is/was a cat that was terrified of people and a year later he has really come around. I got up that morning and did my usual stuff. I went back upstairs to take a shower and he was laying on my bed. I thought great, I know where to get him when I get out. After I got all through I went to go into the bedroom but he wasn't there. I went downstairs, turned the corner and saw him staring at me from the kitchen. I started walking towards him and he ran to the countertop and went through the opening into the dining room/living room. He was keeping as much room between us as possible. He then ran full speed up the stairs and hid under the bed.

Now I know I've heard that animals can read body language, but not in this instance. He didn't get but a second to see me when he ran. He was terrified! I closed the bedroom door and he started to wail, a sound I've never heard before coming from him (or any animal). I have closed that bedroom door before with him in it and never a peep. He ABSOLUTELY KNEW I was there to grab him. This is a cat that does not like to be picked up - he freaks out. Once I blocked his entrance back under the bed his only recourse was on top of the armoire. I finally managed to grab him and place him in a carrier. Luckily, he has a passive fear response.

It took a full 3 weeks for him to recover from the ordeal. We were only gone from the house a maximum of 45 minutes.

The only way I can figure he knew was because I was thinking it. Nothing else was different. I had left the carrier in the living room for about a month and I never moved it.

 

[melissa]

Cats absolutely do understand a certain amount of human speech, IMO. I talk to my cats all the time- people think I'm nuts, but I know they understand at least most of what I say.

Onyx is a prime example. He has problems that stem from his life as an abused kitten before he came to live with us. In the first week that we had him, he was very ill and needed a lot of different types of meds for various problems he had, worms, mites, etc. He developed a real phobia of people putting things in his mouth after that, and would froth at the mouth and go ballistic whenever I had to give him any kind of medication. Last time I had to deworm him ( I do it every year as a precaution) I decided to have a talk with him about it. I told him what I was going to do, and why it would help him. I showed him the pill and asked him if it was ok to put it in his mouth. He sat very still and let me put it in his mouth and simply swallowed it. No agitation, no drooling. I thanked him and promised him I'd always explain to him what I was doing and show him the pill before I did anything in the future, and he purred and purred

Onnie also has a phobia of things on his neck. The people who 'owned' him before put a flea collar on him (he was about 6 weeks old) and when they decided they didn't want him anymore they threw him in a deep ditch that he couldn't climb out of. On the way down, his collar got caught on a branch and he hung there for a while until someone heard his mews and found him. Now, since he goes outside in my yard when I'm home to keep an eye on him, I thought it wise to get him a breakaway collar with his name and my phone number on an ID tag in case he strayed too far and got lost. I explained what the purpose of the collar was to him, and for the first time in his life he let me put it on him with no struggle.

Cats are amazing creatures, and understand WAY more than people give them credit for. My cats aren't just my pets to me- they're my friends too. They never judge me, they just listen and purr

 

[rosiemac]

9 times out of ten, Rosie is always lying asleep on my lap when it's time for bed. I just have to say 'Bedtime!', and she jumps off and makes her way up the stairs.

 

[sweets]

My RB Shalimar was extremely in tune with me. At night I would tell her it was time for bed, and she would walk into the bedroom and jump up on the bed. Whenever I was sick, she would lay against me and purr. But if I was hurting, she would stay away from that part of the body. When I had an asthma attack, she would lay next to me, and stare into my eyes while purring a very rythmic purr. If I turned away, she would paw me till I looked back into her eyes. It usually slowed my breathing quickly.

Pipsqueek knows I need to wake up around 7AM for work...if I'm not out of bed by 7:15, he comes and stands on my bladder. Sure fire wakeup call!!

 

[ccdogmuffin]

i guess my best cat intelligence story would have to be about CC. Before we officially adopted her, she lived on a farm down the street from us. she stayed there for about a year and didn't come to visit us at all. she was having fun hunting and she had many "gentlemen callers". anyways, my mom was telling me how she had heard from another neighbour that the farm had too many cats so they were going to start drowning the new litters!! i remember the same night my mom told me that, our CC showed up at the door with her 2 kittens and she DID NOT want to leave! i think she instinctively knew something was wrong!!

 

[wellingtoncats]

I've enjoyed reading this thread and the proof of cat intelligance but not until today have I had something to share of my own. Some of you know I have four kittens at present(all exotics) and all 14 weeks old, Acorn,High-Way,Poem & Sapan, well at night they get caged and in the mornings when I go to change their water and food they will all rush out and run down the hall , so I have to chase after them well this morning before opening the cage door I sat down and said to them in a stern voice "Look, it's stressful me having to run after you each morning if you just let me change and clean your cage then you can come out for an extra long run(with the kitten room door closed) and they did just that they sat there for five minutes while I cleaned the cage and then after that I said right, you can come and play.. they jumped out and are chasing toy mice as we speak. I was shocked.

 

[rapunzel47]

Well, ya know, I have a theory...

"Ahem! Ahem! This is my theory. Ahem! Ahem!"

I really do believe it's a mistake to oversimplify our communication with cats (dogs, too). I think that when we do that, we communicate in a stilted fashion. When, instead, we use our normal forms of expression, there are elements of that expression that are unconscious, and whatever the critter does not pick up from the actual words, he gets from tone of voice and body language -- and in the bargain, he's learning vocabulary, so that in time he's actually understanding more of the words, too.

This thread is as much proof as I need of that. And I find it quite uncanny how often you can tell the style of communication a critter is used to by how/to what extent they engage with you when you speak to them.

OOPS! There's a soap box under my feet! Guess I'll get down now.