River Cottage

Poor old thing - we call it "having their pockets picked"

Potty - I have never come across a male tortoise shell cat so if you know one you must be lucky

Better to be spayed than spend her life having litters of unwanted kittens. Sensible choice and a responsible one. Unspayed cats are prone to a number of diseases that they would be far less likely to suffer if spayed.

Absolutely agree Ozzi, all of the cats we've had have had their pocket pick so to speak!

Pippa, ours are very vocal too, there is quite range of squeaks and meow's, you do get to recognise them like the little chirp they make when they jump up beside you in the morning.

Mine have entire conversations with me, each other, and the dog at times. With me it is vocal, with each other it can be fairly heated at times, and with the dog it is done with body language. Lots of huddles and cuddles going on around the place over the weekends as they renew their acquaintance with each other.

Sons' cat is not the most vocal, but it has a special chirrup as someone comes in the door. It wags it's tail too so you can tell how it feels that way. They think with that, the little 'boots' and some rather indistinct markings that it may have some Maine Coon in it.

Our cat had a very wide range of sounds and would 'talk' to us.

As I posted somewhere the other day, our lads dogs had quite an argument with a trespassing dog. Sounded as if a lot of bad language was flying around. The other one was a Jack Russel, and they are never backwards in coming forwards.

Our cats have plenty to say for themselves too. Very easy to tell which one is which by their meows, Leo has a very high pitched short meow and Dexter has a deeper longer meow. The dogs make all sorts of funny noises....! One sometimes make a chimp-like noise and the other sounded a little like a cockerel the other day - very strange! Would love to know what they're saying

Poor little Dexter had to go to the vets this morning, he was limping yesterday and his paw was very sore. We were worried that he may have had a broken bone, turns out he has an infection in one of his toes (no idea how he's managed that). The vet gave him a couple of injections and said it should clear up in a few days. 

We lost both our cats several years ago (still miss them desperately), but I have fond memories of the hours I spent "conversing" with them.

Dogs.......well, they're a different matter, but both of ours are "great listeners" (will sit and listen to me tell them all my worries and woes, and are never judgemental of me ), but some evenings one of them (our little Maltese) can become quite vocal/chatty; no barking, just little grunts and snuffles that she emits when we say something to her........and I love it when she does that!

Yes Shadow does converse occasionally - I had put it down to being raised by cats ...

Last year one of the garden robins had a chat to me. It wasn't really singing, just making quiet little noises as if it was talking particularly to me. Probably explaining why it needed feeding.

Or telling you to dig a little to the right because there is a worm there ...