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That's zocdoc.com slash 20k. You're

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listening to 20,000 Hertz. I'm

0:39

Dallas Taylor. As

0:42

humans, we love our cats. Nearly 43

0:45

million households in the U.S. alone have a

0:47

pet cat. And there are

0:49

about 350 million pet cats around the

0:52

world. But just because we love them,

0:54

that doesn't always mean that we understand

0:56

them. Cats can be very vocal creatures.

0:59

No. But

1:03

the exact meaning and intention behind these

1:05

sounds can often be hard to read.

1:12

The thing is, as much as we love our

1:14

cats, they don't always seem to reciprocate. Certainly

1:16

not the way dogs do. That's

1:18

20,000 Hertz producer Leila Battson. They've

1:21

got a bit of a reputation

1:23

for being aloof, standoffish, or at

1:25

least fiercely independent. They're

1:28

not innately sociable. That's Dr.

1:30

Sarah Brown. Some of them are better

1:32

at it than others. Nothing to say

1:34

the least. Sarah has been researching cat behavior

1:36

for over 30 years and

1:39

is the author of a book called The Hidden Language

1:41

of Cats. She says the key

1:43

to understanding your cat is to walk a

1:45

mile in their paws. Cats come

1:47

from a solitary ancestor, unlike dogs,

1:50

which had a preformed set of

1:52

social signals inherited from their wolf

1:54

ancestors. With

1:58

cats, their behavior is a little bit more subtle. and

2:00

a bit harder to read sometimes.

2:02

In fact, us humans are totally

2:05

oblivious to most of the communication

2:07

going on between them. Cats

2:09

go to way of communicating is by a

2:11

scent. They would leave a scent for

2:13

another wild cat to pick up later and keep

2:16

their distance from each other. So

2:18

to come from that to living amongst

2:20

other cats and amongst people,

2:22

the domestic cat has had to develop

2:25

new ways of communicating. In

2:31

the natural world, cats tend to be fairly

2:34

quiet. It makes sense because

2:36

in the wild, you don't want to make

2:38

a lot of noise and bring attention to

2:40

yourself. Cats are in the uniquely

2:42

tricky situation of being predators, but

2:45

also still small enough to be prey

2:47

to bigger hunters. If you're a

2:49

small feline, you want to be able to catch

2:51

things and not bring attention to your prey so

2:53

that you miss them, and you don't

2:55

want to be caught by anything else. So,

2:58

predator and prey species tend to be

3:00

quiet when they're in the wild. Most

3:03

of the time, cats make different noises with each

3:05

other than they do with us. Cats,

3:07

communicating with the cats, very

3:10

rarely meow. Cats mostly

3:12

reserve their vocalizations for three types

3:14

of occasions, and that is one,

3:17

finding a mate, two,

3:20

fighting, and

3:23

three, mother kitten communications.

3:26

Those first two are very noisy, and it's

3:28

that last set of noises, the

3:31

mother kitten sounds, that people most

3:33

enjoy. And these seem to be

3:35

the vocalizations that cats have carried

3:37

through into interacting with people. So

3:40

the meows, the

3:42

trills, and

3:44

the chirrups, the little gentle sounds. Over

3:49

the millennia, cats have had to hone in on the kind

3:51

of communication that we're used to,

3:53

which is sound. And this

3:55

is probably because we don't really understand

3:57

or notice half the other things

4:00

they do. to us. We don't notice their

4:02

scent deposits. We don't always notice their tail

4:04

signals. They know that just as when they

4:06

meow to their mother when they're kittens, that

4:09

when they meow at us, it

4:11

gets our attention. Sarah has

4:14

seen feral cats figure this out in

4:16

real time. One of the cats in

4:18

the colony that I studied, he would come and sit

4:20

near me every night when I fed the colony and

4:22

he was probably the tamest of all of them

4:24

but he would always keep his distance and then

4:27

one day he just meowed at me. He'd

4:30

worked out that that was a way of communicating

4:32

with me and I just think that's just amazing

4:34

that they worked that out. Since

4:38

cats were first domesticated, the meow

4:40

itself has evolved and today it's

4:42

strikingly close to a sound that

4:44

we have evolved to care about.

