Every cat that I have ever had has hated my singing. Since I know that there couldn't possibly be anything wrong my singing, I have to conclude that every cat is a music critic, and that they have poor taste in music, at that. I had a Siamese cat once who would try to kill me when I sang to him, so of course I sang to him often. Others have hissed at me or made other displays of dislike for my singing. For a time, I had convinced myself that Cutie had learned to appreciate my music in her old age, but have since come to realize that she's deaf. I had hopes for Ella, our young one, since she is generally a very polite girl but I had no more than begun to sing a little ditty to her when she ran down the stairs. Thinking that perhaps she was simply looking for a room that had better acoustics, I followed. She ran back up the stairs. She didn't hiss, or bite me, so perhaps there's still hope for her.
I don't have much information about cats and singing. I never sang to my cats when they were my pets, but I did talk to them as if they understood me. There was one kitten that visited me, pure black. One day she appeared at my door. She cried and she was sitting at my door and when I opened the door there she was and she walked in like she belonged to me. Well she loved the television this was the only kitten that watched television like we do. She cleans herself watching the television. I couldn't keep her for the apt. doesn't allow pets. The thing is we live on the second floor at that time. I thought it was very interesting she choose my door. Well I took care of her for just a week and called the nearest pet shop and they welcomed her. I explained it to her that I couldn't keep her, took her to the pet shop and left her. Oddly enough a few months later a pure black cat showed up on my lanai one night. The little black cat likes the cat at my neighbor's on the first floor beneath us,so they visited.The little black cat sat on the heater closet in the corner of the lanai this night I went outside to see the skies...when I looked at the right side of the lanai there was 2 glistening eyes looking at me...I began to pray, then as my eyes became accustomed to the night I noticed the silhouette of the little black cat. I always smile when I think of it, that night of the glistening eyes. LOL!
Ah, cats! My two guys quickly learned to respond to certain tones of voice. The male, once upset over the appearance of a big gray male outside our sliding glass door, became enraged every time I uttered in a sort of hissing, insistent way, "GET GRAY"! He immediately hissed several times, wearing that very angered look cats can do. Both of them learned the immediate meaning of the sound of the electric can opener running. Especially if I used that same tone of voice to say "SHRIMPS"! They loved the tiny, expensive canned shrimp! Now and then I'd treat them to some, even enjoying a few myself. My wife does not care for them, and hence thought I was wasting money. Frank
"Cats, in fact, do enjoy music, but they don’t enjoy human music — at least according to new research. A study recently published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science believes that in order for our feline friends to enjoy music, it has to be species-specific music".
Yes Joe - its obvious cats have particular tastes. I can't see them going for Motorhead and the like at all
I noticed that in another thread you mentioned having to talk loud for Cutie because she is getting deaf; @Ken Anderson , but that you think that possibly she can read lips. I think that you might be close to the answer on that. From reading that I have done about mental communication with animals, some people believe that dogs, cats, and other animals can sometimes "see" what we are thinking when we visualize it. After reading that, I experimented with my horse when I was out riding on the woodland trails. We were on old logging roads, and when we would come to a fork in the road, I would picture in my mind that my horse went down whichever fork I wanted her to take. I was careful not to move, or give her any clues as to what i was thinking, and most of the time, she would go the direction that I was visualizing. You might be thinking of things when you are talking with Cutie, and she sees the pictures in your mind, and that is how she understands what you are saying to her. You might try experimenting with that and see if it works. I also thiink that is how Ella knew that you needed help in finding Cutie when she was lost, or had disappeared from where you thought she was at.
My cat ignores most sound input most of the time, from sources other than his favorite humans, but if I have a nature program that involves bird tweeting or something, he is all over it. Ears twitiching and what not. Another sound I notice he is really keyed into is the sound of trucks backing up, the beeping noise. He associates it with delivery trucks coming here, and it is scary for him. Even if the sound is on the street he will frequently growl or run away and if the sound is on the computer he will pay attention to it. I haven't found any music the cat tunes into to.
I like it when Ella is ignoring me and pretending to sleep. I might whisper, so quietly that I can't hear myself, "Ella...," and her ear will twitch. She won't turn around and look at me but she has that tell. Now if I were to say, as I have, "Ella, do you want to go out," she'd be up in a flash, with no pretense of sleeping.