Talking to your cats as if they're sentient genuinely improves your relationship with them. amirite?

...they are sentient. Wait, what do you think sentient means?

by Cruz04 17 hours ago

Sapient?

by Former-Handle 17 hours ago

Yes, sentient used to mean what sapient currently means.

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

You're right, I didn't phrase it well. Sentience as in one human acknowledging and interacting with another.

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

I overshare with my cat and now she looks at me like "bro, boundaries."

by lehnerlilla 16 hours ago

My fave thing to do with my cat Cat: Meow! Me: Really!? Cat: Meooow! Me: Than what happened? Cat: Meeeoooow Me: *gasp* THAT BITCH! crack myself up every time

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

Meanwhile the dog's in the background like, I warned you about her.

by lehnerlilla 16 hours ago

Me: Don't listen to his lies!

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

Me: you don't say!

by Sufficient-Lawyer 15 hours ago

I try to talk to everyone as if they're smart, including plants and my students

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

I talk to my stuffed animals which I will admit is weird. But I'm an only child so personifying them gave me a "peer" to vent to We have a pepper plant and having a little convo with it has become a routine. Tell them they're doing great, they're pretty. Thank them for the peppers tell them what we made with it. I feel silly but hey lol

by willie27 15 hours ago

cats are sentient 😭 also i've never met a cat owner who doesn't talk to them, there's no way this is an unpopular opinion

by Silent-Fan7508 15 hours ago

I mean… I've never really talked to mine in 2 years. It's odd to me to consider it. He can't respond, WTF am I supposed to talk to him for?

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

If I ask him to come here, or get off the table, or come get food, or whatever… he stares at me blankly. The dude has meowed like 5 times in his entire life. Loud purrs though.

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

Maybe he'd meow more if you talked to him. Cats tend to mimic the amount of speech they get from their owner. Could be an interesting experiment to try

by Anonymous 14 hours ago

I talk to my cats all the time, and they know their names, sometimes will come (they are cats after all) will get off tables if I tell them to, etc... And it isn't just these cats, I have talked to past cats as if they are human and many of them have done the same.

by RepulsiveCod1100 14 hours ago

So you're saying that someday my cat will understand, "Sweetheart I love you so much but mom doesn't like it when you scratch her, okay?"

by Anonymous 13 hours ago

I find shorter phrases are easier to teach them. My cat knows "bitch NO" means they are playing too hard and need to lighten up lol

by Bayeresperanza 13 hours ago

Who the hell thinks this isn't true and what kinda monster are they?

by Anonymous 12 hours ago

I think the confusion comes from the facts cats don't udnerstand what we're saying. And from the cat to us, we are just making random noise. We can be speaking properly, doing an overly stereotypical racist chinese accent from the 70s or just speaking complete gibberish. It makes no difference to the cat and they just enjoy the noises, it's more about tone to them. But it's the other way around and our connection to them that improves. And if we improve our bond with them, we'll be nicer to them more frequently improving their bond with us.

by Anonymous 12 hours ago

I once read that if you never talk back to your cat they eventually give up and won't talk to you any more and that was the saddest damn thing to me.

by Anonymous 12 hours ago

Dogs, too. There are a few dogs at my job that my boss only trusts me with because I "know their quirks." In reality, I just talk to the dogs as if they are human children and understand 100% of what I'm saying. "I know it's scary, Riley, but I promise it's not going to hurt. No, we don't try to bite our friends. That's rude. I'm not trying to bite you, am I? See? It's okay." Just the soothing voice helps them a lot of the time, and it helps form a trusting relationship over time.

by Gunnarhills 12 hours ago

my friend (18m) has a cat (4f) and he always talk to her like oooh you so sexy you so delightful you so juicy

by Anonymous 11 hours ago

wtf do you mean juicy, huh?

by lehnerlilla 11 hours ago

This is absolutely accurate

by Anonymous 11 hours ago

Absolutely 💯 each is different but all it takes is a little encouragement. Mostly it's about food; when are you feeding me. Joey our dowstairs cat answers when I call him, it's a silent meow or a very quiet one, but his jaw definitely shows acknowledgement. First cat I've had that talks like that. Our upstairs cat Izzy talks constantly, very demanding and bossy. She shares whatever is on her mind and luckily I understand her.

by FieldFew 10 hours ago

I do the same thing with my dogs. They understand quite a bit when I tell them to do something or ask if they want something they will react specifically to what they want.

by Anonymous 10 hours ago

I know my cat absolutely understands the general vibes and some words that he hears. Cats aren't as eager to please as dogs are but they definitely can be trained and they pick up on how you communicate. My cat has been known to back talk me when he's doing something naughty.

by retajohnston 9 hours ago

I always talk to my cats like their people. Bonsai is an awesome conversationalist. I'll spend a few minutes after getting home from work getting the full run-down of everything that happened since I left.

by roxanepaucek 9 hours ago

Cats are sentient.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

I talk to my dog as if he is sentient. And I talk back to myself as him. And we gang up on my GF together. He rats on her all the time. It is loads of fun...until I develop Schizophrenia or some other delusion because I do it too much. I can see myself in a padded room, still carrying on conversations between me and my dog, long after he is gone.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago