2023 Animal Stories Magazine

Page 8 2023 Animal Stories Lincoln Daily News February 22. 2023 to them. I didn’t have a cat until relatively recently in my life, so I’m still learning what cats do and how they think. There is a logic to most things they do- just not a human logic. For example, my cat will often go downstairs into the empty basement and start to scream. That’s not an exaggeration; we can hear her everywhere when she does that. Cats will often do this before they are spayed or neutered. If this goes on too long, it may be a sign of physical distress. In my cat’s case, this is usually a sign that she wants attention, or wants someone to follow her. Another odd cat habit is their desire to leave their food in a person’s shoes. My cat has done this to me, although admittedly it has been a while. She did leave food in my girlfriend’s lunch-box once, and that was frankly hysterical, especially given the reason for this behavior. Cats will leave food where we can find it because, in a way, they think of people as other cats. Big, two-legged, loud cats that don’t know how to be cats. This means that cats treat us like kittens, which is why they leave us food. Clearly we don’t know how to hunt or feed ourselves, so it’s up to them to feed us. It’s the same reason why they scream in other rooms- it’s their way of saying, “I’m in this other room! I want you to know that! In case you need me!” One last example of weird cat behavior is the variety of noises they make. Cats can create so many little noises that aren’t meows that it’s difficult to know when you’re actually talking to one. I use the word “talking,” but truthfully that’s a good way to explain it. Cats are incredibly vocal creatures, and it is actually possible to have a conversation with a cat. As odd as it sounds, I talk to my cat all the time. She may not know many words (cats do understand some human speech, including their names), but they understand inflection and tone of voice. Cats are quite capable when it comes to “speaking” with people in this way. Cats are talking back- just not in our language. The reality is that every strange pet behavior has a reason. Even for those moments where we can’t figure out why a pet does what it does, we can still boil it down to personality quirks, if nothing else. Dogs and cats are a lot like people- social creatures that communicate in different ways. All it takes is a little more effort to understand one another.