4:47

The average pitch of an

4:49

adult domestic cat's meow is

4:51

around 600 hertz. Interestingly enough,

4:56

the cries of a healthy human baby average out

4:58

at about 400 to 600 hertz as well. Which

5:04

might not sound very astonishing except for

5:06

that if you record the meows

5:09

of an African wild cat, which

5:11

is the ancestor of the domestic

5:13

cat, they come in at around 255

5:15

hertz. So

5:19

much lower pitch than the domestic

5:21

cat. And so pitched about

5:23

the same level, both cat meows and

5:25

baby cries seem to be particularly hard

5:28

to ignore. This

5:31

vocal manipulation works both ways.

5:34

People change their tone of voice when

5:36

they speak to a cat or

5:38

a dog to a much higher pitch similar to the

5:40

way we speak to babies. We speak more slowly

5:43

and we speak like this. Oh, you know, how

5:45

are you? But why we use

5:47

it to speak to cats and

5:49

dogs is a bit of

5:51

a mystery. Do we think that there are

5:54

babies or are we trying to emulate their

5:56

higher pitched meows so that they recognize that

5:58

we're talking to them? Whatever the

6:01

reason, cats do recognize this baby

6:03

talk. One

6:06

study showed that when listening to

6:08

their ownest speak, they could tell

6:10

the difference between speech directed deliberately

6:12

at them. Come here, Kitty. Ready

6:14

for dinner? And normal

6:16

speech that people use with other adults. But

6:19

even if a cat knows you're talking to

6:21

it, how much does it actually understand? Quite

6:24

often they appear not to understand a

6:27

single word we say, right? But they

6:29

have started to do more studies on

6:31

what exactly cats can understand. One

6:33

of the things they found out is

6:35

that they can recognize the voice of

6:38

their owner from other people's voices. And

6:40

they also recognize their names. They can

6:42

pick out their name from a series

6:44

of other words that sound similar. But

6:47

compared to dogs, it can be hard to

6:49

confirm when a cat really understands something. Part

6:51

of the reason is that they don't respond

6:53

like dogs, where they come running up as

6:55

soon as you say their name. They might

6:58

twitch their ears a bit more when you

7:00

say their name, or they might turn their

7:02

head. But they have a very more subtle

7:04

way of responding to anything we say. And

7:06

so we do often think they're ignoring us,

7:08

but I think they hear and understand a

7:10

lot more than they let on. We

7:15

can hardly blame cats for not understanding us,

7:17

though, when we feel a little better when

7:19

trying to decode their meows. If

7:21

you record a bunch of meows in

7:23

different contexts, so say you record a

7:25

greeting meow. When

7:27

a meow wears a cat's in a cat carrier, so

7:30

it's sad. If

7:32

you play these meows back to people

7:34

without any visual context, they find it

7:36

really hard to identify the context. But

7:39

the rate of success does increase when

7:41

owners are listening to the meows of

7:43

their own cat. This sort

7:45

of shows that people and their cats

7:47

develop gradually, a way of communicating so

7:50

the cat gradually realizes what works on

7:52

their person, and the person gradually recognizes

7:54

a particular meow. When

7:58

trying to decode a cat's meow, there are...

8:00

some general patterns that you can listen for.

8:02

So a positive meow, like in a greeting

8:05

or if it wants to be fed, the

8:07

pitch will rise towards the end of meow.

8:11

And a distressed meow, like travelling in

8:13

a cat carrier or going to the

8:15

vet, will fall in pitch. Beyond

8:19

this, the key to understanding cats is

8:21

in their body language. You can start

8:23

with the ears. So ears

8:26

are very mobile. They move from one position to

8:28

another so quickly that you don't know if the

8:30

cat's just listening to something or whether its mood

8:32

is changing very quickly. But

8:34

basically, if they're upright, that's usually alert

8:37

and happy and quite content. If

8:42

the ears are swivelled backwards, that is

8:44

usually an aggressive type stance. That usually

8:46

means they're feeling quite angry. And if

8:48

the ears are very flat, sort of

8:50

proper aeroplane flat ears, that's

8:54

usually a fear-type position. And they're often

8:56

crouched where they use really flat to

8:59

their head. Making yourself smaller when you're

9:01

frightened is a natural response of lots

9:03

of wild animals, using your

9:05

body language to say, please don't notice

9:07

me. And conversely, when

9:10

they're feeling aggressive, their fur literally

9:12

fluffs up and they stand

9:14

sideways and do that sort of arched

9:16

position with their tail fluffed up to

9:19

make themselves appear as big as possible

9:21

to their opponent. Fear

9:25

and aggression are often accompanied by some of

9:27

cat's most noisy, unpleasant sounds, like growls, growls,

9:31

yowls, and hisses.

