I'm at work today, so I'm going to do some searching around the internet for some information, but I wanted to ask here as well.
Thursday evening, I adopted a new kitty. Her name is Frankie (but I'm changing that to Abby). She's has med/long hair and is an orange and white tabby. She's supposed to be 1 year 3 mo old, but she's really small and seems more kitten in how playful she is. To me, she seems like she might be half that age. I'll find out when I take her to the vet Tuesday. She's very affectionate, but very timid. What I mean by that is, you can't just reach down and pet her and she doesn't rub up against your hand when you hold it out. However, when you are able to start petting her, she eats it up like there is no tomorrow. I'm not worried about this behavior even though she did it at the home I adopted her from with the people that owned her - I figure she'll get used to me and it'll all work out.
Anyways, here's my question. She meows a LOT. For example, last night I let her out of the bedroom and put my resident cat in the bedroom. I did that so she could have free run of the apartment and get used to the smells and surroundings. This is not the first time I have let her out of the bedroom, but this is the first time I let her out and didn't pay a bunch of attention to her. I just let her roam free and explore and such. Well, she meowed a lot (and I mean a lot). I can't really tell if she's just meowing to get attention from me. I noticed that if I do pay attention to her, she quiets down until she gets out of reach or goes onto something else, then she may start meowing again. Eventually, she stopped though (I think because I ignored her) and found a place on the top perch on the cat tree and took a nap.
As another example, she spent the night outside of my bedroom last night (it was Smokey's - my resident cat - turn to sleep with me) and when I got up to shower and get ready for work, she just wandered around meowing and meowing and meowing. And it got quite loud at times. This time I sorta experiemented with ignoring her or paying attention to her and it didn't seem to make much difference. I mean, she'd stop meowing while I was petting her, but if she got out of reach or walked away like she was interested in something else, she started meowing again. One thing I should say is this meowing is not like she's trying to hold a conversation with me, but rather that she's crying out or maybe calling for someone (if that makes any sense).
Now, I love cats, I really, really do, but I do not love meowing constantly or even semiconstantly. I explained to the lady I adopted the cat from that I didn't like a lot of meowing and wanted to make sure this cat was not a meower/talker. She told me the cat was not completely silent but she also told me that the cat doesn't meow for 30 minutes at a time too.
So, I'm just curious what people's thoughts are... The cat is NOT spayed as of yet, so I'm thinking I read somewhere that cats in heat are vocal, but I don't know how to tell if she is in heat or not. I also figure that the environment is new and she's probably missing her friends at the old home (they had 3 cats and 3 dogs), so I can see her meowing for them as well. Also, she does seem to have some clear discharge from her nose when she rubs against you or shakes her head, so maybe she's sick too.
I think I've answered my own question, but could those things be reason enough to make a normally quiet cat very vocal?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
Charles
Thursday evening, I adopted a new kitty. Her name is Frankie (but I'm changing that to Abby). She's has med/long hair and is an orange and white tabby. She's supposed to be 1 year 3 mo old, but she's really small and seems more kitten in how playful she is. To me, she seems like she might be half that age. I'll find out when I take her to the vet Tuesday. She's very affectionate, but very timid. What I mean by that is, you can't just reach down and pet her and she doesn't rub up against your hand when you hold it out. However, when you are able to start petting her, she eats it up like there is no tomorrow. I'm not worried about this behavior even though she did it at the home I adopted her from with the people that owned her - I figure she'll get used to me and it'll all work out.
Anyways, here's my question. She meows a LOT. For example, last night I let her out of the bedroom and put my resident cat in the bedroom. I did that so she could have free run of the apartment and get used to the smells and surroundings. This is not the first time I have let her out of the bedroom, but this is the first time I let her out and didn't pay a bunch of attention to her. I just let her roam free and explore and such. Well, she meowed a lot (and I mean a lot). I can't really tell if she's just meowing to get attention from me. I noticed that if I do pay attention to her, she quiets down until she gets out of reach or goes onto something else, then she may start meowing again. Eventually, she stopped though (I think because I ignored her) and found a place on the top perch on the cat tree and took a nap.
As another example, she spent the night outside of my bedroom last night (it was Smokey's - my resident cat - turn to sleep with me) and when I got up to shower and get ready for work, she just wandered around meowing and meowing and meowing. And it got quite loud at times. This time I sorta experiemented with ignoring her or paying attention to her and it didn't seem to make much difference. I mean, she'd stop meowing while I was petting her, but if she got out of reach or walked away like she was interested in something else, she started meowing again. One thing I should say is this meowing is not like she's trying to hold a conversation with me, but rather that she's crying out or maybe calling for someone (if that makes any sense).
Now, I love cats, I really, really do, but I do not love meowing constantly or even semiconstantly. I explained to the lady I adopted the cat from that I didn't like a lot of meowing and wanted to make sure this cat was not a meower/talker. She told me the cat was not completely silent but she also told me that the cat doesn't meow for 30 minutes at a time too.
So, I'm just curious what people's thoughts are... The cat is NOT spayed as of yet, so I'm thinking I read somewhere that cats in heat are vocal, but I don't know how to tell if she is in heat or not. I also figure that the environment is new and she's probably missing her friends at the old home (they had 3 cats and 3 dogs), so I can see her meowing for them as well. Also, she does seem to have some clear discharge from her nose when she rubs against you or shakes her head, so maybe she's sick too.
I think I've answered my own question, but could those things be reason enough to make a normally quiet cat very vocal?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
Charles
