This has developed in our household from our patriarch, Griff (AKA Professor Griffington) being a Burmese. Burmeses, Siameses and all things oriental follow the principles of The Omipresent Meow, and hence both Sylvie and I have seen its effectiveness first hand, and thus have modified it to our own personal uses.
Griff is constantly heard howling the house down when he wants attention. As his breed dictates, he has perfected the loud wail within decibels of the ultimate annoyance factor. Sylvie and I, not being oriental in any form, cannot achieve this same pitch, however it does not cease the usefulness of our meows. Griff will yowl mainly for a) cuddles (after choosing a vacant room as far as possible from mum, so his yowl echoes around the house) or b) outside time, while standing on the kitchen bench by a slightly open window. (This is a point of contention between him and mum because we are inside cats, unless garden time is supervised).
Sylvie’s meows are at a softer frequency, and have a delicate female trill accenting the base mew. She mainly meows for a number of reasons a) she wants a tap to be tuned on (and often sits in the bathtub waiting for human eye contact before trilling); b) she wants to play fetch – the meow is at a higher frequency as she runs into the room with a milk ring in her mouth; c) Its dinner time, and a gentle trill reminds mum that she’s hungry.
My meows have been modified for my own purposes. One of my meows is mum’s favorite sound – she even has a special name for it, the Purr-Meow. When I’m really happy and purring I sometimes let a small quiver of mew escape in my happiness. The other morning (being 4:30 am, and Griff had just gone in for cuddles) I tried a different technique. I saw my orange mousey sitting on the couch and decided that I just had to play with it. So I meowed incessantly to mum to come out to me. I didn’t stop meowing, either. It went something like this: “meow…meow…meow…meow…meow...meow…”
Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time I’ve done this, and I think I might have overplayed my cards. Unlike previously, when mum darted out of bed thinking something was wrong, she stayed in slumber. So I kept meowing, creeping up to the door, I even carried orange mousey with me. Except mum wasn’t sleeping – I caught her peering at me from the comforts of her bed, Griff snuggled in her arms. And now that she knew nothing was wrong with me, she went back to sleep. Darn it! It was a lesson for myself in the differences between the Omnipresent Meow and the Incessant Meow – the Incessant Meow needs to be used sparingly along the lines of the Silent Meow.
One last comment of meowing – in a multi-cat household, the meow can be used to its advantages to cause maximum annoyance. For example: the vet trip. When all three of us go for annual vaccinations, the Incessant Meow is employed quite effectively as three cats with three different tones yowl, trill and quiver as mum drives. If we have to suffer, so does she.
Asst/Prof. Kinky
Figure One: Asst/Proff. Kinky demonstrates stretching the vocal chords (front right leg shaved from a past incident involving a bee sting, inflammation and a trip to the emergency hospital).
1. Gallico, P. W., (1964). The Silent Meow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays and Homeless Cats. Crown Publishers.
No comments:
Post a Comment