17 ms·

I purr pretty well for a 40 year old man. My cats always nuzzle my neck whenever I start purring. Cats are amazing creatures. We have two dogs and two cats. Wa

I purr pretty well for a 40 year old man. My cats always nuzzle my neck whenever I start purring. Cats are amazing creatures. We have two dogs and two cats. Watching our cats interact with our baby when we brought him home was a beautiful thing. The dogs were very curious and would lay beside his crib each night but the cats would actually try to help us. They would alert us whenever the baby cried or became fussy. Now that he’s 3 years old, the cats follow him around everywhere and they will come upstairs to the master bedroom to tell us when he wakes during the night and each morning. They’ll meow at us until we go downstairs. Of course we have monitors and motion sensors and such but it’s cute watching the cats communicate. It’s the complete opposite of what I learned as a child watching “Lady and the Tramp.”

gnulinux 4y ago
> Cats are amazing creatures. This is it. It makes me so sad seeing online people claiming cats are vengeful, aggressive, selfish animals. Cats have a huge variety of personality and so, yes, some of them are vengeful, aggressive and/or selfish. However, once an average cat trusts you there is a very special kind of bond between you guys that I only experienced with a long term human partner. Cats are amazing, amazing creatures. Obviously I don't know what's going inside my cat's brain, whether he actually experiences what we label "love", but his behavior is oftentimes consistent with it. Every morning I wake up my cat next to me and I feel so lucky to have experienced a cat's love in my lifetime. I'm so thankful to our neolithic ancestors to have domesticated and introduced these quirky, lovely little mammals in our lives.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  totally agree, with one thought : if you've seen people with rescued pumas (who also purr) they're _exactly_ like "domestic" cats...just much bigger.
- InCityDreams 4y ago
  Amy's Baking Company.
- kortilla 4y ago
  I love cats but some of them absolutely do decimate local bird populations in the local neighborhood when they are left out unsupervised. My grandparents’ cat was like this. Very friendly to all people but when left outside would usually have a bird killed within a half hour.
  - hollywood_court 4y ago
    - edgyquant 4y ago
      It’s ridiculous the lengths people go to inject their politics into their every post. Also sometimes cats just get out and run away, not everyone is letting them outside. In fact I’d wager that’s almost never the case.
      - hollywood_court 4y ago
        You’d wager that people rarely allow their cats outside intentionally? I imagine you’d lose that bet. Indoor/outdoor cats have been common everywhere I have lived. My next door neighbor’s cat, Mr. Freckles, almost completely wiped out our chipmunk colony and I still find dead birds he has killed every few weeks. I live in a small neighborhood of 43 homes and there are 6 cats that I know of that spend the majority of their time outside. I wish I lived where you live where it was less common.
    - not2b 4y ago
      Yes, our cats have always been indoors; our next door neighbor's cats have been outdoors. One of them was killed by a coyote and left on our front lawn for my daughter to find.
    - cityofdelusion 4y ago
      I’ve had a cat hit by a car and a cat lost forever. They were both indoor cats that were completely unprepared for what was outside. They escaped.
- purim 4y ago
  Why does people having different opinion upset you? People claim dogs are also unfavourable. I personally do not like cats but the personality effect is more pronounced among cats because they do not express themselves as much as dogs. In general I do not like pets or children. If you think they are amazing, great! but know others may not share your opinions.
  - kelnos 4y ago
    Not the person you're replying to, but I don't think I'd characterize myself as being "upset", just... disappointed? Annoyed? Most people's opinions of cats as pets are informed by inaccurate, negative stereotypes, while most people's opinions of dogs (even if they don't have one or rarely interact with one) are positively influenced by the "Man's Best Friend" stereotype. Opinions are fine, if they're informed by actual experience, or at least secondhand experience by trusted parties. But I think most opinions about cats are not that, and it's unfortunate. They do the entire species a disservice.
