Vocabulary

In article ,
"Karla" wrote:

snip

I think it's fascinating. And I'm betting you catch different inflections
and tones in her communication and know what they mean.

Oh, yes. She has a Siamese not too very far up her family tree (I'd
guess a parent), and I've lived with Siamese almost all my life. As
everyone knows, Siamese are *very* vocal little people.

snip

Blessed be,
Baird

--
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods-
They kill us for their sport.
-Gloster, in _Lear_

"Joy" wrote in message
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"Yowie" wrote in message
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"Baird Stafford" wrote in message

FWIW and if anybody is interested, I've identified at least parts of
Leila's vocabulary. She knows the words "Leila" and "cat," of course
(and thinks "silly" is an endearment). She also knows "No!" "Get
outta that!" and "Get down from there!"- but she firmly disagrees
that any of the latter three phrases should ever be applied to a Cat
named Leila.

Shmogg seemed to perfectly understand anything I said to him. That didn't
of course mean he reacted to what I was saying in the way I wanted him
to, but I'm pretty sure he knew what I was saying. There was times where
I could swear he was giving me the feline equivalent of either teenage
"What-*ever*" or even the finger when I was scolding him. He could be
quite eerie like that.

Of the current crew, Pickle certainly responds favourably to his name but
these days is generally outside so we don't get to 'chat'. I'm
increasingly sure that Shadow's name isn't "Shadow" because although her
ears twitch and she looks at me when I say it, her face seems to tell me
"I understand that you, as a mere human, *think* my name is Shadow, and
I'll acknowledge your existance when you say it, but you've got it
wrong,".

Suki doesn't care what we say to her, she jsut wants luvvin's.

Fluffy understands "Fluffy", "Floober" and "Booberfluff", "Good Girl",
"Sit", "Lie down", "Off" and "Out". She may or may not understand "Move"
and "Drop it" depending on what she's doing at the time.

Waffles and Pickles both know their names. Waffles definitely understands
"No!" and I think Pickles does too. When Waffles looks as though he'd
like to jump in my lap, I'll pat my lap and tell him it's okay. He
usually ignores that, but if I nod my head, he often jumps up. Other
times, I say, "Come on up." He generally doesn't, but if I then say
"Please", he'll often come up. I guess it really is the magic word.


Both mine seem to know their names. Boyfie also knows he is not allowed to
hoover up his own breakfast and knock KFC off hers as it take her much
longer to eat. It doesn't stop him trying, though. I keep a careful watch
for this, but when he knows I've seen him trying to bully KFC off her food,
he jumps as if startled and pretends he wasn't doing it.
"what me? want Kitty's food? No, you are mistaken.."
It seems that he has a concept of guilt as it isn't for fear of punishment.
I have never punished him for anything and I never would. He has been told
"no" about to trying to eat KFC's food and that is all. He's obviously
remembered it.
He just can't help himself though. His greed gets the better of him. He's
like Caliban. Bring the food on, we can eat it all.
It amuses me when he is trying to get KFC's food after eating his own. He
tries to do without me noticing but I always do. I watch him approaching
her eating from her plate and wait until he tries to bully her off it.
Then I say "OY, YOU, BOYFRIEND, GET AWAY FROM THAT"
And he does.
He claims it was not him at all. I say it was and the boy is greedy. He
is.
He could eat for Britain in the Olympics.

Tweed

wrote in message
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Cheryl wrote:

Smudge knows "It's OK, Smudge", said in almost any tone of voice. that.
She also knows "Wanna go out?"

Boyfie also knows "wanna go out?" He has declined the invitation often
during the winter, preferring to sleep on the spare bed and just nip out for
toilet duties, he does not like to use a litterbox except in extreme
circumstances. Now the temperature is rising he is out and about again.
Sometimes he is gone for hours and I worry about him. I say to him when he
comes back "Where were you?" He says "looking for rats"
Which is probably true, but if I think he is up to catching a large rat, he
has another think coming. I've seen him wash himself when he sees a big
one. This is very sensible and I get the terriers in for these. He will
catch the very young ones only. The boy is not stupid, you should see the
huge brown teeth on the big ones, they even give the terriers some trouble.

Tweed