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Cats Recognize Their Owners Voice But Choose To Ignore It
Smithsonian ^ | 12-2-13

Posted on 12/02/2013 5:07:58 PM PST by Dysart

Cats, according to new research, recognize their owner’s voice. They just can’t be bothered to react to it.

Researchers in Japan arrived at this conclusion after performing experiments with twenty house cats. They played recordings of the cats’ owners’ calling to their pets in whatever cat-talk voice they typically used. They also played recordings of three strangers calling to the cats, using the same words.

To quantify the cats’ reactions, the researchers recorded how often cats moved their head, tail, paws or ears, or whether they meowed or dilated their pupils. While the cats showed a significantly greater response to their owners calling their names than to strangers doing so, they did not bother to get up in either instance, the researchers found.

As the Independent explains, the authors think cats’ dismissive attitudes are a product of their evolutionary history over the past 9,000 years:

As early societies developed agriculture, these cats moved in to prey on the rodents that were attracted to stores of grain. In the words of the paper’s authors, they effectively “domesticated themselves”.

“Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.” This is in contrast to the history of dogs and humans, where the former has been bred over thousands of years to respond to orders and commands. Cats, it seems, never needed to learn.

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/12/cats-recognize-their-owners-voice-but-chose-to-ignore-it/#ixzz2mMyn7FKZ Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.smithsonianmag.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: cats; imignoringyou; kittyping; voices
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To: boatbums

haha. Yep you pretty much nailed it!! Now your thinking from the cat’s perspective! :) lol.


121 posted on 12/02/2013 11:05:59 PM PST by GOP Poet
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To: patriot08
Refraining from commenting on the others for now... Ehrmmm, the "Mare-ilyn" has a nice mane of hair going for her there. However, hairy (VERY) legs along with some quite pronounced whiskers and mustache kind of ruined it for Me.

Along with the hairy tail...

122 posted on 12/02/2013 11:08:37 PM PST by Utilizer (Bacon A'kbar! - In world today are only peaceful people, and the mooslimbs trying to kill them-)
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To: boatbums

hilarious!!!!!


123 posted on 12/02/2013 11:08:41 PM PST by GOP Poet
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To: Utilizer

And the beard was a definite non-starter as well. Begorrah!


124 posted on 12/02/2013 11:18:08 PM PST by Utilizer (Bacon A'kbar! - In world today are only peaceful people, and the mooslimbs trying to kill them-)
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To: GOP Poet
I read an article about how much cats depend on order, ritual, patterns and habits. It told the story of a man who said every day at feeding time, his cat heard the can opener, came running and stuck his head over the dish just as the food fell out and onto the top of his head. He wondered why the heck this cat would do such a thing and if he even knew that if he waited a second longer the food would go into the dish and not on his head. The answer was that the cat LEARNED this ritual and that was how he "understood" it worked.

The author added that whenever he used the can opener - regardless if it was cat food or not - the cat could be anywhere in the house and he would come running. It was, the author said, as if the cat was thinking, "Could be food, don't risk not knowing!". I LOVE these critters!

125 posted on 12/02/2013 11:20:03 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: Daffynition

Can a cat be “His Master’s Voice” if cats don’t have masters?


126 posted on 12/02/2013 11:58:58 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: patriot08

Awww!


127 posted on 12/03/2013 12:21:53 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: dforest

But does he hear you calling him to dinner, LOL.


128 posted on 12/03/2013 12:30:51 AM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: Dysart

Back in the days of the traveling salesmen visiting homes with their wares, my haridan grandmother was always welcoming in the hearing aid fellows to charm Pawpaw into making a purchase.

Knowing her ear was waxing the other side of the keyhole, Pawpaw would grit out that he could “hear enough, thank you!”

As a little girl I never got to know him as well as I wish now. Painfully shy, I shrank away from having to yell into that sweet old man’s ear.

But his having gone hard of hearing was truly a blessing. Only way that poor man got any peace, way I heard tell.


129 posted on 12/03/2013 12:32:03 AM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: Jonty30

Our cats also come when called. About the only thing they ignore is us yelling at them when they sharpen their claws. That keeps me repairing the trim around one door frame every couple of years. Other than that they’re low maintenance, a proper ear scratch from us and they are ready to go.


130 posted on 12/03/2013 1:07:44 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: Slings and Arrows
Enuf with the simiantics! I know a koan when I see one! ;)


131 posted on 12/03/2013 1:28:01 AM PST by Daffynition (*$17,000,000,000,000* Fear the beards! GO SOX!)
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To: Daffynition

I think that’s an ice cream koan.


132 posted on 12/03/2013 1:48:59 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

133 posted on 12/03/2013 3:21:05 AM PST by Daffynition (*$17,000,000,000,000* Fear the beards! GO SOX!)
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To: elcid1970
I agree completely.

My wife and I have been married going on thirty years, and we have the usual collection of old married couple things, and one of them that stands out is that she is generally a talker in most cases, where I am less so...particularly in the morning.

This would be me in the morning:

This epitomizes my wife in the morning:

We have been married long enough she knows what it takes before I become functional and civil, and is gentle with me, though she sometimes turns on lights that I immediately have to turn off...and often after she has had a cup of coffee, her cheery, conversational morning person kicks into overdrive.

There have been occasional times where she feels the need to apologize and explain she just can't help herself when she has a cup of coffee...

And I remind myself, there may be times in my life someday where the only thing I will want to hear is her voice, and I manage a weak smile and tell her it is just fine...I am interested in what she is saying even though at that hour of the morning it feels like a rusty chain saw is being inserted in each ear.

That is how I know I love her so.

It is so true. You have to appreciate what you have got, while you have got it. Goes for pets whose lives are so much shorter than ours.

And spouses who foibles cannot be any worse than your own...:)

134 posted on 12/03/2013 3:52:30 AM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: Utilizer

Dates seriously do that?


135 posted on 12/03/2013 8:14:18 AM PST by Silentgypsy (Mondays should be outlawed.)
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To: Dysart

My cat comes when called, every time. And, since I almost never feed him, he is responding to me, not the chance of food.


136 posted on 12/03/2013 12:38:32 PM PST by anton
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To: Titan Magroyne; Dysart
Reminds me of that joke I read awhile back.

A man was convinced his wife was going deaf, so one day he stood about twenty feet behind her and said, "Can you hear me?". No answer. He moved up to ten feet and repeated, "Can you hear me?", still, no answer. He then stood directly behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me?", to which she replied, "For the third time, YES!". ;o)

137 posted on 12/03/2013 10:16:40 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: boatbums

LOL


138 posted on 12/04/2013 12:04:34 AM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: patriot08

BTW I showed your gifs to one of my regular clients here, a real sweet lady. I always like to put a smile on her face.

Enchanting little bugger, that slow loris.


139 posted on 12/04/2013 12:08:16 AM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: Titan Magroyne

BTW I showed your gifs to one of my regular clients here, a real sweet lady. I always like to put a smile on her face.

Enchanting little bugger, that slow loris.
____________________________________________________

I’m glad you and others enjoyed them.
Yes, they must be absolutely one of the cutest little things in the world. Makes you want one.
(which is why they’re being hunted down in their native country and exported for pets. Poor ‘lil things.)


140 posted on 12/04/2013 4:31:03 AM PST by patriot08 (NATIVE TEXAN (girl type))
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