9:35

These are all basically ways of saying back off,

9:37

don't mess with me. But

9:42

all being well, your neighbourhood cat won't

9:44

consider you their enemy and a

9:46

chance interaction is likely to begin with a raised tail. The

9:49

raised tail is a greeting signal and it means,

9:52

basically, I come in

9:54

peace. In this, I'm going to show

9:56

you how to make a cat's face. which

14:00

creates vibrations at a rate of 25 to about 150 a

14:02

second. And

14:06

this results in a sort of continuous

14:08

purring sound as the cat inhales and

14:10

exhales. And

14:13

what's really interesting about purring is that

14:15

whilst domestic cats come purr and

14:18

some of the larger wild cats come

14:20

purr, like cheetahs... CHEETahs

14:23

CHEETahs Some

14:25

of the big cats, lions,

14:27

for example, roar. CHEETahs

14:31

But they can't purr, so cats that

14:33

roar can't purr and vice versa. And

14:35

they think that this is to do

14:37

with the structure of the vocal chords.

14:39

Basically, the big cats have much fleshier

14:41

vocal chords than those that can purr,

14:43

so it makes a different noise. If

14:46

a cat is really relaxed, its purr

14:48

might be accompanied by the rhythmic motion

14:50

of tiny paws making biscuits. This

14:52

behaviour starts as kittens, when kneading

14:54

on their mother helps to stimulate

14:57

milk production. And like purring, kneading

14:59

continues into adulthood. It brings

15:01

them comfort and also marks their favourite people

15:03

and places with the scent glands in their

15:05

feet. Purring

15:08

might be the ultimate sign of feline

15:10

contentment, but not every purr is a

15:12

happy one. Cats also purr

15:14

when they go to the vet sometimes, when

15:17

they're feeling a bit stressed. Cats

15:19

have also been known to purr when they're actually

15:21

dying and in pain. So in

15:23

that situation, it must be some

15:25

kind of self-soothing heart-backed

15:27

kittenhood where purring brings some

15:29

sort of comfort. Purring

15:32

might also be an audible signal

15:34

to potential enemies. Basically, whether it's

15:36

happy or suffering, a purring cat

15:38

is not a threat. But

15:42

not every sound that a cat makes

15:44

is meant to communicate something. Some they

15:46

seem to make out of pure, enigmatic

15:49

instinct. So chittering or chattering is what

15:51

a cat does, usually when it's watching

15:53

something out of a window, like a

15:55

bird, that you can't get to. It's

16:00

a funny noise, it almost sounds like their

16:02

teeth are chattering. It's

16:05

like they can't help themselves, it just comes out. What

16:08

it actually means, however, is a bit of

16:10

a mystery. It's a sound that

16:12

seems to be reserved for prey animals that are

16:14

just out of reach. It's

16:16

most likely frustration, I think, or some

16:19

people have said that cats are attempting

16:21

to attract this tension of the birds

16:23

outside, or even trying to mimic the

16:26

birds themselves. The

16:40

vocal habits of cats can also change throughout

16:42

their lifetimes. They get a

16:44

sort of cognitive dysfunction type thing as they get

16:47

older, a bit like people, and they can get

16:50

quite disorientated, particularly at night. As

16:52

a result of this feline dementia, an older

16:55

cat can end up making more noise than

16:57

ever. We

16:59

had a cat that did that, he was 19, and

17:03

he would wander the

17:05

hall at night going,

17:07

wow, wow. The best

17:09

way to help that is to leave some

17:11

gentle lights on, put the radio on, because

17:13

quite often they're looking to find you and

17:15

they can't work out where you've gone. So

17:18

while cats can sometimes seem aloof and superior,

17:20

the reality is that they're doing their best

17:22

to communicate with us. It's

17:25

not their fault that we're too wrapped up in

17:27

our own human world to notice. We

17:29

think of everything in terms of how humans

17:32

experience the world. We're very obsessed with vocalizations

17:34

and talking all the time, but cats don't.

