Friday, June 27, 2025

The yawn - what does it mean?


We cats yawn, just like humans, when we are sleepy either before a nap or on waking up. But there is also a different meaning to a yawn.

We also yawn sometimes when we are slightly, just a little, worried or stressed. This cat in the video is listening to an unfamiliar human making noises (cleaning) the other side of a half open door.

Unexpected noises are slightly worrying for us cats, because sound is VERY important to us. We have the widest range of hearing of all the animals tested, including humans. 

We can hear the tiny squeak of a small mouse. As predators we need to hear these sounds so we can hunt and eat.

We can also hear the lower sounds of a dog or a wolf barking or growling. We need to hear these sounds because we are prey for bigger animals who might eat us.

Notice our ears that swivel to pick up very quiet sounds. In this video the cat starts with ears slightly back then moves them forward to catch the sound coming from another room.

Get your human to watch this video. Humans are dumb animals who can't speak cat language. But if they concentrate on watching us they can learn some of it!

This cat is saying "I am slightly anxious about this unusual sound?"


 

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Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org