House cats use special cry to get their owners to do their bidding

If you fill your cat’s food dish before prompted by your pet’s jarring, incessant howl, chances are your cat has you well-trained.

A report to published in the July 14 issue of Current Biology says domestic felines motivate people to fill their food dishes by calling out with a dramatically amplified purr. It’s a mix of insistent meow and normal purr that humans find both annoying and difficult to ignore, say researchers from the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, and the Atlanta Zoo.

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said study author Karen McComb, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, in a written statement.

Hear the solicitation purr (mp3)
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A well-chosen hairball into my shoe:D

He'll stare at your sleeping face for a while, and as soon as he sees your eyes open he'll reach out, very gently, and sink a claw into you. Elbow, arm, back...doesn't matter. Just enough to get your attention. THEN he starts the purring thing, but normal purring, not that combination purr. My other cat does that all the time, though. Just look at her and she starts chirping and purring. It has nothing to do with food, but it's that same noise. It's her regular purr.

.

Maybe he's still trying to train me.

he's yelling at you. I got that this morning. One cat failed to get me up with the purring and the clambering and then another came up and he howled me awake but good. I got up and opened the back door which was what they wanted.

The look on his face seems to suggest "Sheesh, how can humans be so dense??"

I'm living with my sixth cat. She's one of the most intelligent but also has the lowest most grating howl. If I sleep in she starts pacing outside the door screaming FEED ME NOW!

Poor creatures try desperately to teach us but they fail...:-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwjplOzC4d8&feature=related

"Here we go AGAIN with the freaking drama...so what if I spent the paycheck at the bar...thank goodness I'm too stoned to care..."

My sister's cat would lie in front of the bathroom door when she was hungry...quieter and equally effective, LOL!

:headbang:
rocktivity

HA! They own us and have us well trained. All they have to do is make a few noises and we're at their beck and call. We are such easy patsies.

humans and prepare for the total takeover of the planet. We survive only because our opposable thumbs are useful to the cats.

I, for one, celebrate the coming of our feline overlords.

...after reading some "Man-Kzin Wars"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Kzin_Wars

My cats got on a ridiculous schedule when I was working at nite and now expect breakfast between 4 and 5 AM. If they howl, big bad dad will wake up and bellow at them. However, the insessant door scraping only wakes light sleeper mom, who is compelled after a minute or five to get out of bed and feed them just to get some peace.

until I obey. This does show that she clearly understands who is the source of her food and that there is no magic food bowl that is always filled. Ultimately, people don't own cats, cats own people.

purr, kneed, and then use my body as a springboard (and repeat as necessary) to get me up in the morning. Once accomplished, she'd do figure eights around my legs and scrape my ankle with her fang until I fed her.

Here is the BBC's take on this story. One thing for sure is that cats are great manipulators. They really think that humans exist to serve them.

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring

By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News

Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.

Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.

The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.

Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.

"He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying," Dr McComb told BBC News.

"After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm

she always wants attention. i have asked her why she can't be those cats that don't want anything to do with you all day. I have had her for 13 years now, and she will come up and get right in my face with her whiskers.... i want to pet her, but then i end up with her fur all over my hands and my face.... uggh. She will whine and howl at me and I will check her food and water and if needed get her some, but that doesn't always suffice to her. She thinks she is the queen around here, and we are her minions. She will get right under my feet if she wants something and isn't getting it. We shut the door at night and don't let her in our room.... because she will get right in my face and take up the bed. then she will go over and pee on bob's clothes. i don't think she likes bob very much. lol.

but she does two things:

1. Makes a different clearly annoying/annoyed noise kind of like a twilling sound rising in pitch at the end.

2. Uses her paws or teeth to pick up and drop the food dish when it is empty, making a loud jarring sound that says, dish, empty, fill, now. Very annoying but also very clever :).

The food bowl is always full. It;s not a problem, because he doesn't overeat. He'll just go out into the kitchen, take a few nibbles, drink some water, and then he's set for an hour or two.

He does have his own routine, though. When I leave for work, I say goodbye to him, and that's usually when he eats in the afternoon.

One thing I have noticed is that he has his own cat-words for me and my roommate. My name is "ma-WAHoh". His name for my roommate is "YAaah".

Merlin's a Maine Coon- well, half Maine Coon. His tones are a lot higher-pitched than other breeds, so the sound of the call in the article doesn't really apply to him. He does tell us things like in Cat "get me some water" or "hey asshole, this box is full of shit" or "open the door so I can go on the patio. Now. NOW!"

:D

I recognize that sound! My cat makes that sound while pacing around and rubbing around my ankles.

My cat pulls my hair to wake me up. It's soooo annoying. I've been sleeping with my head covered by a sheet lately.

Who knew our felines could be so manipulative? :rofl:

who would tell me that the litter box needed to be changed. I kept it under the bathroom sink and he would pull open the door with his paw to get in and bump with his head to get out. He quickly learned that if he kept popping the door open with his paw it would make a tapping noise when it shut, he'd keep doing that while I was getting ready for work in the morning. If I ignored him he would then jump up on the bed and start scratching at the bed covers. He'd stop briefly and look to see if I was watching him, and if so, he would start to do his business right there. I learned very fast to respond to the tap tap tap of the door. VERY FAST !

partly extended works just fine for the one cat of my two who is a pest.

Being kicked off the bed and halfway across the room will teach you things.