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"Oh my, that feels lovely, keep doing that!" The sentiment and communication that every cat person knows their cat is telling them through their purring. It starts in kittenhood, the cleansing attention of their mother's tongue and the close connection it represents with the most important being in their early life.

Purring is an instinctive behavior in cats; it shouts out their pleasure, acceptance and closeness to the person, feline or human, whose actions, usually petting and stroking, are stimulating it. Gentle stroking by a stranger they don't trust will not elicit the same response. Cat's are very good at recognizing our personalities and attitudes towards them, they do not get taken in. If your cat purrs for someone who is a new acquaintance to you both, you can at least know that they are probably a good person from the perspective of your cat.

Cats can also purr when they are terrified. Perhaps their doing so is a rejection of reality; by purring they imagine themselves secure under their mother's protection. Or perhaps that by behaving as though everything is great, it will become so, an effort at sympathetic magic. We are unlikely to ever know exactly, but we can tell by body language, if not by circumstances, when fear is the cause.

Meows vary in tone, structure and duration, for the simple reason that they express a wide range of feelings, intended to communicate our cat's response to a highly varied environment. It doesn't take much time or attention from us before our cat has managed to train us to respond to the various communicative meows they use. This one means we need to refresh their water bowl, that one means they have run out of biscuits, another makes us settle down and provide our cat with a nice warm lap they can paw into the correct shape and then snooze in.

Meows to be let outside and meows demanding playtime are soon understood by both those who think of their cats as companion animals and those with the misguided concept that they "own" their cats. Any cat lover who manages to get out from under the influence of their cat for a time and gives it some thought, is bound to realize that in truth we are the obedient, loving servants of our cats. Even those who never recognize this are at least subconsciously aware that their cat is not really their "pet".

Learn more about this author, Perry McCarney.
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