17:36

They live in a world of scent. It's

17:38

all about how something smells. They're coming at

17:40

everything from a different point of view, and

17:42

we just have to try and look at

17:44

it from their point of view. By

17:47

learning more about that point of view, we

17:50

can strengthen our relationship with these creatures that

17:52

we spend years and years of our lives

17:54

with. Every bit you learn about

17:56

your cat creates a better relationship with them long

17:58

term. Traditionally,

18:05

understanding our cats has meant paying

18:07

close attention to their noises, body

18:09

language and behaviour. But

18:12

today, modern technology is taking us one

18:14

step further and giving our pets the

18:16

tools to start communicating on our level.

18:24

In particular, there's one trailblazing feline that

18:26

has shed light on how cats think

18:29

and helped to open the door to

18:31

a more collaborative relationship between humans and

18:33

pets. That's

18:38

coming up after the break. Over

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the years, I've had mixed experiences with

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wireless providers. Often, when I

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get my bill, there's some unexpected fee or

18:50

some new restriction to my service. But

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then I tried Mint Mobile, and my experience

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with them has been totally different. Mint

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See Mint Mobile for details. Hey

19:53

listeners. You might have noticed that we

19:55

did a special double feature today and

19:57

released two episodes at the exact same

20:00

time. about cats and one about dogs.

20:02

I'm curious if we have more cat people

20:04

or dog people in our audience. And to

20:06

find out, I'm gonna see which one gets

20:08

the most shares. So take a moment to

20:10

think about the people in your life who

20:12

love cats or dogs and share the episode

20:14

with them. All you have to do

20:17

is tap that share button in your podcast player and

20:19

send it to a friend or family member. If

20:21

they listen to it, it'll count. I'll announce

20:23

the winner in two weeks. Now

20:26

onto the mystery sound. Congratulations

20:28

to Jessica Loyce for getting last episode's

20:31

mystery sound right. Am I repeating myself?

20:34

Would you stand me on my head? That's

20:36

the voice of real talkin' Bubba, a wisecracking

20:38

teddy bear that was released by Mattel in

20:40

the mid-'90s. Bubba also

20:42

said things like, Go on, wiggle my

20:44

head, it's off of my hair. Bubba

20:46

was voiced by character actor Gary Grubbs,

20:48

who's appeared in everything from Dukes of

20:50

Hazzard to Django Unchained to Glee. Here's

20:53

Gary playing a sheriff on The X-Files.

20:55

Well, we didn't find the evidence of

20:57

criminal activity. Since nobody turned up, we

20:59

just went ahead and filed

21:01

a missing person's report. And here's this

21:03

episode's mystery sound. ["The

21:08

X-Files Theme Song"] If

21:13

you know that sound, submit your guess at

21:16

the web address mystery.20k.org. Anyone

21:19

who guesses it right will be entered to win a

21:21

super soft 20,000 hertz t-shirt. And

21:24

if you wanna snag a super soft

21:26

t-shirt right now, just head to 20k.org/shop.

21:31

Let me play you a sound that I really love. That's

21:41

the sound of my Sonos speakers calibrating.

21:44

And to me, it perfectly represents what

21:46

I love about Sonos. All

21:48

you do is open the Sonos app, find

21:50

the device, and select True Play. Then it

21:52

calibrates your speakers with these pings as you

21:55

walk around the room. When

21:58

it's done, you get this sound. sound.

22:07

Which to me is just so satisfying. The

22:10

result is that your Sonos speaker is now tuned

22:12

to the acoustics of the room it's in. This

22:15

kind of attention to detail is why I have

22:17

almost 20 Sonos products in my

22:19

home. For instance, I keep Sonos

22:21

One speakers in each of my kids' bedrooms

22:23

so they can wind down to relaxing music.

22:26

The holidays are just around the corner and

22:29

Sonos speakers make great gifts. They're

22:31

not just cool pieces of gear, they're a

22:33

way to make someone's world sound amazing. In

22:36

my opinion, it doesn't get much better than that. Sonos

22:39

has great gifts for everyone on

22:41

your list. Visit sonos.com/Hertz to wrap

22:43

up your holiday shopping. That's

22:47

sonos.com/H-E-R-T-Z. And

22:49

as always, be sure to use our custom URL

22:51

to let them know you came from us. sonos.com/Hertz.

23:01

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23:03

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23:06

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nordvpn.com/20k. There's

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also a link in the show notes. Cats

24:31

may not be the most forthcoming communicators, but

24:33

if we can learn to read their body

24:35

language and the nuances of their meows, we'll

24:37

have a much better chance of knowing what

24:39

they're thinking. But these days,

24:41

there are a few cats making waves for

24:44

speaking human, leaving us with

24:46

no room for misunderstanding. And

24:48

one of those cats is Billie. Billie

24:52

was a sweet cat to everyone except

24:55

for the cats and dogs that she

24:57

did not like. That's Kendra

24:59

Baker, Billie's human mum. Kendra's a

25:01

travelling veterinarian for zoos and wildlife.

