![]() Newt wants to teach Ripley how to hunt. ![]() ![]() She does the cat equivalent of a shoulder shrug. I’m dismissing the idea of an invitation to play only because she immediately drops the toy and stops when we come upstairs to check on her. The meow sounds like the cat is in distress but they are actually quite the opposite and want you to notice what they are doing. Play is a huge part of why cats meow with their treasures as well as wanting your attention to notice them and the toy in their mouth. … This sort of play teaches your cat to show off their treasures through meows and other noises and provides your cat with mental and physical stimulation. ![]() Making a fuss over toys isn’t a cats only part of cat play. When kitty makes a big fuss to having a toy in their mouth, they want you to pay attention to it. Mother cats will often teach their kittens to hunt by catching prey and bringing it back to their kittens, giving the kittens something to practice hunting on. You could look at this and think that it is sad because the cat is clearly trying to compensate for something that she is missing, but it is more likely that these are just inbuilt patterns of behaviour that some cats get a bit confused about and carry out in slightly inappropriate situations.Īnd build off of that, I found another interesting article that took the “inappropriate” part of that previous point to a more positive place (play): Some female cats will also keep collections of toys that they regularly move around as if shifting a litter of kittens. Pet cats will sometimes show a modified version of this behaviour, carrying around toys and perhaps hiding them. I found this super old Q&A that resonated with me (beyond the utterly endearing way folks in the UK spell “miaowing”): The gist from my info-gathering is that cats mostly vocalize when hunting or moving kittens. Turns out, “cat meowing while carrying toy” is a hugely popular Google search! Nearly 5 million pieces of content about cats carrying toys and yowling. Which made me wonder: Is this behavior related to transition in some way? Now that Violet’s here and Violet’s become insanely mobile / terrifying, is Newt going through a similar stress period? Or is it not stress and something else entirely?Īnd what do we do when we wonder something? We look it up! (Sorry, sorry, sorry… Sesame Street on the brain…) Chirpy.Īnd it was when she was transitioning to life with dogs. The main difference is that she chatted with Teddy. It took us a while to connect the toy moving to the yowling since she will never, ever, ever do this when we’re nearby, but once we put the pieces together, it reminded me of her relationship with Teddy. Then she picks up a cat toy in her mouth while still vocalizing, carries the cat toy somewhere else, drops it, and yowls some more. She goes upstairs while we’re downstairs–it’s only ever if we’re on separate levels–and she yowls. Regardless: Every single night without fail for about six weeks now, Newtie yowls. Or, maybe it’s more of a mournful holler? ![]() Read on if you’d like to learn about a funny cat-ism or, if you want to read something dog today, I highly recommend this post on social skills for introverted dogs and their humans. Meowing is close, but it doesn’t have the right edge, the sharpness.ĭog friends: This one’s about cats. That’s the only word I can think to describe it. ![]()
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