By Elisa Black-Taylor
Why doesn’t my cat Coral meow? I ask myself that question every night as Coral jumps into my lap for some quality petting time. I’d like to tell her story, and then I hope some of you may have some answers for my non-vocal cat.
Coral has been with us for over two years now. She was rescued from Greenville County Animal Care Services back in 2011 at the same time we rescued a cat named Jane. One of my friends from New York who’s very involved with GCACS asked me if I could take both cats. Jane went on to find her own family, but Coral has decided to stay with us on a permanent basis.
Coral’s paperwork at the shelter listed her as a stray. My daughter and I believe she was a stray, mainly because of her ears. Her ears were full of ear mites. We took her to the vet and got the medicine to treat her. She passed her physical as far as being healthy, other than the infestation of the mites. It took a good month to get all the gunk cleaned out where she’d have pretty ears.
Laura and I often wonder why anyone would turn her into the shelter. She never meows, always uses the litter box and isn’t fussy about her cat food. In other words, Coral is the perfect cat. Except she’s quiet. We’ve heard a hiss or two out of her when one of the other cats try to intrude upon her petting time in Laura’s lap.
Coral was often called our cat with no personality. That was before she let us know how much she enjoys chasing a laser light. It’s the first toy she’s ever played with. And she loves to drink out of a faucet. I’m more likely to see her taking a drink from the tub faucet than from the water bowl.
Coral is also beautiful. Not that beautiful will keep a cat off of death row. You all may remember Coral from the comment I made on Michael’s article here about being able to pick your cat out of an I.D. parade.
I commented on confusing Furby with Coral all the time. From the rear, they look identical to me. Laura says Coral is a slightly lighter color. And if I pet her I can tell the difference. She’s our softest cat. Her name should have been Cashmere.
I wonder whether Coral could have been feral at one time, since feral cats are known for keeping silent. Her ears were certainly dirty enough for her to have lived outside for a long period of time. Perhaps someone who just enjoys trapping cats and turning them in to the shelter caught her. We’ll never know. And Coral refuses to give up secrets about her past.
We’ve only had one other cat who kept silent for a very long time. That was Sealy. We pretty much know he was a feral. He still has feral-like behavior, such as he enjoys prowling for food. It was close to eight months before he ever meowed, and that was when he wanted out of my bedroom and the door was closed. He’ll also jump on top of Laura and meow for his breakfast. For the record, Sealy has the LOUDEST meow of any of our cats. He just doesn’t “talk” very often.
Any ideas on why Coral doesn’t meow? She’s healthy and friendly otherwise. I’ve never had such a quiet cat.
She is good. One of the best stories on PoC is Monty’s Paradise.
There are a few choirs singing in meows on YouTube but I think this is the funniest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2rqzscduY
Elisa my Molly makes sounds very rarely and often when she purrs you can’t hear it but you can feel it. She is naturally just a quiet cat. But my Gigi is becoming a huge talker. She will answer from the other room if you call her. She also doesn’t like it when I leave in the morning and she starts telling me about it long before I am even ready to leave. I guess the wonder of cats is how different and unique they are. It sounds like maybe your Coral either had an owner and never had any success when meowing or just didn’t have an owner.
Ruth – this comment is alot of things, love it, you have a particular sense of humour and you are a very good writer I think. I am suprised you don’t write for a living.
I have always though that cats develop a meow directed at their human through confidence and the human talking to them. So a quiet cat should change over time in the right household.
I like the idea of a meow database. I have been meaning to record Charlie some more because he makes some interesting sounds that I have not heard before 😉
We could have a laugh doing a meow sound. But it would be quite technical and tricky. Nice idea.
This is a nice opportunity to bring up a link to your Simon’s Song. It is still there on PoC and the audio file still works (even after the move to WordPress):
Simon’s Song (the link opens in a new tab or window)
Sounds good. I guess the theory is that the kittens learns to talk through a dialogue with her mother. Purring starts almost immediately and the sense of smell is fully functional at but perhaps developing meowing is through early contact with mum. I don’t know though.