What do you mean, “why”?? How else would you communicate with a cat? 😂
Pspspsps
Sure, but then once you’ve got their attention, you have to say something… No? I think it’d be rude not to… 😹
It’s like when you see someone you know at a place, but you are both doing stuff so just a quick ‘hey’ and head nod and you go about your day :p
Chchchchchch
I do the nknk but I think we agree there is another level to be had with the conversations
Did you know that cats taught themselves to mimic the sound of a crying child to get the attention of humans? I think it’s some evolution thing, ionno. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain 😅
Close - they meow for their cat mothers too in the wild, it’s just that humans keep cats in a permanently juvenile state when we keep them as pets. Also, our patting them mimics their mother’s tongue action, which causes them to purr, which is also an entirely natural sound for them to signal the mother that they are alive and content. We did not change them so much as co-opt what was already there, using it for the benefit of both human & cat:-). From there, some things like level of aggression and body size were bred to suit our mutual partnership better.
Fwiw, the cats that respond to it by coming to you are likely socialized with humans , and friendly enough that you can pet them. Which is always a plus because petting friendly animals is good for you.
The ones that run away, or just ignore you, are likely either feral or at least not human friendly, which means you at least know how to avoid getting scratched, by not trying to mess with it.
All of that is pretty damn obvious, but it really is a good way to determine what to do with a cat you don’t know in your vicinity. If you’re involved with spay and release in any way, it helps sort out where you’ll need to deploy traps.
What about my cats? They acknowledge it, but ignore me. I guess they’re just rude.
