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[–]carrotcake 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I sometimes wonder if my cats understand human language too. They definitely understand what we are feeling, though. Back when my cats had just arrived and didn't sleep with me yet, i had a really strong migrane and they slept with me, in a way that i was spooning/hugging them. Once i was really sad and crying and one of them stood by my side the whole time, and she was actually putting her paws on my tears. Idk if she was playing to them or "wiping" my tears. She didn't seem very playful though. After i stopped crying she went away and the other one came and lied on my lap.

[–]writerlylesbian 9 insightful - 5 fun9 insightful - 4 fun10 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

There was one study that found humans and their cats actually develop something of an individual language unique to them. Scientists recorded a whole bunch of different cat meows, then played those meows back to the individual owner of each cat, and the humans generally knew what each sound meant. As in, oh that meow means the cat wants (x). But all the cats had developed different meows for various things, it's just that humans knew THEIR particular cat's noises, and what they meant.

My cat absolutely knows certain words and certain voice intonations. There was some other study that found cats generally knew when their owner was speaking to/about them, the cat just often ignored the owner if they felt like it. Lol. Very cat.

[–]carrotcake 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's so cool! It makes sense, we can usually tell witch kind of meowing it is