Happy growls?

PetraGrey

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I'm caring for a stray and she has an odd quirk. She growls ALOT. She isn't showing any signs of aggression or fear. She seems perfectly happy. She will growl even as she is rubbing against your leg or being petted. Her body posture does not indicate any kind of stress. She is very vocal in other ways as well, but the growling has me stumped. Anybody else experience this? Is it just a quirk?
 

susanm9006

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Not growls but my girl hisses at strange times including when she is happy or when she yawns. They just pop out, so I suppose a growl could as well. Some unsocialized cats never learned to communicate with humans and so as long as she seems happy I would just accept the growl as her way of talking to you.
 

vince

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One time, I trained a cat to hiss when petted (high school psychology experiment). Mom wasn't happy about that, so I didn't reinforce the behavior and it gradually went away.

If a cat gets enough reinforcement of an inappropriate behavior, it'll keep doing it. In the same vein, there's a video on YouTube of a squirrel that had a cat as a surrogate mother. It learned to purr!
 

Caspers Human

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Our family dog, when I was a kid, used to be a grumbler.

He was always growling and grumbling so much, people used to think he was a mean dog but, actually, it was just the way he talked.

If he growled, you could say, “Is that so?” and he would reply, “Grumble…Gr-rrr-OWL!”

You could carry on what sounded like an entire conversation with the dog, for several minutes, if you kept talking back to him.

If he was still alive, I could probably put him on YouTube and he would be a famous talking dog! ;)

Maybe you’ve got a talking cat! ;)
 

tarasgirl06

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I'm caring for a stray and she has an odd quirk. She growls ALOT. She isn't showing any signs of aggression or fear. She seems perfectly happy. She will growl even as she is rubbing against your leg or being petted. Her body posture does not indicate any kind of stress. She is very vocal in other ways as well, but the growling has me stumped. Anybody else experience this? Is it just a quirk?
My Baby Su, 16, was born feral and found me when she was a small kitten. She never meows. She has a very scratchy voice. I wouldn't exactly call it growling, but it's definitely not meowing. She also bites a lot. It's her personality. She's only ever bonded to me and she knows I love her absolutely.
IMG_2155.JPG
 
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PetraGrey

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So the same day of my original post, I caught the last of my stray's kittens. I promptly moved the little family into a spare room in the house. Ever since she came inside, her growls have quickly decreased. She seems quite content inside and I wonder if she was just demanding to be let in the whole time!
She had her first vet visit today. Except for worms and being underweight, she is healthy. She was vaccinated and will be spayed next month.
IMG_20210723_193526004.jpg

Here she is resting after her big day.
 

tarasgirl06

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So the same day of my original post, I caught the last of my stray's kittens. I promptly moved the little family into a spare room in the house. Ever since she came inside, her growls have quickly decreased. She seems quite content inside and I wonder if she was just demanding to be let in the whole time!
She had her first vet visit today. Except for worms and being underweight, she is healthy. She was vaccinated and will be spayed next month.
View attachment 388942
Here she is resting after her big day.
She is lovely! And huge props to you!
 
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