I’ve taught my cat to talk.
And you can too. Even your dog can talk. It’s hilarious. So, I was watching an instagram of Stella the talking dog and then Bunny the talking dog and decided that Blackberry wasn’t a dog, but gosh darn it--he could talk.
So I purchased recordable buttons on Amazon (search that and they should come up) and labeled two and started trying them. The husband made fun of me. The kids were amused. But I saw something in that bossy tuxedo cat that yeets everything from the counters when he was mad. It was love. He needed to have a way to tell us in our language that he loved us. I mean sure, getting walked on in the middle of the night has always been heartwarming, but I wanted to HEAR him say it.
So we had a TREAT button and a PET button. This cat is wicked food motivated, so he was very, very interested in what I was offering. We got to the point where he would touch the button with his paw after
I modeled it for a few weeks. It was very exciting, but still, it was me pressing it, not him.
Then one afternoon I was too busy for Blackberry’s English lesson so I passed the treat bag to my husband. “Can you do this for me?”
The hubs is a disbeliever. But, he does do what I ask him to do. So while I did whatever the heck it was that I was busy with, I kept one eye on my feline prodigy.
Hubs frowns at cat. “Use your paw. Press it.”
Blackberry frowns back and gently touches the button as light as butterfly wings fluttering on cotton candy. Hubs takes the cat’s paw and shoulder and gently presses the button. The cat pulls away, but does eat the offered treat.
And that’s all it took. From one man to another, the hubs told the cat the way to do it, and now Blackberry presses it all the time. He has five working buttons right now. Treat, Dinnertime, Pets, Love you people, and outside.
He was really loving the dinnertime button, and because science, he needed to be positively rewarded for each correct action.
He was hitting that button hard. So I switched it. Which is a horrible idea from a communication standpoint, BUT it was fun. I switched the position of the LOVE YOU PEOPLES button and the Dinnertime PLEASE button. So now, at night Blackberry depresses the Love you button and in harmony, my whole family repeats, “Love you kitty!” Every damn time. Blackberry stands there with his little paw resting on the button like he is posing for the Capitain Morgan Rum bottle label.
And now, I bring up my talking cat all the time. And guess what? People think I’m weird. And it’s not like anything you can organically drop in a conversation, so I just blurt it out. Too much. A lot. I’m so proud.
Blackberry is a talker and honest to goodness, sometimes he walks up to me, stares into my soul and meows, like he is trying to teach me HIS language. I meow back. I have no idea what my buttons say.
Anyway, happy talking cat day. (Curious to see him in action? Here’s a vdeo https://bit.ly/BLACKBERRYTALKS
Another bit of news, There is a just a few more days to enter the Daredevils Monthly giveaway, so take a swing friend: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4562622610426452