25:03

She and Billie first found each

25:05

other 16 years ago. I

25:10

was in undergrad and

25:12

was driving home with a friend, and

25:15

a furball ran across the road

25:17

chasing a rodent of some kind.

25:21

Unfortunately, the cars on the other side of the

25:23

road did get into a little bit of a

25:25

fender bender, but I jumped out of the car

25:27

and I picked her up. And my friend and

25:29

I drove around trying to find her home. We

25:32

put up all sorts of signs and no one

25:34

claimed her. So she just ended up staying with

25:36

me. I wasn't necessarily in the

25:38

market for an animal at that point,

25:40

but I am very glad that the

25:42

cat distribution system chose me. Billie

25:46

was about four months old when Kendra

25:49

brought her home. She grew into a

25:51

beautiful grey calico with big green eyes.

25:54

Billie was always

25:56

that cat, that people who

25:58

didn't like cats. they changed

26:00

their mind once they met her. She

26:02

just had the biggest personality,

26:04

was always just wanting to be

26:06

around other people and

26:09

just had this love for exploring

26:12

and new things that really spoke to me. From

26:15

an early age, Billy was a great

26:17

communicator. Billy was incredibly verbal,

26:19

and when it was food time, we

26:22

would get a frantic kind of

26:24

running around my ankles, tails upright, whiskers

26:26

are forward, and a

26:28

nice long meow. Meow! As

26:32

a veterinarian, Kendra knows the importance of a

26:34

strong mutual understanding with our pets. For a

26:36

lot of us, they are a huge part

26:38

of our lives, but for the most part,

26:40

they live in a dictatorship. You know, it's

26:42

a dictatorship built on love, but we decide

26:44

when they eat, we decide what they eat,

26:47

we decide when they go outside, we decide

26:49

the extra things that they get in their

26:51

life, any kind of enrichment, we are responsible

26:53

for. And that's their entire

26:55

life. And so I do think

26:57

that there is a lot that we can do

26:59

to really improve their quality of life. Kendra

27:05

was always on the lookout for ways to

27:07

enrich Billy's life. She started following a few

27:09

people on social media who were teaching their

27:11

dogs to use buttons that would play back

27:13

a word when stepped on. Oh,

27:17

wait. The buttons in animals

27:19

are a concept that was taken

27:21

from human speech pathology, and in

27:23

humans, it is called alternative and

27:26

augmentative communication, and it is a

27:28

way to give nonverbal humans a

27:30

voice. And the

27:32

principle is essentially the same. You

27:34

choose words that are rewarding or

27:36

reinforcing for your learner, whether it's

27:39

a dog or a cat. To

27:41

teach a dog or a cat a new word, you have

27:43

to model it just like you would with a baby. If

27:46

someone hands you a cup and

27:48

says cup every single time for

27:50

three weeks, you're probably going to

27:52

associate that object with that word.

27:57

At first, Kendra wasn't sure if these buttons would work with a

27:59

dog or a cat. with Billy. I didn't

28:01

know any cats that were doing it. And at

28:03

that point, the only buttons that were available were

28:05

the ones that they used in humans. So they're

28:08

really large learning resources buttons. And when I looked

28:10

at them, my biggest concern was that Billy wasn't

28:12

actually going to be heavy enough to depress them.

28:15

To start out, Kendra went against

28:17

what everybody online recommended and introduced

28:20

the food button first. And

28:22

the reason that that is not recommended is

28:25

that frequently they can become fixated on it.

28:30

But Kendra figured that if Billy did have

28:32

the strength to push that big button, food

28:34

would be the best possible motivator. So

28:36

that's what we did. And it took

28:38

her about three and a half weeks of

28:41

consistent modeling before she pressed the button with

28:44

intent. After

28:47

that, Kendra started to introduce more buttons.

