What I find really fascinating about my cats is their understanding of certain words. Every time I say ‘dinner,’ ‘food,’ or ‘treat,’ they immediately stop whatever they’re doing, turn their attention to me, and start meowing – sometimes quite loudly.
The words ‘play’ and ‘game’ elicit similar reactions, but ‘bath’ and ‘water’ bring about a stark contrast. I suppose they’ve learned to associate these words with either positive or negative emotions over time.
This remarkable ability can be practiced and perfected, especially if you and your feline companion use one of those handy pet speech buttons.
Nina Leopold, a devoted cat parent from South Carolina, has one such device, which she uses to communicate with her beloved kitty, Flounder.
Yup, that’s right! Nina taught her feline companion how to talk, which makes Flounder – a talking cat!
That’s definitely not something you hear about every day, right?
In an interview with WJCL News, Nina described the training process with Flounder, taking pride in the fact that Flounder’s choices are never guesses or coincidences: Her kitty knows exactly which button is for what.
She shared:
“When we have guests over, she’ll kick the guests out. She’ll tell them ‘Stranger. All done. Home. Now.’”
From anger to happiness, Flounder is a master at expressing her emotions, which makes her the purrfect feline companion. Imagine not having to guess what goes on in your kitty’s brain. A literal dream, right?
With so many buttons to choose from, it’s hard to believe that Flounder can always pick the correct one to express her emotions accurately. Surely, she must make a mistake sometimes.
However, one particular video of this Bengal cat from South Carolina convinced me of something: Flounder doesn’t make mistakes.
In the video Nina shared on Flounder’s Instagram, the clever kitty approaches the speech buttons and presses the ones for ‘Later’ and ‘Concern.’ Nina responds by asking why she is concerned, and Flounder hits the button for ‘Ouch.’
Worried about her kitty, Nina asks if her paw is hurt, but Flounder presses ‘Belly’ instead.
Watch the video for yourself to see how their conversation unfolds:
Can you believe this? What seemed like just a silly game with speech buttons turned out to be Flounder’s way of telling her owner about a belly ache.
Even though Flounder ended up vomiting on the floor, she at least warned Nina about what was coming. What a smart kitty!
Thankfully, nothing was seriously wrong with Flounder; she had simply played too much and probably eaten too many treats, which led to the vomiting.
I’m just amazed by her skills – and so is her owner, Nina, who wrote in the video’s description:
“As always, my mind is blown by this little cat and her amazing brain.”
I hope you find this video and Flounder’s abilities as fascinating as I did.
Tell me, has this smart kitty inspired you to get pet speech buttons for your own fluff(s)? Are you planning to teach your cat how to talk? I know I am!
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