Cat says “Are you coming?” – I explain how and why.

by Michael Broad · April 10, 2022

In this TikTok video the cat says: “Are you coming?”. How did this happen? Can a domestic cat speak like a human in the English language? It seems highly improbable! Indeed, it is impossible; at least currently. Perhaps in a couple of million years’ time a domestic cat might be able to say a few words of English or French or German or whatever due to domestic cat evolution. I guess you know what is happening and therefore it does not need explaining but I will do it anyway ?.

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Cat asks ‘Are you coming?’ – Screenshot.

Although domestic cats make the classic sounds that we know so well such as purring, hissing and meowing, they also make a series of intermediate sounds and each individual cat has their own variation on the meow. In human terms they have slightly different accents and they deliver their sounds in slightly different ways under a range of circumstances. And it just so happens that in this instance the unusual sound that this cat makes gives the impression that she is speaking English and saying, “Are you coming?”

The cat is simply meowing – an unusual rendition of the meow certainly – at her human companion. It is probably a call which ironically means… Are you coming?! It’s a call which demands attention from her human caregiver; in short, attention seeking.

It’s a good example, really, of how individual cats create their own sounds and it is unrealistic to pigeonhole all the sounds that domestic cats make into a narrow range of feline vocalisations.