We’ve had a lot of rainy days lately on the court.  While the rest of the country is dealing with snow, we get rain.  The Cats on Oak Court are much like the humans here; they get cabin fever after a couple days of rain.

The day started ealy with the tabby walking around the house at 4:15 in the morning.  I know it was 4:15 because he woke me up by yelling.  Now, the tabby has learned to mimic a few human sounds over the years and will occasionally use one of those sounds when he wants something.  At 4:15 he is either lonely (the rest of the cats are sleeping soundly) or he is hungry and needs a human to wake up and put some fresh food into the bowl.  This morning he was lonely and wanted to go into my grand daughter’s bedroom so he started yelling “her…row”.

I’ve greeted cats with “hello” since I was a youngster; offering my ‘paw’ and saying “hello”. I think the tabby picked up the sound and  uses it with some weird anticipation of a human coming to him, much as it is when i say the work on coming into the room.

Any, I was woken up quite early with the tabby’s “her..row” repeated several times.  So, like any well trained animal, I got up and went out into the living room to see what he wanted. He has learned not to repeat himself once the human is in the room so he sat there on the coffee table and waited for me to offer my paw and give him a scratch between his ears.  Since I was awake I went into the kitchen and filled the crunchie munchie bowl as it was empty.  He has roused me because he was hungry. I didn’t hear from him at all after that.

He knows a few other sounds and uses them at appropriate times.   For example, he has an inquisitive sounding “mr..out” when he’s standing by the door.

Does he know what he’s doing? I’m not sure but I believe he understands that certain actions result in predictable responses. He’s learned, through repetition that that sound will bring a human or the other sound will get the door opened.

Well, the big guy is making a sound now and it is having a predictable response.  He’s snoring and I’m starting to yawm.

Nite.