I've known many cats through my lifetime – domestic, stray, feral, and feral that have been domesticated. I'm not a cat expert or a breeder – my only claim in this blog is to be a cat lover and somebody who has a natural connection to cats. However, the most vocal breed I have come across is the Siamese. I also have a full grown black cat called Scotchgard whoms somebody once pronounced to be a Bombay (I call him the "King Kong of Cats" because he's so huge and glossy) – he's particularly noisy when he wants food or attention and will have a long conversation with you in all kinds of melodic passages.
The domesticated ferals I have now are great purrers, but barely audible meowers, which is an often sought after trait by some cat lovers. Sihri and Sasha, whom I christened the Squeaker Sisters shortly after they arrived on the farm, have a mixture of a high pitched squeak and a meow. I have to strain to hear Saffron, Snow, Savannah and Samson. If they're wanting my attention – they usually do it through other means such as flopping themselves down in front of me or rubbing up against my legs. They occasionally meow quietly if they are at the screen door and want access to my studio and I'm out of their sight line. Boston, the latest addition to the family, who lives in my office at night and goes out during the day, has the minutest meow I've ever heard – it's rare for him to speak up. The colony of undomesticated feral cats will only meow quietly when they're hungry and know I'm about to bring them their food. They'll also communicate to their young ones in chirrups and staccato sounds very unlike the usual meow we associate with a cat.
2 comments:
I think the question is not why do feral cats not meow, but rather why do domestic cats meow. I'm sure one component is that the young cats notice that humans vocalize and so they imitate us if we are their caretakers. But I think there's more to it, because even domestic cats don't often meow at each other. Humans are very vocal creatures, so when we interact with other creatures, we respond to vocalizations. Young cats probably notice that that vocalizing gets our attention, and so it becomes their main form of communication with humans. However, since other cats don't respond to vocalization, they don't use it to communicate with each other.
I'm looking for information about how to distinguish between a feral cat and stray cat. A few weeks ago, a cat (perhaps about a yr. old) came by and I've been feeding it. She/he was quite vocal, played with a catnip toy on my deck and lets me get close to it, but not touch it. It's been trapped and is in a local animal hospital. I have an indoor cat and am not sure what to do with it. The animal hospital believes it is feral. Do you have any ideas? Thank you!
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