Cat Facts – Page 8 – Sir Socks Le Chat

Most cats are hairy. Yes, there are those cats who are hairless. Many people consider them ugly. So, if you decide to live with a cat, you will learn quickly that we shed a lot of hair. All the time. Especially during a season change. We have a light weight coat to keep us cool during the summer. And we can grow a thicker warmer coat to keep us warm during the winter.

I bet there are humans who wish their bodies could do the same…

So, because of the differences in the kinds of coats we can grow, we will shed hair all the time. Sometimes it’s not the weather causing us to grow a new coat. Sometimes it’s stress. Vets know this and never complain when they find lots of hair on the examination table after we’ve been there.

If you are human and can’t stand pet hair, why would you even consider living with one of us? We can’t help it. It’s so perfectly natural to us. We have to live with this everyday of our lives. And you want to complain?

Then clean it up. We can’t clean up our hair. Do you want us to have hairballs? No? Why would you? Then it will be more of a mess for you to clean up.

Okay, if you want to help reduce the clean up, you are welcome to get a decent brush and brush our beautiful coats. I have to say getting my coat brushed is wonderful. I’m just a short haired cat, but I can imagine for the longer haired cats, a brush could be a good thing too.

I hear there’s an old wives’ tale about buttering a cat’s paws when they are taken to a new home. Of course the cat will lick the butter off of their paws because we like to be so clean. I don’t know if butter works, but I do know my girl has tended to give me a can of tuna whenever we had to move to a new home.

Well, I usually didn’t get the tuna right away. As soon as I’m in a strange, new place, I go and find a place to hide. It’s just safer for me that way. She usually wasn’t done moving things around. Even a closet was a safe place to hide while she organized everything.

Once we moved with Spot. My girl put both of us in a closet together and closed the door. I could hear her moving things around and unpacking. I was quite content to stay in the closet. Spot tried to get out. He wanted to explore. I don’t know why he wanted to. Moving is scary and traumatic.

But a can of tuna after I’ve calmed down does help me to get over it. That and knowing we’re all still together.

I bet this isn’t a well known fact. Or at least it’s not thought of much. Those of us cats who live with or even near humans are bilingual. We have our own language that we use with each other. When that fails, we just get into fights. But when we need to talk to humans, we have to learn another language—the one the humans use.

So, those of us living near or even with humans know two languages. If we hear another human language, we don’t always understand it right away. We need time just as humans do to learn the new language.

I know my girl can understand we cats have our own language that we speak. She is a good one to stand back and let us talk to each other without interruption. She can’t understand what we are saying per se. I know because she didn’t always understand me whenever I talk to her. So, to compensate, I tended to repeat the same one syllable word until she understand.

I know she’s not stupid. She just has a hard time learning a language from just listening to it. My girl reads a lot. I’ll let her tell you about the sorts of things she has read in her life. Besides, she did learn to understand me. I just had to make it a little easier on her.

Oh, I did learn to say her name correctly, but usually I just call her “Al,” because it’s easier for me. We cats just don’t have the same vocal organs as you humans do. She knows when I’m calling her for something and that’s all that matters.

Category: Cat Facts

Cats and Shedding

Cats & Moving

Cats & Language