28:50

Bouncy outside. And then

28:52

from there, it really increased at a

28:55

pretty rapid rate. I had no

28:57

idea just how big it would get. Eventually,

29:00

Billy's button board grew to over 75 individual

29:03

words. Play those pets

29:06

tummy back now later. Yes,

29:08

debut button. She used

29:10

them all, some of them

29:13

significantly more frequently than others. When

29:15

I started, I was definitely going to tell you that

29:17

food would be her most pressed button. But

29:19

actually, it turned out to be a tie

29:21

between pets and play. The

29:26

buttons gave Billy more of a voice, helping

29:28

her to get the attention she wanted in

29:30

a noisy human world. The

29:34

point of them is to give

29:36

your animals a way to express

29:38

their desire in a manner that

29:41

humans pay more attention to. Prior to

29:43

the buttons, if Billy wanted to play,

29:46

her choices would have been to come

29:48

up to me, maybe move around my

29:50

legs, potentially bring me a toy. But

29:53

all of those are kind of

29:55

soft requests when you are used to verbal

29:57

communication the way that we are as humans.

30:00

So when the buttons

30:02

are involved, it becomes significantly

30:05

harder for us as humans

30:07

to ignore a play request.

30:09

Play. Play. Billy

30:12

could also express things that otherwise would have

30:14

been much harder to read. For

30:17

instance, when Billy's dad went out of

30:19

town, Billy asked for him repeatedly. Dad!

30:25

Dad's not home. Dad's

30:27

home. Later, later. A couple

30:31

more days. Watch.

30:38

Over time, Billy began to speak more English

30:41

than Kat. She would press

30:43

up to 200 a day, more sometimes depending on

30:45

how long I was home for. She

30:48

did still meow occasionally,

30:50

but significantly less. And

30:53

usually it was in situations

30:56

where she really wanted to play and we

30:58

were not listening to her. It was more

31:00

of an exclamation point. Katnip.

31:02

Katnip. Outside

31:04

Katnip? Was Katnip outside?

31:07

Katnip. Not

31:10

all of Billy's buttons were for tangible

31:12

objects or simple actions. Some

31:15

communicated more abstract concepts, like

31:17

love, favourite or mad. Mad.

31:20

So how do you model something like mad

31:22

to a cat? Anyone

31:25

who has had a cat, they know that any

31:27

mild inconvenience is probably going to be catastrophic for

31:29

them, right? So for Billy, it

31:31

was mild inconveniences. So if

31:34

it was not food time, but

31:36

she wanted food, then we

31:38

would model mad. Mad. The

31:40

other one that I did frequently for Billy was she

31:43

would love to be on my lap whenever I was

31:45

sitting down. And if I let her,

31:47

she would just stay there all day. She would never

31:49

move. So unfortunately, every time that I needed

31:51

to move her to go to the bathroom or to

31:53

get up to go to work, I would model the

31:55

mad button. Mad. And

31:57

I only modeled the mad button three times. before

32:00

she started pressing it on her own. No.

32:03

No. Billy, why

32:06

are you mad? No. No. No.

32:10

To very much so anthropomorphize, it

32:13

seemed like she had just been waiting for

32:15

the opportunity to say it to me. And

32:18

she finally got it and she

32:20

was like, oh, thank you. I

32:22

have been holding this inside forever.

32:25

No. No. Why are

32:27

you mad? Because there's

32:29

a yoga mat in the middle of the floor? Oh,

32:32

because you want to. Okay, that makes more

32:35

sense. Later, later.

32:38

I know. I

32:42

know. I know you're mad. Billy

32:46

got so good at using these buttons

32:48

that Kendra started posting videos of her

32:50

online. You know, I posted one of

32:52

her very early videos on TikTok. Okay.

32:57

You can have more pets. All

32:59

right. You only have to press it once.

33:03

Okay. And I woke up in

33:06

the morning and it had gone viral. The

33:08

buttons were still incredibly new at this point.

33:10

And then Billy was the first cat. So

33:12

I think that kind of kick-started us. And

33:14

then once Billy got ahold of the mad

33:16

button, it was all over. People

33:18

just loved the idea of a cat

33:20

that knew the word mad. The Dodo

33:22

interviewed Kendra for a video called, This

33:25

cat's favorite word is exactly what you'd

33:27

expect. My ad is mad

33:29

button. Why are you mad? That

33:32

was absolutely her favorite word. You

33:36

know, she would not stop pressing it. That

33:40

video alone has over 25 million views. And

33:44

today, Billy's social media channels have almost

33:46

a million total followers. That's crazy to

33:48

me. I still can't wrap my mind

33:50

around the fact that that many people

33:52

loved watching Billy. Billy

33:56

became affectionately known as her mad

33:58

justee. And this one cat... and

34:00

her owner became an inspiration to

34:02

thousands. Most of the comments

34:04

that I get are, you know, you really have

34:06

taught me a better way

34:09

to interact with my cats or

34:11

improve the communication that I have

34:13

with my cat currently. And

34:15

they have expressed that my relationship with Billy

34:18

helped their relationship with their cats. That's a

34:20

very humbling experience to read all of those

34:22

because I had no idea. Eventually,

34:24

Billy caught the attention of scientists

34:27

studying how animals think and communicate.

