Calling Animals

L

Lon

Well-known Member
Location
Central California
Why is it that when we call cats we call them in a high pitched voice, like "here kitty kitty kitty" Hardly ever call them by name or in a deep masculine voice?

We don't call dogs in a high pitched voice saying, here doggie doggie doggie. No, we say C'mon boy C'mon Rex in a masculine voice or C'mon girl in our female voice. Calling birds, canaries/parakeets we use a variety of chirping sounds and noises with our lips and tongue.
 

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In my years I have had 12 cats, often three at a time. Each of our cats had a name we used since they were kittens. I could call them individually and they would come, only the one I called. I always used my Baritone voice. They all were indoors at night. I had one cat "Grey" who was a stray. I rescued him from the snow during a blizzard in South Dakota. I brought him into my garage set him up with a box with blankets, food and water and a heat lamp hung up above him. It was near zero. This cat loved to travel so when the weather cleared I let him go as he pleased but in the evening I would go out to the driveway and whistle in a high to low sequence. Soon, in the dim light you could look up the road and see the little white patch under greys throat going back and fro as he trotted toward home and food and bed, by this time he was a star bed sleeper. I loved the little fella.

Jim teases Grey.jpg
 
Here's my 4 cats.. clockwise from the top Belle, Carl, Jack and Mitzi. However, I am also long term cat sitting my son's cat Harold

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Great photo Jim, I can tell you are a cat whisperer (like me), lol. QS, that pic of Mitzi is just adorable, love her face markings. :love_heart: When my cat was young and I called him, it was in a gentle higher toned voice, and he's pretty good at coming. Now when I need to get him inside, I call him in a regular voice, he goes camping with us and is out loose in the wild, so there's no sweet little calls out there. He's always in at night, I couldn't sleep if he wasn't...he's only out an hour or two a day, in and out really, I'm the doorman for both dog and cat.
 
Jim, your Grey looks like a real sweetie (very similar in coloring to my late Russian Blue Sonia). Such a great photo - I can see that you love your cats very much.

QS, photo of your kitten Mitzi is so sweet - your 4 kitty cats are very pretty.
 
Sadly Grey died in my arms a year or so after he adopted me. The vet thinks he might have licked up some anti-freeze. Up in South Dakota lots of farm equipment around our old place there and people are careless about disposing of it.. I had Grey cremated along with two other beloved pets that died at different times and in the other two's cases it was old age. I have each of them in their own little urns with their name age and a picture of them, when I die someone will no doubt dispose of them but as long as I am here they stay with me.
 
Jim and Quicksilver, your furbabies are gorgeous. I loved the pics. Thanks for sharing.

Back to the question. Calling cats in a higher pithed voice just works better than using a deep masculine voice. Cats are really independent and therefore disobedient by nature. They have their own agenda and it's usually not doing what we want them to do. I find shaking a box of dry cat food works better than words in most cases. Never met a cat yet who ignored that.
 
Three of my cats come when I call them. Mitzi, Jack and Belle. They may do it in their own sweet time though, but they do come..eventually.. I don't use a high pitched voice... I just call out their names. Each of my cats knows his/her name. Belle comes the quickest when I bribe her with a promise of brushing.. All I have to say is "Bella brush you?" and she comes running.
 
Several years ago, I had a grey Tabby that I dearly loved. Charley would go on walks with me with no leash. Sometimes in late afternoon he would go up to a bush a grab a bird and then let it go, unharmed. He became best friend to a solid black cat he played with day after day. One summer, I boarded him for two weeks when I took my vacation. When I got back, he had contracted Cat Leukemia from which he didn't recover. I have an album with page after page of Charlie's lovable antics. He was a great companion and I still miss him and still look at his pictures.
 
chic said:
Jim and Quicksilver, your furbabies are gorgeous. I loved the pics. Thanks for sharing.

Back to the question. Calling cats in a higher pithed voice just works better than using a deep masculine voice. Cats are really independent and therefore disobedient by nature. They have their own agenda and it's usually not doing what we want them to do. I find shaking a box of dry cat food works better than words in most cases. Never met a cat yet who ignored that.
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Interesting you told about the dry cat food box. When we lived up on the mountain in Idaho in our Cabin, I let Annie and Christopher run during the day but toward evening If they hadn't come home on their own, we would do exactly what you mention. Shake the box and from somewhere in the wild brush two little cats would come running.

This was a view from the side of our cabin so you see the places a cat might want to explore.
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QuickSilver said:
... Belle comes the quickest when I bribe her with a promise of brushing.. All I have to say is "Bella brush you?" and she comes running.
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Yep, yelling "Brush that kitty?" is a sure fire way to get mine to come running. Probably if I stopped brushing her when she came she would stop coming.:) She will also come, or at least whimper (to give me a clue when we're playing hide and seek) when I say "Where are you?".
 

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