Cat communication with humans

[wnylib]

I have mentioned before how silent my cat, Ember is. She very rarely meows. But she is very creative about communicating to me.

She has developed several ways to let me know when she wants food in her dish. Sometimes it is just "the stare." It's very intense as if trying to will a telepathic message to me. Other times, if she feels dinner or breakfast has been unjustly delayed, things start "falling" from tables, the counter, etc. When she has my attention for that, the stare begins.

When I say the magic words, "Ember hungry?" she twitches an ear and then runs to the kitchen - not to her dish, but to the source of her food, the fridge or the cupboard. I keep both dry kibbles and canned Fancy Feast. She gets kibbles for most meals and Fancy Feast a few times a week, half a can at a time. She knows her food might come from either the cupboard or the fridge. .

If I am eating and her dish is empty, she gives me the wounded look, like, "How rude. Eating in front of me of me without sharing?"

Now she has 2 new methods to say, "Feed me." One is to go to a bottom cupboard door and repeatedly open and close it until I say, "Hungry?" Then she reacts with a trait that is exclusive to Egyptian Mau cats. (She is 1/4 Mau and has several of their traits.) Her rump and tail vibrate with excitement. Maus do that when they are very happy and excited about something.

The cupboard door is not the one where I keep her kibbles. That one is higher up, over the stove's slanted exhaust fan where she can't reach it. But I guess she figures that any cupboard door gets the message to me.

The other new method is to go to the fridge door, rub against it and then do the Mau "wiggle tail" of excitement. She seems to be letting me know which type of food she wants, the one in the cupboard or the one in the fridge.

I am in awe of her creativity in communicating. She is 11 years old and the Mau hyper energy of her youth has mellowed a bit (thank God), but she is still as creative and interactive with me as ever.

[SheltieLover]

1. Sounds like you are acing reading cat comminication class

I'd never heard of Mau breed. Off to lookit up.

[wnylib]

5. I never heard of Egyptian Maus either.

I learned about them in a round about way.

Ember does not have the spotted coat of a pedigree Mau. Her coat pattern is tortoiseshell tabby with gray and black tabby stripes and random streaks of red. As a kitten she resembled the embers of a fire so that's how she got her name.

But Ember has the eye shape and color of a Mau. Also the head and ear shape. As a kitten, she had the sleek body shape of a Mau. But since I had never heard of a Mau, I didn't know where those traits came from.

I got more curious because her behavior was so different from any other cat that I had known. So I looked online for various cat breed pictures and behaviors. Except for Ember's coat pattern, she fit the Mau description. But Maus are a rare and expensive breed. I got Ember from a co-worker who had her mother.

So I asked the co-worker about it. She got Ember's mother from a friend who knew a cat breeder who had some accidental mixed kittens to give away. I looked up the breeder and discovered that they bred Bengal cats. Bengals are a mix of a wild cat with a domestic cat. The domestic cat used in breeding Bengals to domesticate them is the Egyptian Mau. Voila! Mystery solved. One of the breeder's Maus apparently had an unplanned mating with an ordinary "street cat."

The kittens from that litter could not be bred or sold, so they gave them away. Ember's father is unknown, but her mother looked even more like a Mau than Ember does. Ember's mom had the perfect body shape, eyes, and ears of a Mau. But the mom's coat was a very beautiful, symmetrical calico pattern of patches that looked like a designer quilt.

So I learned all I could about Maus and it explained a lot about Ember's behavior, especially the Mau "wiggle tail."

Good thing I did because there is medical knowledge that her vet needed to know about Ember. Maus are sensitive to sedatives and need to be sedated very carefully for surgery.

All cats are unique and precious, IMO, but Ember's behaviors are a treat that arrived in a surprise package for me.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Mom's Tinker Bell did that inexplicable "butt wiggle" too !

We hang plastic bags on doorknobs to collect our recyclables. Whenever TB would walk by one, she would start vibrating her butt and tail really fast. I thought it was static electricity from the bag rubbing against her fur that set it off, but I had never seen another cat do that. She was a gray tabby with black 'skis' and a tiny patch of red on her withers. Her "sister" -- at least we think she was -- had more calico in her tabby coat and a flat face that suggested Persian ancestry. So we knew they were mixes, and looked like different genes dominated in each one, but had no idea the "ultrasonic butt wiggle" was some kind of diagnostic trait. Thanks for the info, and the story about Ember !

[wnylib]

17. Interesting. I was very surprised to find that

Ember had Mau Ancestry because they are a rare breed and expensive. Most breeders are careful to avoid accidental matings. If one does happen, they neuter or spay the kittens before giving them away. Most Mau breeders also neuter or spay pedigrees before they sell them in order to prevent amateurs from trying to breed them or from carelessly letting them mate with other cats. That's one reason why they are so rare. I suspect the motive is to keep the price high.

The breeder that Ember's mother came from was known among breeders to be less careful and could not get accreditation as a Bengal breeder because of that. Bengal breeding has to be very well regulated because Bengals are a mix of an Asian wild cat with the domestic Mau to breed the wild behavior out of the Asian cat. Legally, only the 4th generation of the mixture can be sold as a pet, for safety reasons.

