Deciphering the incessant babbling of a fur baby

I’ve never been called a “chatty Cathy”; that’s Cathy spelled with a “C” which brings up the old running joke among the C(K)atherines of the world about which spelling is correct. I’m guessing you’ll be able to figure out which way I lean.

The term “chatty Cathy” spun from a doll put out by Mattel in 1959. Little girls who owned a Chatty Cathy would pull a string on her back and she would speak one of eleven phrases, embedded on a tiny record inside her. Phrases like “I love you” and “Let’s play school”. (Fun fact: Chatty Cathy was the second most popular doll in the 1960s after Barbie!)

Production on Chatty Cathys stopped in the mid-60s but the idiom chatty Cathy lives on, used to describe someone who talks incessantly without saying anything of consequence. (I should be thankful I’ve never been called that!)

Chatty “catty”

So, I’m not a chatty Cathy but there is a chatty catty in my household. Can you see where this is going?

Močkė, my grey tabby, is very much a chatterbox. She squeals if I pat her when she’s sleeping. She makes that “eh, eh, eh” sound while watching birds and other critters attack the suet feeders outside the window. If you’re not familiar with cats, it sounds like this. I’d love to share a video of Močkė doing it but every time I start recording her, she stops. Just what I’d expect from a cat. She’ll decide if and when she wants to be videoed.

She does meow – a lot. There’s the:

• Conversational meow
• Playful meow when she drops one of her favourite toys at my feet and wants me to play
• “I love you” meow
• “I’m starving to death and haven’t eaten in an hour, feed me now human!” meow

I am learning to speak cat and for the most part, I find Močkė’s meows endearing. I happily engage with her in conversation although I will admit there are times when I ask the universe to please provide some silence.

Meowing in her sleep

She’s recently added a new sound to her repertoire; talking, or should I say meowing, in her sleep.

I was working at my desk the other day. She curled up and fell asleep on the carpet in front of me (despite her very soft, comfortable and expensive cat bed being literally footsteps away). She started making those “eh, eh, eh” sounds. I can only surmise she was dreaming about chasing birds, or squirrels or chipmunks. After a while the noises stopped. Did she catch what she was chasing?

It surprised me to learn that cats will chatter away while in dreamland. I don’t ever remember any of my previous fur babies talking in their sleep. Dogs, yep. You see their legs and paws twitching as they run after a ball, a bone, another dog, a squirrel while taking a doggy nap. But cats?

It does make sense. After all, they sleep a lot, upwards of 15 hours or more a day. Researchers say they experience the same kind of REM sleep that us two legged creatures do which is where the magic of dreams happens.

I’m back at my desk, plugging way on this and that. Močkė is again curled up on the carpet in front of me. No dreaming going on, at least not yet. Chatty catty is quiet. The critters she dreams of are safe, for now. The silence is golden.

Have you, as a pet owner, heard your fur baby talk in their sleep? Any thoughts on what they might be dreaming about? We should compare notes and in the meantime, I’ll keep trying to capture video of Močkė prattling away at the critters just beyond paw’s reach outside the window.