34:29

Today, there's a collaborative research project

34:31

being done around pets that use

34:33

these speech buttons, including Billy. This

34:36

is the largest citizen science project

34:38

that has ever taken place. There

34:41

are participants in every

34:43

continent except for Antarctica. There

34:45

are numerous languages, so it's not just people

34:47

who speak English who are doing this. I'm

34:50

a little bit tired. I'm

34:52

tired. The new buttons

34:54

are actually Wi-Fi enabled, and so every

34:56

time they're pressed, that press gets sent

34:58

into an app, and

35:01

the lab has access to all of

35:03

that. So they're really able to get

35:05

a ton of data. With

35:07

all that data, scientists hope to figure

35:10

out once and for all what cats

35:12

and dogs are capable of understanding and

35:14

expressing. But

35:18

even without this research, Kendra still recommends

35:20

buttons as a way of enhancing your

35:22

relationship with your cat. For them,

35:24

it is really just enrichment for their life. It

35:26

is a way for them to have a little

35:28

bit more control over their day-to-day. And

35:30

of course, it's rewarding for the owners, too.

35:35

Every interaction with her was just a delight.

35:37

Every time that she pressed the Mad button,

35:39

every time that she did anything with her

35:42

buttons, it just gave me so much joy.

35:45

I love you, too. Want some

35:48

pets? Pets? Yes. Yeah?

35:51

OK. Good

35:53

girl. Love you. Love

35:55

you. OK. I

35:58

love you, too. I'm glad I'm home also. We

36:01

learn a lot in veterinary school

36:03

about your domestic animal behavior, but

36:05

I think that living

36:07

this experience with Billy probably

36:09

did more for me for feline

36:12

behavior than any of my classes

36:14

ever did. And it

36:16

really makes you reevaluate

36:19

the way that we interact with our

36:21

pets. As

36:25

Billy got older, she started to need

36:28

more of Kendra's professional veterinary help. So

36:30

Billy was born with a condition

36:33

called polycystic kidney disease. And

36:35

what that means is that from birth,

36:38

her kidneys started throwing cysts out, so

36:40

little pockets of fluid. And

36:43

initially, there isn't necessarily any

36:45

abnormal signs that you see

36:47

with that, but it does

36:49

predispose cats and humans to

36:52

kidney failure. When

36:56

Billy was 12, her health took a

36:58

turn for the worse, and she underwent a

37:00

series of operations to keep her kidneys working.

37:03

In cats, we created kidney failure in four different

37:05

stages. One is the lowest

37:07

and four is the highest, and she had been managed

37:09

at two prior to that last surgery. And then afterwards,

37:12

she was steadily in the three phase. But

37:15

unfortunately, earlier this year in February, I

37:18

did find that her blood

37:20

values had increased again, and

37:22

she had jumped into stage four.

37:26

At that point, Kendra's options were pretty

37:28

limited. There is no cure.

37:30

There's not really a way to turn back

37:32

time. You can really only manage the

37:34

symptoms once it gets to a certain point. From

37:38

then on, Kendra's priority became making sure that

37:40

Billy had the best possible quality of life.

37:43

To help with this, she used Billy's ouch

37:45

button, as well as

37:47

a new one. Medicine. Having

37:50

to give your cat a pill is a lot for you,

37:52

but it's also a lot for them. If

37:54

you can imagine that the roles were reversed, if

37:56

you had the flu and someone jumped on you

37:58

once a day and showed up, of something in your

38:00

mouth. I'll think that we would really associate

38:03

anything good with that. So

38:06

instead of forcing pills down her throat or

38:08

hiding them in food, Kendra used

38:10

the medicine button to help Billy

38:12

understand. I made sure that

38:14

she saw what I was doing at the pill and

38:17

then using my words, I would

38:19

say medicine help ouch by and

38:22

I would say medicine then food and

38:26

within 36 hours she started taking it voluntarily

38:28

and I have a number of these videos

38:30

of it's so cute to watch

38:32

them because you can tell that she hates it.

