this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
33 points (74.6% liked)

Unpopular Opinion

6325 readers
11 users here now

Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!


How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.


If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.



Guidelines:

Tag your post, if possible (not required)


  • If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
  • If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].


Rules:

1. NO POLITICS


Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.


2. Be civil.


Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...


Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.


5. No trolling.


This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.



Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I love my little cat. The idea of names and using words seems extremely silly to me.

My cat's real name is "wwhhq." It is a sound that is completely different than any word or sound I ever use. I also have a low volume high pitch whistle I can make that is barely audible to me and consists of a specific quick up-down-UP tone. She can hear that over any white noise and will usually respond, at least, more usual than most cats I've owned or been around. I'd call it a 90% response rate. No one else in the house can generate that kind of response from her, especially with a silly anthropomorphized name. I've gotten to the point where all words directed at an animal seem like unnecessary nonsense. They are only responding to tone and actions. So, I figure why not simplify my vocalizations to make my communication entirely on her level of tones and actions making my intent more clear and easy to interpret. It has worked really well for me over the last 9 years with my current cat. I don't think I will speak to a cat ever again.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can totally respect that perspective.

My real motivation was simply stating I get far better results by simplifying the dialogue to something that is better understood. I find it super annoying when someone is yelling words across a house at a cat. Like all you are doing is saying "stay away from random yelling ape making random weird scary sounds." Just keeping it simple, conscious, and consistent with a cat's cognitive abilities can generate real results most people assume cats are incapable of doing.

[–] marron12@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

yelling words across a house at a cat.

Cats have sensitive hearing and hate loud noises, so it makes a lot of sense that a quiet whistle would work better than loudly calling out. Things like "pspsps" and "ksksks" get their attention too because it's not very loud but has a lot of high frequencies that they can hear well.

They seem to like when you talk to them in a calm voice. They might not understand sentences, but they do recognize sounds. They'll look at you funny if you suddenly start speaking a different language.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, I get it. It looks for me like the "target" of your annoyance is that some people expect their cats to behave like humans, including understanding speech; that's far from true and it goes way past the human instinct that I mentioned.