  - tarentel 4y ago
    It's cool if you don't like cats but I think the op was pointing out that some people think cats are just vengeful little maniacs. Which some of them are but they have a very wide range of personalities and classifying them all as such is a bit unfair. Also, cats express themselves just as much as dogs if not more. They just do it much differently. I can tell what my cat wants just by the way she meows.
  - gnulinux 4y ago
    Well, it's not because they have different opinions. It's because to me it feels like one of the greatest things life can offer. Just like most people would consider intimacy with a partner, having children, finding a satisfying career/hobby as great things life offers to us humans, I tend to think having a bond with an animal (cat or dog I suppose, but they're very different kind of bonds) is another thing life has to offer to us. Of course, I don't mean to imply a human is less valid without the love of an animal (or less valid without the love of a partner, child, job etc) but I still do think that some people are missing out on this. This is part that makes me sad. If you truly gave cats a shot and you dislike them, I don't give a shit how you feel about them.
- honkycat 4y ago
  You can make the same argument about "love" with cats as with dogs. They're both projections of a human emotion onto a much less intelligent and altruistic creature. think it's an absurd toxic masculinity "dogs for men cats for women" thing.
miriam_catira 4y ago
Every time our son cries, our cat runs to him - from the time he was a baby to now. We can't decide if it's a maternal instinct to "make sure the baby is ok" or if she just needs to know about everything going on in the house. I like to think it's the former. Plus, this cat wears her emotions openly - much more so than other cats we've had. When she's happy / excited, her fur puffs up. It's the same fur as when they're angry / scared - the tail poofs and the fur along the spine stands up. We were confused at first when she was a kitten, since it's so different from expected. But we learned that the puffed fur combined with intense purring and even rolling seems to be her way of expressing joy & pleasure. It's also absolutely adorable.
purim 4y ago
I don't think its particularly healthy to be purring, you are most likely causing damage to your vocal chords. The way cats do it are completely different and it causes their whole body to vibrate. You are better off humming to your cats.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- erybodyknows 4y ago
  Parent likely meant a vocal trill, similar to “rolling your r’s”.
UncleOxidant 4y ago
I purr to cats as well. I recall visiting some friends who have cats a few years ago and purring to one of them - the cat did a double take and had what seemed to be an expression of surprise on his face - like "a purring human, how can this be?!". Everyone observing noticed his response.
bcrosby95 4y ago
We had inside/outside cats growing up, and they would follow us to school and make it back home on their own. When we were playing in the street or in our backyard, if we hurt ourselves they would go inside to "tell" our parents. One of my cats would wait by the window when I was at school, and when I stayed up too late at night come to "complain" to me to get me to go to sleep.
bradknowles 4y ago
I can't tell you the mechanism by which cats purr. I don't think scientists have figured that out yet. However, I have figured out a mechanism by which I can purr. Unfortunately, that involves a lot of airflow over my vocal cords on both inhale and exhale, so I can't keep it up for long. And the purr sounds slightly different on inhale versus exhale. And my purr is very fast and loud, compared to how slow and relatively quiet theirs can be. I do suspect that my mechanism is similar to the one that cats use, because I've noted a similar difference in the sound of their purr on inhale versus exhale. But there are lots of other variables, too. Unfortunately, our cats are kinda freaked out when I purr, so I don't do it often.

