What words do your pets know?
Graven Image
Shipmate
in Heaven
Very few times have I taught my dog words, yet when I thought about it, I was surprised at how many she has picked up on her own. She knows the words sit, stay, come, fast, wait, go to your spot, bed, nap, cookie, dessert, pill, belly up, ride, go, no, Max ( her boyfriend) my son and another friends names, Barks and Bubbles, ( where she is trimmed) bath ( bad word) over, under, circle, take a bow breakfast, dinner, walk and heel. What words do your pets know.
Comments
It was more of a "mee-out" but he used that particular tone only when he was by the door and wanting out.
Our all-black cat Agnes was a rescue. We'd had her for a few months when I used the word "beauty" in a sentence and her head whipped round. We tried using the word randomly after that and she always reacted. So it seems that must have been her previous name.
If she had gone missing locally her previous owners could have found her if they had bothered, and we had assumed her back story was not a happy one. Once we knew she been someone's Beauty we wondered if she was one of those cats who end up in a van and become a stray far from home. This was before the days of social media and microchips so there was no way of finding out whether there was a family somewhere missing their Beauty.
Sit, wait, stay, come, lie down, leave it, drop it, let go (the first command we taught her), fetch, can't reach (when we're playing fetch and she drops the ball too far away: she picks it up and brings it closer), breakfast, lunch, dinner, crate, treat (when we don't want her to react we call them aardvarks), chicken, cheese, tuna... Bertie's (the dog-minder's dog is called Bertie and she loves playing with him), where's your ball, do you need a wee, find it.
This is not an exhaustive list, you understand, just the ones I can remember.
I have a great respect for Cats.
😸😸
He was house trained and always went to the door if he needed to go out into the garden. He never made a sound and we thought that barking might not be within his abilities.
However, on the 14th day we found that he had suddenly discovered the ability to make a noise. We are convinced that he knew the score.
When I’ve been in front of the computer for a really long time, mine start pestering me. Not for food or play, but… it’s usually when it’s late and all, and I think they know it’s not healthy for me. (I’m working on trying to do better with a healthier schedule for eating and sleeping. Anyone who sees my Facebook posts knows I often eat breakfast and dinner well after noon and midnight, often with no lunch in between, sometimes as much as twelve hours with no food in between. And I’m diabetic… 😱 so good kitties! Pester Daddy so he takes better care of himself so he can be with you a good long time… ❤️ Maybe it’s even Cubby telling them to do what he used to do when it was late at night…)
When my wife played the piano ours used to jump up and walk along the keys or nudge her hands.
She would do the same with me when I typed on my PC keyboard.
My theory is that they don't like us 'stroking' or giving attention to anything else. My brother's cat used to bite my mother's toes when she was on the phone. He didn't like her answering the phone at all.
All this stuff about cats being concerned about our well-being is wishful thinking. We are their servant bipeds. Nothing more.
I must disagree. But I don’t think this is the place to debate this, nor do I really want to.
I knew these were the right cats for me when one of them, the “big sister” of the two despite their being from the same litter, started grooming my hair immediately when we met at the shelter, and they were only four months old at the time.
They are my family. ❤️
As far as knowing human words - I think cats probably know lots but they're absolutely not going to let us realise that. They can certainly parse "Get off the table oh no that stupid animal's been at the cheese I just grated!"
Meantime, Dogs have owners, but Cats have staff.
I have no doubt that the higher animals have a pretty good idea as to what words - or perhaps the tone in which words are spoken - mean.
Not so!
dogs have care workers, ..... Cats have acolytes.
Please note the correct capitalisation.
I don't doubt that and don't see it as incompatible with what I wrote.
Cats can 'love' us in their own way but it's always on their own terms.
I like cats. I'm more of a cat person than a dog one.
But I know what makes them tick. Food. Shelter. Comfort.
If they show apparent affection to those who supply that then it's a means to an end, a way to ensure we continue to deliver the goods.
Again we disagree. That’s not like the cats I have known.
This is also the world’s backstory in the animated musical Rock and Rule. Cats, rats, and dogs are all humanoid. Mind you, it only comes up maybe in the opening credits, and doesn’t really affect the plot…
Amen. ❤️ I hope I wasn’t mean or aggressive, @Gamma Gamaliel, but this is a matter that is extremely important to me.
I think cats can love us, for sure but we can't attribute human characteristics to that.
That doesn't make our interaction with them any less special though.
I want to accept your apology, but why twist the knife again by undercutting it immediately? I didn't say anything about anthropomorphization at all. I'm trying to avoid arguing with you. We apparently disagree about some things, and I'm trying to be polite about it. I'd appreciate the same courtesy, especially from someone I generally like and care about, especially on the Heaven board, and with something critically important to me, as I've said before.
Gratefully received, with many hugs.
(Not that I want to offend anyone of course, but you know what I mean).
Apologies to all Shipmates on this thread for my ham-fistedness.