Understanding cat talk

Jade, the tri-colored cat, had helped make the beds, burrowing under the bedding as the bed was stripped and clinging to the clean sheets as I swept them over to drop them into place. Then as I chased her away, she had headed off downstairs and started calling out to me.

Humans can learn each other's language, but we never learn more than the basics of the language of other living things.

All living beings do have languages - they do communicate - at least within a species. Dogs communicate with each other all the time and after living alongside them for decades, they also try and communicate with us.

The problem with learning an animal language is perception. If I meet someone whose language I don't know, I can point to a table and they will understand and tell me their word for table. Thus we learn from each other - to communicate.

But a dog doesn't use a table. It doesn't presumably have a word for table. It can only learn to understand our word for table.

If I want to occupy the cats, I will say "let's change the beds" and both cats will eagerly follow me upstairs and happily play with the billowing sheets, seeing it as a game.

If, however, I am in a hurry, I sneak upstairs and change the beds as quietly as possible, knowing that if I make a noise, one or other of the cats will hear me and come running, standing outside the door and calling, demanding to be let in to have some fun.

Jade left the room as I finished the beds. She rushed downstairs to stand at the back door to be let out. It is a learned response from the days when she was an outdoor cat. In those days, she slept on the bed. And when I got out of bed, she knew she would be fed then allowed outside.

She would disappear for hours, only returning as it got dark and she was ready for dinner. These days, she only goes out on a leash. So when she wants to go out, she stands at the back door and says "now, let me out" - only she says it in cat talk and we have just learned to understand her.

Georgina Noyce is an equestrian judge, and has a menagerie of adopted four-legged waifs and strays.