113: Crazy Cat Lady

Speaker 0 00:03 Welcome to brain junk. I'm Amy Barton and I'm trace Kerr and it's time for a brainstorm. We're going to talk about cats. I love to talk about cat. I have three cats. I am a just 20 years away from becoming one of those cat ladies where you just see me underneath what looks like a blanket and it's just, yeah, gray blanket. I know. Well and one of the things that got me onto the idea for this one is thinking about how cats Meow and the fact that cats do not Meow to other cats. I had not noticed that until I saw something about that. I'm like, Oh my gosh, they totally don't. Kittens use me. Owling when they're very little <inaudible> to call their mothers. But after kittenhood they kind of stop because the mom cat is like, I don't want to nurse you anymore. So she stops responding to the meowing. Speaker 0 00:57 So after that they use scent and body language touch and I think telepathy to talk to each other. Agreed. But they do per and they do like a chittering sound. You know, if you've ever seen a cat watching a bird and it kind of does it, I think that's maybe frustration or excitement. And they growl like tiny dinosaurs and they hiss and they yell. But the Meow and I have a cat Haku all he does is talk all day, all day, all the time. He has so many things to say. In fact, I'm going to play some cat meows for you right now. Excellent. Speaker 0 01:44 Okay. So that long Meow, Meow, Meow Meow, it almost sounds irritated. Well and it changes. Um, the first part of it switches a little too as you go on to get your attention. So that is, and that's exactly what is going on right there. That is Haku like I was across the room and I said Haku and then he's like, Hey, why are you talking to me? And then he's kind of irritated. He's trying to get my attention. And what's funny too is the way the tone changes, you know, it's like loud or quiet. And uh, in 1944, Mildred Mulkey wrote, vocalizing in the house cat a phonetic and functional study. Yup. And in it, she describes a much debated catalog of 16 different cat vocalizations. She even had like, here's how these vowels would work to pronounce cat meows. Yeah. But what she came down to in the end was that every cat's Meow is unique. Speaker 0 02:41 And she even mentions in her article that around the world we described the <inaudible> Aus, um, depending on where you are in the world, you could say new or meals or meal now or Meow. Uh, and there is some thought that because cats, each cat is individual and they're using it communicate with a specific group of people or owner that their accent is also kind of going to be different depending on where they are. I feel like that makes sense because they're listening to us and trying to get our attention in some way. Yep. And I feel like, um, we have a cat who we, when we got the dog cats not down with it. And so she has kind of restricted her travel patterns. And so her access to people is more limited because we don't restrict our travel patterns. And so she has really evolved in the past few months. Speaker 0 03:31 The way she meows, it's much more strident. It's very persistent and it's definitely evolved to change with our behavior. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's also that with different sound of the people. Well because the thought is that the reason why they think that cats come independently to figuring out that like trying to get mom's attention. We are also similarly distracted and so Meow cuts through and it even has kind of the same tones like a baby cry does in a way. It's difficult to ignore cause it just keeps coming at. Yes. Okay. So go ahead and put your headphones back. Okay. So what I'm going to play for you now is I got a piece of cheese and you're going to hear first I have leap who is a gigantic cat, but he has this very chirpy little voice and then Haku my super talkative cat, but they both want a piece of cheese. So both of these are, I would like that. Please. What I want you to hear if you think they're the same or different or what about them? Speaker 0 04:49 Okay, so like I said, the first one you heard was leap and then you've got Haku who sounds Haku sounds like panicky. Yeah. You're never going to feed him again. Yes. So here's my theory. Liba is actually your favorite cause like it's a short little sound. It's very mild and it's almost like a thanks. Leap is super chill. Like I know this Jesus coming and Haku is like, so I think that it's possible that leap is the favorite cause. Leap just knows the cheeses coming. Okay. So I would tell you that leap is the dumbest of my three cats. So I think there's just no imagination there. He's like, Oh cheese, I'll get it eventually. Haku is Sonia erotic? And he yells like that all the time. It's true. You could be walking towards the bowl with his food and he is going to still yell at you like that. Speaker 0 05:38 Yeah. We watched the other day he was in here getting pets and so happy and still talking about how he could use more pets. Everything that he has to say. I know. So Susan shots is an associate professor of phonetics at Lund university in Sweden. She is currently doing a five year study into me. I was sick. I really wanted to talk in a Swedish accent and the hypothesize about the cat's accent, but I'm, I'm also enchanted with Meow ISIC. No, she is studying how cats use tone and voice to communicate with people. So like you know you've got leap and you've got Haku two different very sounds. Well she's collected sound recordings from around 70 cats and so far they've found what I think any cat owner would expect. Their meals vary according to need and mood. So they pitch up when happy and down when sad or especially when stuffed in a cat box and in fact I'm going to post a link in the show notes because you can go and listen to all these recordings and she'll tell you this is what's going on and then you can listen and look at the sound. Speaker 0 06:39 Yeah, wave. And then you can be like Dory and finding Nemo and talk to the cats. Speaker 0 06:45 Exactly. I think there's definitely something to that because there's definitely a commonality in certain tones and like the ups and downs between the two cats and ours are very different too. Keith is very loud and strident and insistent, whereas Shelby doesn't really have time for our shenanigans unless she's locked out of my daughter's room and she starts low and escalates quickly. Yup. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah, cause she's sure that my daughter can hear her and is ignoring, but knows that we will come. They train us with their meows. That's my brainstorm. I love it. Cat linguistics. We're going to publish a dictionary the next year. It's going to be our first sprain, junk publication. If you want to hear more about it, you can also find us on Twitter as at my brain junk and we're on Facebook and Instagram as brain junk podcast trace and I will catch you next time when we share more of everything you never knew you wanted to know and I guarantee you will not be bored.