Conference misery::feline

	One of my pair is a talker, and also like to get into anything thats
	shut. The other doesn't care at all.
	The meow/talker will make the noise when he wakes up, and just strolls
	around to find another place to kip............or when he looks out
	of the window, or when he finds a closed door.

	I have a cat-flap, it doesn't help on the meow/chatter stakes at all,
	I have found that if I put a scratching post in front of a closed door,
	then he'll scratch on that rather than the carpet or door.

	I've learned to sleep through the meows.

	Heather	

    Great timing...I just took in a stray kitty who won't shut up!  The
    last stray I took in meowed constantly for the first 6 months he was
    with me.  He eventually calmed down and now only meows when he wants
    something specific, like food or out.   But this little
    girl...sheesh!  She was in heat until I had her spayed last week, so
    I'm assuming she's still meowing out of instinct.  Somebody, please
    tell me she'll stop when her hormones calm down??? Please???
    Sarah

    Kelsey, my Ragdoll is also a talkative cat to the point of annoying (so
    much for a quiet breed!).  It isn't something I can change, and have
    simply learned to live with it.  He mostly cries in the morning (very
    early) to wake me up to feed/be with him (he likes me awake when HE's
    ready!), when he wants to go out on his run, when he's out and happy
    and chasing the bugs and birds, and when he's just plain bored.
    
    His cry is high pitched and irritating.  It can really grate on your
    nerves.  Luckily, my husband is tolerant of this, and so am I.  Any cat
    hater would have turned him loose by now!
    
    -Roberta
    

    Maybe there's always at least one cat that does the talking, and the
    quiet ones aren't really more... mannerly; they just don't _need_ to
    talk, as the other cat does it for them. [And of course some cats are
    just plain talkative, as in most of the oriental breeds.]
    
    I recently lost my "talker," a 16-year-old Himalayan-ish beauty who
    used to roam the halls in the middle of the night yowling, apparently
    just to hear himself speak. And now, after fifteen years of near-total
    silence, my black-and-white long-haired Manx has started talking at
    night... a cracked little miaow at best, but she never did this while
    Chiun was alive. 
    
    As for what to do about it, there are lots of behavioral-modification
    articles in the cat books and magazines, but I lacked the patience to
    try them; most of the time I just put up with it, but if the noise got
    too annoying, I'd shut him in the basement until I'd caught up on my
    sleep. ;-)
    
    -b

Chief is a talker.  He meows when he wants out, while I am letting him in, when
he wants attention (tummy rubs), when he wakes up, etc, etc.  I just resigned 
myself that he is a talker.  The cutest meows are the ones right after he wakes up.
It sound like when us humans first wake up and have not cleared our throats yet.
The most annoying ones are the "I want out and I mean now!" ones.

    LB meows a lot.  But, he always wants something when he does it, so if
    I can figure out what it is, peace descends (food, screened window
    open, a hug, a game of throw the mousie).  He doesn't respond to the
    "if I ignore it he'll learn to be quiet until I decide to do <x>."
    So, I do what he wants and so things are pretty quiet.
    

      My Mitties meows 5-6am if she doesn't her massive supper before bed.
    She eats like a racehorse, and if you don't feed her just before bed,
    she'll let you know about it. We always make sure she has as much as
    she wants....otherwise it's the old bang on that bedroom door!
    
      Denise and the gang

    Even though my son has named this little stray "Ariel", I've been
    calling her Meow-kitty. Luckily I've found a home for her, but ,
    unfortunately, our new tenants who will be moving in July 1 are taking
    her.  So, I didn't get rid of the meowing problem completely, just
    relocated it.  I'm sure she'll be upstairs visiting us frequently. The
    funniest sound is her meowing as she runs up the 3 flights of stairs
    when I open the door to the hall.  Any idea if the meowing bothers the
    other cats?  Maybe it's my imagination, but Spike seems to give her a
    sour look when she's meowing.  He's really mad at me for bringing her
    into "his" house anyway, but he tends to ignore her unless she's
    meowing. Then he looks at her with this really odd expression, and
    looks away. Sort of like "What's wrong with YOU?"
    Sarah 

      If one of mine gets to talking a little too much,  sometimes the
    others will look at her like,  "for crying out loud, will you shut up!"
    My Cleo, Mitties and sometimes Poo are talkers, especially if they
    aren't getting exactly what they want,when they want it.........

    Ben is also my talker, and when it gets too bad, he either goes into
    the basement or lately, outside.  I think this has to do with the phase
    of the moon, because it is not every night that he wails.  I noticed
    this month, it was when the moon was almost full, but yet last night he
    slept all night peacefully.  This has also been the pattern in the
    past, but not a consistent one.  Like me, I guess Benjamin is a Moon
    Child.. ;)
    
    Mary
    

    
      My Domino is a real talker sometimes and when he gets going, it's
    constant, sometimes if I pick him up and hold him (if it's attention)
    he's looking for then he's ok.  But if he just wants to talk there is
    no stopping him, so I just let him go about his conversation on his
    own.
    My other one, maybe once a week if she's extra hungry at dinner time, 
    she'll have a dainty meow and that's it.

    Geno is the real talker in the family - especially if the other two
    aren't around.  He'll follow me from room to room chattering - I'll ask
    a question and he answers - it goes on and on.  Now he's taken to
    leaping down 32 inside steps when he hears me put the key in the door -
    we talk all the way back up - sometime he gets so excited he sputters.
    
    Pippin does her share of talking/chattering and Stitch yells when he
    gets pissed but Geno is the conversationalist.
    
