Let’s talk today about vocal cats.
My original crew (Rupert, Burton, and Relic) are all vocal in their own unique ways.
Rupert like to run around the house like a madman between 10 pm and midnight every night making weird vocalizations. He’s almost always playing by himself, and I’m convinced the noise is just because he like the sound of his own voice.
Burton talks for food. It’s how I’m able to get all those “smiling” pictures with the quilts. He’s telling me to take the damn picture and give him the treats he knows are coming. Occasionally, he will meow just to greet you – if he wakes up from a nap or you walk into the room he’s in. But as he’s gotten older, that’s become less frequent.
Relic is an outdoor talker. He loves to meow at me when I’m outside. It’s usually because I’m on the other side of the catio fence, and he wants to be with me. But he’ll also meow to get my attention inside the catio yard (usually because he wants a scratch). The only other time he tells is when he’s telling one of the other cats to get out of his face, or when you’ve over-stimulated him with the butt scratches.
And I thought they were all pretty vocal cats. But then along came Lemmy:
This isn’t the clearest picture, but I love it because it pretty much sums up most mornings. From almost the moment I get up, Lemmy is following me around, yelling. Not meowing politely…. yelling! Non-stop.
In fact, the only way to stop it is to pick him up. But you can’t hold him. You have to let him balance on your arms. And he only stays there for a few minutes. He inevitably jumps down and usually starts yelling again.
And it’s not just me. He does it to Dave – and Dave’s usually up an full hour or more before me. So before he starts on his tirade with me each morning, he’s almost always done it with Dave as Dave tries to get his coffee and make breakfast. And note, that feeding the cats is the very first thing Dave does in the morning.
But Lemmy also yells to greet us. To tell us he wants to play. He yells as he’s playing. He yells when he’s just sitting, chilling and you happen to walk by. And it’s not new. He’s been a talker from the moment we found him.
In short, Lemmy is the most vocal cat I have ever met in my life. It will be interesting to see if it changes as he grows.