Part of me is clinically interested in this story; another part is smacking my own forehead with the obviousness of it all. A recent study by a communications scientist confirms what we’ve all known all along: our cats control our lives.
More specifically, they do this by means of a very specific meow, which is described as a purr plus a high-pitched cry, not unlike a baby’s cry. Cats know to do this when they want food, but not to vocalize anything more strongly, as it will have the opposite effect from their intention.
What this boils down to is that this particular meow is just annoying enough to cause you to do something about it other than tossing the cat out of the room. We’ve long known that a baby’s cry is specifically adjusted to be this exact shade of urgency for the baby’s parents to act upon, while the same cry might not be as intrusive to people who aren’t the baby’s parents. Apparently this methodology works for cats as well.
However, some of you may be thinking the same thing I am: my cat’s cry has no purr in it whatsoever. Is it the same sound? The bottom line is that any meow can be annoying if it’s loud enough and goes on for long enough. Every cat learns how to push its owners’ buttons after a while, just as our children do. The trick is knowing when it’s feeding time, and not to give in to the cat’s every demand for food. Keep an eye out for similar behaviors between pets and children! It may be that the same solution will work for both.
