Cat’s strong, clear, facial expression and strange sound signals annoyance about owner’s behaviour

This cat is clearly unhappy and about to attack but owner presses on and holds her cat the wrong way. The woman who is holding her cat (and I have presumed that this is her cat) can clearly see that he is unhappy by the expression on his face. But she presses on regardless, insisting on getting her way. Perhaps she is doing it deliberately for the camera to force her cat to react to make an interesting video. She succeeds but it is another instance of mild cat abuse which irritates me but I’m not making a strange sound.

The cat, incidentally, looks purebred, probably a Burmese. This cat breed is described as “vocal and talkative, with a rather loud voice, a Burmese cat will let you know what it wants, in no uncertain terms”. That certainly fits the bill in this instance!

She is holding the cat in an uncomfortable way in any case. When you watch the video, you can foresee a potential attack by this cat on her. It gets that close in my opinion. But instead of having a swipe at her he barks or makes a strange non-feline sound.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

The point is that domestic cats do sometimes make what we regard as strange sounds but they are within their wide repertoire. People tend to pigeonhole cat vocalisations into certain brackets but it’s a seamless spectrum of sounds with the classic meow often modified quite substantially depending upon the circumstances.

What I don’t like about the video is that she presses on regardless knowing that her cat is irritated to the point of striking out. The look on the cat’s face is priceless. If you ever thought that cats don’t have facial expressions, this video should change your opinion. It couldn’t be clearer. It screams out “I am annoyed”. And it also screams out “unless you put me down you are going to pay a price!”.

The sound that the cat makes tops it off. The facial expression and sound couldn’t be a clearer communication to her: “Put me down immediately, please!”

Note: the quote about the Burmese cat’s talkativeness comes from Gloria Stephens’s book Legacy of the Cat with thanks

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