Stephen King and felines: A love story
This is true! I walk down the sidewalk saying “Hi!” to every animal I meet, and pretending the humans don’t exist.
Cat Listening to Music
music: Federico Mompou Pajaro Triste, from Impresiones Intimas
Uploaded by numerodeux2 on Mar 6, 2011
Do cats really listen to music? I think this question is much like asking if humans listen to the conversations going on around them in crowded rooms - you just can’t help it, can’t “turn off” your ears. Cats have exceptional hearing and are able to distinguish their human’s footsteps amongst others from up to 100 feet away, so we know that they are hearing music just as we do, if not better.
Music is a direct and pure expression of emotion. There have been studies that show people from diverse cultures and backgrounds will experience the same physical reactions to particular phrases of music… the same 5 bars of one song will result in a lump in the throat amongst all listeners, where another 4 bars from a different song will cause pili erection (hair standing on end.)
Anyone who owns a cat will tell you that they do react to sadness, love, anger, and it only makes sense in nature that these feelings are cross-species, being important to understand if another animal presents a threat, or is in distress, i.e. if a dog is barking at me, he doesn’t want me around. Knowing this is probably important.
So if we experience similar emotions in similar situations, why wouldn’t these feelings in their most pure form, music, translate as well, possibly even more clearly as they aren’t confused by a foreign “language.” It seems to me that a cats experience would be pretty similar to that of ours.
There is lots of claims on the internet by cat owners saying their cats like and listen to music, and their is surly more believable claims amongst people who spend a great deal of time with cats and understand their actions than someone who simply sees them as lab animals, there have also been official studies that showed cats and dogs do react to music in much the same way we do, with cats preferring more mellow and melodic music, and dogs enjoying more intense music with a strong, fast beat.
Check out sleepy kitten, “Lady Peanut” listening to her Mama, Sarah Donner playing Ukulele… This is Lady Peanut. She likes to sit by me when I get out the ukulele. So adorable!