The Bengal breeder that Ember's mother came from eventually went out of business because they could not get accredited.

The wiggle tail behavior in Maus often looks like a male cat spraying, but that's not what it is. It not a random act or something that happens only in reaction to one object. It is an expression of great happiness or positive, happy excitement. Ember does it most often when she sees that she is getting food, especially a food that she really loves. But she also does it when she sees that I am going to play with her with one of her favorite toys. It's as if she is thinking, "Oh goody. I just can't wait to get started."

A couple times Ember did it when I returned home after being out for a while, which was flattering to me that my return made her so happy. Maus are not lap cats, but they do not like to be alone, either. They love interactive play with people and tend to bond with one person more than with others. So that's why she was so happy to see me come home.

[SheltieLover]

21. The Cat Distriution System rewarded you well!

Lucky you!

[SheltieLover]

2. Gorgeous breed!

Ty for sharing about Ember.

[wnylib]

10. Well, Ember does not have the Mau spotted coat

Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2026, 05:19 PM - Edit history (1)

so her Mau Ancestry is not obvious at first glance.

She has the body, eye, head, and ear shapes. Her ears were huge as a kitten but she grew into them so that they are now large but well balanced with her head.

It's her behavior traits that are so much like a Mau. She has the Mau "wiggle tail" behavior that no other cat breed has. She is a FAST runner, agile climber, and high leaper like a Mau. All cats like to climb and leap, but Maus make an art out of it. They are the fastest running domestic cat at 30 mph.

Maus are also creative in their play, inventing games to entertain themselves and then getting their people involved in their games. Ember is a pro at that. They have above average cat intelligence although not rated as high as a Siamese. Ember surprises me with her smarts sometimes, but other times just acts silly.

[SheltieLover]

16. Wow! 30 mph?

She sounds amazing!

Skritches to her.

[wnylib]

18. Yes, 30 mph. All the breed descriptions of Maus

say that they have been officially clocked at 30 mph. That does not mean that all Maus run at 30 mph. Some might be slowpokes at only 25 mpr. An indoor cat does not always have the space to gear up to full speed.

Ember has mellowed a bit with age. She is 11 years old now. But when she was a kitten, it wore me out just to watch her speeding around my apartment, often with a small stuffed toy in her mouth, and then leap 3 times her height and land gracefully without dropping the toy. She was a born acrobat.

[SheltieLover]

19. Wears me out imagining it

Quite the breed! Thx for sharing.

[niyad]

3. AWWWW, clever girl. And clever Mom for understanding her.

[Walleye]

4. My cat, Patches go to the fridge he also response to the word chicken

I never know how much the verbal communication they actually understand but I’m sure they understand the tone

[wnylib]

7. Watch them closely for any change in expression

when you say a word. Ember does not always react obviously to a word, except for the words hungry, treat, and tuna. Those words get a quick body response from her.

But I have learned that she twitches an ear when she recognizes other words. She knows the words for some of her toys. When she hears the word, her ear will twitch, usually the left ear for some reason. If the toy is near her, her eyes will shift in that direction. If it's a favorite toy, her body will tense a little at the word for it as if she's eager to play with it.

Sometimes I think that cats understand perfectly much more than we realize but just don't show it in ways that we would recognize.

[SheltieLover]

20. I'm sure they understand.

[Walleye]

24. I agree, sometimes I think he understands everything I'm saying. I know they all know the word tuna

[Norrrm]

6. Not subtle

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s9JRF3MsLUY

[wnylib]

8. Hillarious. That cat communicates well.

[MIButterfly]

9. What a clever cat Ember is!

And how clever you are to be able to communicate with her. Aren't cats the best? Ember sounds so unique. I never hear of a Egyptian Mau cat before. Thank you for sharing this story with us!

[wnylib]

11. Well, like most Maus, Ember sort of forces you

to communicate with her. They can be very persistent in teaching their people what they want their people to do.

She is only 1/4 Mau but does have a lot of the Mau behavior traits.

[flashman13]

13. Egyptian Maus are very smart and have many unique quirks. The tail thing is really a Mau quirk.

Stubbornness is another one. I never could convince mine that a particular hanging plant was not her personal bed. She was so cute about it that it was hard to scold her.

[wnylib]

23. Oh yeah. Very stubborn and strong willed.

Ember will cooperate if I gently "suggest" that she get down from the table or stop scratching the couch. (She has 3 scratching posts but has to challenge me occasionally.) But if I order her to do something in a commanding tone, she gives me a look like "You and whose army?"

[Eva Jo]

14. Thump!

When my cat is hungry he tackles my legs. Honestly that cat could play for the Bears.

[wnylib]

22. LOL. Before Ember I had an orange tabby who

used to bite my toes to wake me up for breakfast.

[Roy Rolling]

15. This morning

I’m on the same page today. I woke up at 3 a.m. and caught the cat smiling in her sleep. Same as you I was wondering what she’s thinking about.

I had to make a meme.