Critter Alley

Critter Alley

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Crafty Cats



Bogey contemplates his next move.

Do you believe cats have ways to get what they want? It's not just your imagination, and a study completed at the University of Sussex seems to prove it.

It appears that all purrs are not the same. Apparently the acoustic structure of cats has evolved so they can produce what is termed "solicitation purrs". This means cats have learned to vocalize in a way most likely to get a positive response from people. Unlike a typical purr, a solicitation purr contains elements suggestive of a baby's cry. Research findings are described in the most recent issue of Current Biology.


To this new information I say...Duh! Anyone who has a cat knows how easily they can manipulate people. We didn't need a study to tell us that.

I would, however, be interested in a study on ways to resist feline con artists. Give us some data on that topic for crying out loud. Then the cat people of the world would really have reason to sit up and take notice!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear, Pat and it isn't just cats. In the thirty months he has lived with us, Barkley spotty-dog has connived and planned to systematically overturn almost every rule we have ever made for him! If we had a clue how he did it, we'd stop him:)

The Word Place said...

Oh, yes, of course! We don't own pets---they own us!