38:35

She'd pick up the pill and then she'd drop it and

38:38

then she'd pick it up and then she'd drop it

38:40

and then she'd finally swallow it but it took a

38:42

really long time. It was fascinating

38:44

to watch how just 36 hours of

38:47

me changing my behavior led

38:50

to this improvement in our ability to make

38:52

sure that she was well managed. Slowly

38:56

but surely, Billy started using her buttons

38:58

less and less. When I

39:01

stopped to think about it, it really made sense. You

39:03

know, if you're not feeling well, the last thing that

39:05

you want to do is have a conversation with anyone, right?

39:07

It just takes a lot more energy. Eventually,

39:10

Billy wasn't eating much. Then

39:12

she stopped wanting to go outside. I'm

39:15

thankful because she declined pretty rapidly there at

39:18

the end. We had a couple

39:20

of good days but then when

39:22

I got home she was just under

39:24

the bed and not really responding to

39:26

me and wouldn't get up.

39:30

So that was kind of a cue of, okay, we're

39:34

definitely not coming back from this

39:36

one. So I made

39:38

the decision for her to have

39:40

an end that did

39:42

not last days.

39:46

So the decision of watching her

39:49

slowly waste away versus

39:52

allowing her to pass peacefully. I

39:54

absolutely chose the latter. It's definitely the one that

39:57

I would choose again and again rather

39:59

than- watching my best friend fade.

40:04

I spoke to Kendra just a couple of weeks

40:06

after Billy had passed. It

40:08

is definitely raw. It's

40:11

definitely an adjustment that

40:13

I have not

40:15

really thoroughly internalized

40:18

yet. It's weird

40:20

when there's a presence in your life for almost

40:22

16 years to just not have them there anymore. Whether

40:33

it's using tools like Billy's buttons or just

40:36

taking the time to get to know our

40:38

cats' sounds and body language, both

40:40

pets and owners stand to gain so

40:43

much. I think that Billy

40:45

really helped me to become just a more

40:47

compassionate person in general, a

40:49

more empathetic person. I

40:52

found myself putting myself in her shoes.

40:56

And what that did is it made

40:58

me look outside of myself

41:01

in every aspect of my life. And I think

41:03

that she probably improved my

41:05

ability to be a

41:07

kind human, not just for other

41:10

animals, but other people as

41:12

well. It becomes a lot easier to look

41:14

at someone who is not like you

41:17

and really feel empathy for

41:19

that situation. I

41:22

think she just made me a better person. I

41:26

love you. I love you too. Love you.

41:29

Mom. I love you too, baby. Yes. Yes.

41:32

Yes. I love you. 20,000

41:38

Hertz is produced out of the

41:40

sound design studios of De facto

41:45

Sound. Learn

41:51

more at de facto sound.com. It

42:00

was sound designed and mixed by Graham Gold

42:03

and Justin Hollis. Thanks

42:05

to our guests, Sarah Brown and Kendra

42:08

Baker. For more tips on

42:10

how to better understand your cat, be

42:12

sure to pick up Sarah's book, The

42:14

Hidden Language of Cats. You can find

42:16

Billy's videos on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok

42:18

under the username BillySpeaks. And

42:20

if you want to learn about the buttons

42:22

that Billy used, Kendra has lots of info

42:24

at billyspeaks.com. I'm

42:27

Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening. We

42:38

humans are born into a

42:40

wondrous planetary chorus. But

42:43

these days, it can be hard to hear

42:45

anything but the noise of our own species.

42:49

How is this changing us? And

42:51

how are we changed when we quiet

42:53

down and listen to the

42:55

voices of our planetmates? We're

42:59

actually incredibly gifted listeners. You

43:01

know, that is inherent to

43:03

being a human being. We

43:05

have the capacity to listen.

43:09

On this season of Threshold, we're going to

43:11

take you on a journey into the heart

43:13

of a quiet revolution, a

43:16

listening renaissance. The world is

43:18

the first storyteller that's told us the story

43:20

of how to be who we are. Listening

43:23

is who we are. And in a

43:25

time of mounting ecological crisis, maybe listening

43:27

is how we can find our way

43:30

back home. Find

43:32

Threshold wherever you listen to podcasts.