Kitty pride

[vettecat]

Scheherazade has learned a new word. For those of you who don't know, our cat is rather high on the cat-intelligence scale; she's frighteningly quick at figuring things out. (The first time I tried teasing her with a laser pointer, she looked at the dot, tracked the beam, and went for my hand instead.)

Anyway, she comes when we call her by name (including via intercom, when I used to live at my parents' house)... she also knows "no" and "down." There haven't been many other words I thought she needed to learn. But recently, we discovered a brand of dental treats at the vet which she actually loves. (This is wonderful because she hates having her teeth cleaned.) She got so excited about them that we thought, hey, this could be useful...

She has now learned the word "treat." It didn't take that long, either... maybe 10 - 12 "language lessons" (as sdavido started calling them) over the past few weeks. This consisted mainly of me repeating "treat!" while holding one out, until she gobbled it up. Last night we decided to run a test... while SD- was holding her, I stood to one side holding the closed bag, and said, "treat!" Her head whipped around, her eyes went wide, and she started squirming to get down. I repeated it after he put her down, and she ran over and stood waiting until I gave her the promised treat.

So it seems that we have successfully expanded her repertoire. I could teach her others, I suppose, but I don't quite know what else would be useful...

Comments

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

For a short while in kittenhood, Odin would fetch. Loki has learned all sorts of words, as well as habits.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

She jumps for toy mice when we throw them... but she's usually too busy batting them around after that for me to try and get her to bring it back.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Cats are really quite smart, they just don't let on that they understand. It's their way of keeping control. :)

Lily actually has about 15 words and phrases she understands, they include:
several variations on her name (including other names I call her, like sweetie and bear)
dinner
yummies(meaning treats)
mouse (ask her "where's mouse" and she'll go get her toy mouse.)
birdie (ask her "Wher's the birdie" and she'll jump up and look out the window.)
no
not kitty toy (stops her from messing with stuff)
not kitty space (stops her from doing/going where she shouldn't be.)
come on
out
grass (cat grass we get at the pet store)
nip (meaning catnip)
feather
rings(she has these foam rings from a disc shooter that she absolutely loves)
spot(meaning laser pointer or a reflection on the wall or floor)
brush
belly belly (if you say "do belly belly", she rolls over and gives you her tummy to rub.)
bath (Lily gets sponge baths when it's hot outside, she seems to like it, she just lays there while I soak her with a wet sponge.)

Keisha never learned very many words, but she does know the word Yummies!

We started the "language lessons" for Lily when she was tiny, only 14 weeks old and it's just expanded from there. My next trick is to get her to say "mama" and talk like these cats.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That's pretty impressive! I haven't been motivated to teach her that many, but that may be in part because I'm not really talkative in general... She does come running when I show her the brush, though. (She used to squirm and hiss when I tried trimming her nails, but I taught her that if she let me trim them she'd get brushed, and she loves being brushed... so now she allows it.)

As for the cats in the video, some of it's cute, but that last one looks really unhappy...

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

So what happens if someone else goes up to her and says the word "treat"? Will she expect a treat? Or does she know enough to expect treats only from you and sdavido?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That's a really good question. I don't know. But I suspect that you'd get her attention, but she would wait to see what you'd do rather than running right over.