gnulinux 4y ago

> Cats are amazing creatures. This is it. It makes me so sad seeing online people claiming cats are vengeful, aggressive, selfish animals. Cats have a huge variety of personality and so, yes, some of them are vengeful, aggressive and/or selfish. However, once an average cat trusts you there is a very special kind of bond between you guys that I only experienced with a long term human partner. Cats are amazing, amazing creatures. Obviously I don't know what's going inside my cat's brain, whether he actually experiences what we label "love", but his behavior is oftentimes consistent with it. Every morning I wake up my cat next to me and I feel so lucky to have experienced a cat's love in my lifetime. I'm so thankful to our neolithic ancestors to have domesticated and introduced these quirky, lovely little mammals in our lives.

jjtheblunt 4y ago
totally agree, with one thought : if you've seen people with rescued pumas (who also purr) they're _exactly_ like "domestic" cats...just much bigger.
InCityDreams 4y ago
Amy's Baking Company.
kortilla 4y ago
I love cats but some of them absolutely do decimate local bird populations in the local neighborhood when they are left out unsupervised. My grandparents’ cat was like this. Very friendly to all people but when left outside would usually have a bird killed within a half hour.
- hollywood_court 4y ago
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    It’s ridiculous the lengths people go to inject their politics into their every post. Also sometimes cats just get out and run away, not everyone is letting them outside. In fact I’d wager that’s almost never the case.
    - hollywood_court 4y ago
      You’d wager that people rarely allow their cats outside intentionally? I imagine you’d lose that bet. Indoor/outdoor cats have been common everywhere I have lived. My next door neighbor’s cat, Mr. Freckles, almost completely wiped out our chipmunk colony and I still find dead birds he has killed every few weeks. I live in a small neighborhood of 43 homes and there are 6 cats that I know of that spend the majority of their time outside. I wish I lived where you live where it was less common.
  - not2b 4y ago
    Yes, our cats have always been indoors; our next door neighbor's cats have been outdoors. One of them was killed by a coyote and left on our front lawn for my daughter to find.
  - cityofdelusion 4y ago
    I’ve had a cat hit by a car and a cat lost forever. They were both indoor cats that were completely unprepared for what was outside. They escaped.
purim 4y ago
Why does people having different opinion upset you? People claim dogs are also unfavourable. I personally do not like cats but the personality effect is more pronounced among cats because they do not express themselves as much as dogs. In general I do not like pets or children. If you think they are amazing, great! but know others may not share your opinions.
- kelnos 4y ago
  Not the person you're replying to, but I don't think I'd characterize myself as being "upset", just... disappointed? Annoyed? Most people's opinions of cats as pets are informed by inaccurate, negative stereotypes, while most people's opinions of dogs (even if they don't have one or rarely interact with one) are positively influenced by the "Man's Best Friend" stereotype. Opinions are fine, if they're informed by actual experience, or at least secondhand experience by trusted parties. But I think most opinions about cats are not that, and it's unfortunate. They do the entire species a disservice.
- tarentel 4y ago
  It's cool if you don't like cats but I think the op was pointing out that some people think cats are just vengeful little maniacs. Which some of them are but they have a very wide range of personalities and classifying them all as such is a bit unfair. Also, cats express themselves just as much as dogs if not more. They just do it much differently. I can tell what my cat wants just by the way she meows.
- gnulinux 4y ago
  Well, it's not because they have different opinions. It's because to me it feels like one of the greatest things life can offer. Just like most people would consider intimacy with a partner, having children, finding a satisfying career/hobby as great things life offers to us humans, I tend to think having a bond with an animal (cat or dog I suppose, but they're very different kind of bonds) is another thing life has to offer to us. Of course, I don't mean to imply a human is less valid without the love of an animal (or less valid without the love of a partner, child, job etc) but I still do think that some people are missing out on this. This is part that makes me sad. If you truly gave cats a shot and you dislike them, I don't give a shit how you feel about them.
honkycat 4y ago
You can make the same argument about "love" with cats as with dogs. They're both projections of a human emotion onto a much less intelligent and altruistic creature. think it's an absurd toxic masculinity "dogs for men cats for women" thing.

miriam_catira 4y ago

Every time our son cries, our cat runs to him - from the time he was a baby to now. We can't decide if it's a maternal instinct to "make sure the baby is ok" or if she just needs to know about everything going on in the house. I like to think it's the former. Plus, this cat wears her emotions openly - much more so than other cats we've had. When she's happy / excited, her fur puffs up. It's the same fur as when they're angry / scared - the tail poofs and the fur along the spine stands up. We were confused at first when she was a kitten, since it's so different from expected. But we learned that the puffed fur combined with intense purring and even rolling seems to be her way of expressing joy & pleasure. It's also absolutely adorable.

purim 4y ago

I don't think its particularly healthy to be purring, you are most likely causing damage to your vocal chords. The way cats do it are completely different and it causes their whole body to vibrate. You are better off humming to your cats.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
erybodyknows 4y ago
Parent likely meant a vocal trill, similar to “rolling your r’s”.

UncleOxidant 4y ago

I purr to cats as well. I recall visiting some friends who have cats a few years ago and purring to one of them - the cat did a double take and had what seemed to be an expression of surprise on his face - like "a purring human, how can this be?!". Everyone observing noticed his response.

bcrosby95 4y ago

We had inside/outside cats growing up, and they would follow us to school and make it back home on their own. When we were playing in the street or in our backyard, if we hurt ourselves they would go inside to "tell" our parents. One of my cats would wait by the window when I was at school, and when I stayed up too late at night come to "complain" to me to get me to go to sleep.

bradknowles 4y ago

I can't tell you the mechanism by which cats purr. I don't think scientists have figured that out yet. However, I have figured out a mechanism by which I can purr. Unfortunately, that involves a lot of airflow over my vocal cords on both inhale and exhale, so I can't keep it up for long. And the purr sounds slightly different on inhale versus exhale. And my purr is very fast and loud, compared to how slow and relatively quiet theirs can be. I do suspect that my mechanism is similar to the one that cats use, because I've noted a similar difference in the sound of their purr on inhale versus exhale. But there are lots of other variables, too. Unfortunately, our cats are kinda freaked out when I purr, so I don't do it often.