Talk to Your Cat: How to Communicate with Your Pet

by Susie Green

It takes more than an imitation "meow" to talk with a cat. These intelligent and feisty creatures have minds of their own, so communication can become frustrating--as 77 million owners have discovered. But with this expert advice, and aided by drawings and photos, cat owners can become experts in feline psychology. They'll learn how to interpret a cat's body movements, facial expressions, and vocalizations, understand just what kitty is saying--and know the best way to respond. Find out what power touch has for cats, and how a massage or a cheek rub can forge a much closer relationship with the animal. There's also a look at felines large and small, including wild cats, because their natural life reveals many interesting facets of the domesticated version's personality.

Genres: Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is titled "Talk to your cat: How to communicate with your Pet" it doesn't actually cover a lot in the way fo 'communicating'. It DOES cover 'reading' your pet, however, and gives some truly fun and interesting background on the modern housecat, where it came from, what variences we know the genetics of, and so on.

This book borrows heavily from bigger, harder to read books on the topic, so it's a great 'overview', a great place to START learning about cat behavior, history, and how the communicate in a general way.

I enjoyed it, it was a comfortable read most of the time, although it was painfully obvious it was written by a european author- some terms don't cross over to the US easily (such as 'Moggie' meaning a 'mutt' cat) but it's easy to grap what it meant in those rare moments.

Fun stuff, if you're just starting to study how cats interact with humans and want to learn more- there's a great list of the books she borrowed from, in the back!

[Sarah Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly charming book, both the writing and illustrations are top-notch, and I found out a ton of information that I was not expecting about cat's psychic abilities to forecast natural disasters and where they like to be touched to how they communicate to fellow cats and humans. The first section of the book imparts great information I never knew I wanted to know about cats such as how rats are quite a challenge to kill given they sit on their hindquarters and fight cats often to the bitter end and that the European wildcat was hunted to near extinction in Britain for their fur but still exist in forests in Europe and that ancient Egyptians who revered cats as deities fed their own furbabies bread and milk. Delightful illustrations throughout.

But even more important is her discussion of cat behavior from reading facial expressions to tail position. I have a problem cat, Walter, who was severely traumatized as a kitten and has anger issues along with high anxiety. His anxiety has become even more pronounced with the arrival of my fourth indoor cat, a cat I just found on the street and well he became part of the family. Unfortunately this anxiety is externalized not just through hissing and swishing tails but spraying wherever he wants and peeing. I've watched the Jackson Galaxy videos, very helpful, but I had never heard of TTouch massage or just massage in general to deal with animal behaviorial issues. Since I've started doing the massage on Walter, he has become a lot less anxious and noticeably less nasty spraying in the house. He's not yet anxious-free but the chapters on cat behavior and problems in this book have really helped and that plus the obvious love and passion Ms Green has for felines make this book worth purchasing/reading.

[Cindy Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all "facts" are facts. But cute read.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

You learn so much with body language, types of meows, history of cats etc. I found this to be very informative.

[Nicholas Ricioppo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you may want to, or not want to know, about domestic cats.

[Laura Cushing · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of an overview - there wasn't all that much specific information on cat communication. They had some tail and face charts, and some information on what the various mew sounds are - but too much of the book was spent on the history of cats in society, and whether or not your cat has 'psychic' powers and other such things that would be best off in a volume that doesn't purport itself to be about cat communication.

It was entertaining over all but I didn't learn too much specific information on comunicating with my cats, so a bit disapointing at the same time.