Why is your cat meowing? What is your cat trying to tell you? Have you ever wondered why cats meow just to people, but not to other cats? And if you haven’t thought of this before, it’s a huge mistake because being a real cat person, you should never forget that an important part of your relationship is understanding your cat. By the way, you can even know a lot about your cat by listening to his/her meowing. 
I’m sure you know that the reasons why cats meow change as they grow from kittens into cats. Kittens commonly meow to their mothers if they’re hungry, scared or cold. But when cats get older, they start to use some other signals to communicate with each other like yowling, hissing or growling. However, meowing is a language developed exclusively for people. Cats use meowing as a way to talk only with humans.
Well, examining your cat’s vocal patterns, you can learn to recognize his/her communication techniques and, thus, understand better what he/she is trying to tell you.
I can recommend you to read a wonderful book “The Cat Behavior Answer Book” by Arden Moore to know more about meowing. According to the author, cats can make at least 30 vocal sounds, including 19 variations of the simple meow.
So I hope you realize that you should know what different meows mean as how well you understand your cat depends on it.
Here I`d like to tell you how my Jade communicates with me and how various her meowing may be, depending on what she wants. I`m sure that you`ll recognize some common vocal patterns of your cat among my examples.
One syllable “Meh!” or even “Eh!” is a quick and staccato sound that serves as the conversational greeting like“Hi!”.
Short “Mew!” usually means when she is hungry and in such a way she tries to tell me, “Feed me now, human!”. But I suppose that you can also hear such caterwauling if your cat wants something else, for example, to be let out of a room, open the door and so on.
Polite “Meep!” is very similar to the sounds that humans commonly do when they clear their throats and this type of meow is a tender plea for attention. This “Meep!” tells me that my cat needs me and my attention right now.
Low-pitched “Mrrooooww!” is the sound of indignation or complain. It’s a sure sign that I’ve done something wrong, for example, “What! You`ve hidden my favorite toy!” or vice versa I haven’t done anything – “Why is my bowl still empty?!”.
Frisky “Rrrak!” is a true call to play! It means that my cat either run around the house with her favorite toys or invite me to play with her!
Irritated “Rrroww!” may indicate something awful as it`s a sound of pain or great anger! It can be something medically wrong or even anxiety at being left alone at home. This sound may appear if someone stepped on her tail or paw and so on!
So… cat language isn`t so difficult as it seems at first glance. You just have to be more attentive to your cat, pay attention to the circumstances in which your cat meows and how your cat does it. This can really help you understand your cat better!
Written by Andrew Guerra https://catspurfection.com/
