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Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2025 Feb 02 10:01 am)



Subject: OT-To all cat owners....they own us!


Darboshanski ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 4:17 PM · edited Sun, 02 February 2025 at 2:14 PM

Being a cat owner I found this article interesting as I am sure other kitty owners will too LOL!

Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat. Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.

This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex . "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom."

They know us

Previous research has shown similarities between cat cries and human infant cries.

McComb suggests that the purr-cry may subtly take advantage of humans' sensitivity to cries they associate with nurturing offspring. Also, including the cry within the purr could make the sound "less harmonic and thus more difficult to habituate to," she said.

McComb got the idea for the study from her experience with her own cat, who would consistently wake her up in the mornings with a very insistent purr. After speaking with other cat owners, she learned that some of their cats also made the same type of call. As a scientist who studies vocal communication in mammals, she decided to investigate the manipulative meow.

Tough to test

Setting up the experiments wasn't easy. While the felines used purr-cries around their familiar owners, they were not eager to make the same cries in front of strangers. So McComb and her team trained cat owners to record their pets' cries - capturing the sounds made by cats when they were seeking food and when they were not. In all, the team collected recordings from 10 different cats.

The researchers then played the cries back for 50 human participants, not all of whom owned cats. They found that humans, even if they had never had a cat themselves, judged the purrs recorded while cats were actively seeking food - the purrs with an embedded, high-pitched cry - as more urgent and less pleasant than those made in other contexts.

When the team re-synthesised the recorded purrs to remove the embedded cry, leaving all else unchanged, the human subject's urgency ratings for those calls decreased significantly.

McComb said she thinks this cry occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring, "but we think that cats learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans." In fact, not all cats use this form of purring at all, she said, noting that it seems to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners rather than those living in large households, where their purrs might be overlooked.

Source: LiveScience.com

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Acadia ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 4:38 PM

file_434680.jpg

I can believe that!  But also, who can resist moments like these

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi



Acadia ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 4:38 PM

file_434681.jpg

Or this!

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi



ockham ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 4:51 PM

Not sure of the connection.  We had one cat who squeaky-purred at times, but
it didn't seem to signal hunger.  It was more like super-contentment. 

On lap + being petted  = normal purr
On lap + being scratched on the "sweet spot" on forehead = squeaky purr

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lesbentley ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 5:30 PM

Acadia those kittens are so very beautiful!  :wub:


arbee999 ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 6:15 PM

Quote - Acadia those kittens are so very beautiful!  :wub:

You said it!!
We need names!


Khai-J-Bach ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 6:36 PM

I for one have welcomed out Feline Overlords and serve their every wish.

(with 4 cats, thats a lot of wishes)



scanmead ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 7:31 PM

They forgot a couple of non-vocal things.

The "I'm so hungry I can't even mew" Silent Meow.

The "If you don't feed me now, I'll burn a hole in your brain" Unblinking Stare.

The "You have no kitties, leave me alone" Disappearing Act after being fed.

The "Let's see how intense your panic becomes when I don't answer while staring right at you from a bookcase" Selective Hearing.  

They are right about babies cries and cat howls, though. I've seen mine look all over in a state of wary hunt-mode when they hear a very young human baby cry. 


DarkEdge ( ) posted Mon, 13 July 2009 at 9:19 PM

We got 3 little ones about 6 months ago Acadia...ZuZu, Violet and Klara. 😄

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