firstgirlwonder:

kedreeva:

thats-tea:

i like where this person is going with this, but it’s also wrong.

cats aren’t mimicking human infant cries when they meow. Why would they do that? How would they even know if they’ve never met a human infant? You know when cats meow that doesn’t involve humans? To their babies. Their kittens mewl and they meow back, until the kittens can open their eyes and learn the non-vocal and sub-vocal cat language cues.

Cats don’t meow to us because they’re trying to manipulate us into thinking they’re our babies. Cats meow to us because they suspect that we’re just big, bumbling babies that Need Some Extra Help Communicating.

You know when many cats, including my own, stop meowing at humans? When you learn what non-vocal language cues they recognize, and use those to communicate instead. One of the cues best known by humans is the slow-blink of warmth and respect.

I’m glad I found this, because this is probably why my cat talks to me as much as she does.

She used to be a mother, before she came home with me. So it makes hella sense. 

When I go outside, she watches through the window and makes a little ‘meep’ sound when I walk back in, or longer mews, probably asking where I’ve been. She also likes to alert me after she jumps on me, with a meow. 

One of her non verbal things is getting behind me then putting her claws in my back to make me sit back so she can lay on me. 

Cats probably did develop to sound more like babies because the ones that sounded more like babies were more likely to be let inside back when we were starting to domesticate them by accident.