    Giudi

constant meowing isn't the problem around our house....The Flash hums and
mumbles to herself as she runs from room to room on her daily rounds of
mischeif hunting....Missy Hana nags me as I walk down the hall, hisses when
anyone disturbs her nap, and growls and spits at Sam if he walks too near...
in fact, she is seldom quiet unless sleeping - and even then she often
mumbles in her sleep!  No, I am not making this up...

I could easily take ONE cat meowing all the time.... 8^}

    Rico was a talker as a kitten...all the time "Ma!  Ma!"  He always
    sounded like he was calling me...and from his reaction when he GOT me,
    I'd say it was a safe guess.
    
    When he got older (probably emulating Tiki), he got quieter, and only
    called when he was bothered.
    
    Lately he's been talking again.  Big loud MEOWS (except when he wants
    me...then he distinctly goes back to "Ma!").  Never at night, tho.
    
    Alexandra only talks when there is food around.  She has the sweetest
    little high pitched squeal when its "Can-time" (every other day), when
    the dry dishes are refilled, or when its "Tuna Juice" time (the water
    from tuna cans).  When she is just playing, she "sings" and hums.
    
    Alex (and Tiki before her) also "creak" when they see the birds and
    squirrels outside the windows.  Rico never creaked.
    
    K.C.

    In my house, Honey has the biggest mouth--must be a bit of his Siamese
    ancestors!  He has the loudest whine I've ever heard.  Gets kind of
    annoying....  But for chatterboxes, Beth takes the case.  Like Rico as
    a kitten, Beth was always calling "Ma!  Ma!".  She still does!!  And
    she also hums and chatters to herself.  I think maybe she uses her
    sounds like a blind person might use a cane---"Here I am!  Here I
    come!  There I go!".
    
    Mary, who's glad she NEVER hears a peep out of Robin, Biff, and Mikey!
    

    
    Well our cat Dorking, who is amazingly stupid, does this caterwauling
    business all the time too. We have a rather large house, and I have
    devized a terrorizin' that works rather well and sets him a pavlovian
    precedent so it's quiet for a few weeks. Basically I locate the
    caterwauling Dorking and then RUN at him like I am a bulldog. This
    makes him skeddadle, so I chase him into some recess of the house where
    he sleeps quietly until morn, terrified probably. The only problem
    with this is he steers clear of me during regular non-caterwauling
    times, tho' that seems to be improving.
    

    My cat, Rip, meows every morning around 6am.  This is fine during the
    week, but weekends I would like to sleep in.  This is not just a meow
    or two; it is contant and demanding.  I don't know how to stop
    her.  She has done this for the past two years.  I have tried spraying
    her with a spray bottle, rewarding her when she does not wake me up,
    and also ignoring her.  Nothing seems to help.  Any suggestions?
    
    I should add, that Rip is 18 and is also deaf.  Other than that, she is
    healthy.  She always has food available and a cat box.  She just seems
    to want my attention.  Then, she goes to sleep!
                                          

    
    My fluffball Sogourney with out fail every morning wakes me up to feed 
    him at 5:00 in the morning to feed him.....lately my honey has been
    feeding him at 4:00 before he goes to work and Sogourney still meows
    ay 5:00.......  So I have to get up and and I shake his bowl and
    tell him he has food....then I call him a spoiled brat and he just
    gives me a dirty look and lets me go back to sleep!!!!!!   BRAT!!!
    
        Have you tried bringing him in bed and cuddling with him and you
    both go back to sleep???? (although this does'nt work with my baby,hee
    hee)
    
    
                                                           jazzzzzzzzz

    OScar is really meowing a lot lately.  I think he wants to go outside,
    but he isn't allowed to.  But I have read that a lot of meowing/purring
    can sometimes indicate a health problem.  Is this true?  He is using
    the litter box just fine, eating well, is playful (as playful as he
    gets, that is), plays with Misty, his partner in crime, and is grooming
    himself.  He's neutered, by the way.
    
    Thanks,
    Kate

    I leave food out twice a day for about an hour, since one of my kitties
    has diabetes, he can't free feed.  When Little Bit has not
    eaten enough by then, he realizes it awhile later, and meows a lot
    until I sneak him some food.
    
    There's another kind of meowing, the I'm The Last Cat In The
    Universe meow that older kitties do, and stop when you call out to
    reassure them
    
    My vet once told me that constant meowing sometimes indicates
    a thyroid (or something) condition.  I think he said the cat would
    be thin if that was the case.
    

    I have one cat (Ashlar) that meows constantly.  He has a variety of
    meows.  His nickname is "whiner-cat".  There's the...
    
    ...You never feed me. I haven't eaten in the last 5 minutes meow
    ...You took me out for a walk once and now I need to be outside all
       the time meow
    ...How come you're out there and I'm stuck here on the window sill meow
    ...There's something going on outside and I'm missing it meow
    ...Haven't you finished your shower yet and isn't it breakfast time
       meow
    
    The list goes on and on.
    
    On the other hand, I have a chirper too.  Joey chirps and makes forlorn
    little throat sounds when he's either curious about something, lost (in
    another room) or looking for attention.
    
    Jan

    Re: .21 chirper
    
    That reminds me that Blackie meeps.  He was almost named Meep :-)
    
    
    

    My chirper is named Joe Friday. :^)
    
    Jan

    Chief has all kinds of "whines".   
    Let me out.
    I mean it... I am at the door... LET ME OUT
    Why am I locked out of hte bedroom at 5am..?
    Fill the sink up the way I like it.
    I just want attention
    Why did you stop petting/rubbing me?
    
    it goes on and on. I have never heard such as vocal cat as mine.
    Then again he is very very spoiled.