I like to amuse myself by thinking I can speak "dog" or "cat". Really, all that means is that I try to pay attention to my pets and interpret their body language or actions for what they really are. I'm right about 50% of the time, I think. At least, I manage to get happy dances from them that much. The rest of the time I get sour looks, especially from the Wabby (our cat).

Carmie was easy to figure out. Dogs are like that. She just wanted to be with us, me and Tom. Go wherever we went. Be around us. When we finally (after 9 years, I'm ashamed to admit) got her a doggie bed, she showed her appreciation by immediately lying down in it and smiling up at us. Yes, she smiled. Admit it, you know dogs can smile.

Well, Carmie is no longer with us. But, Wabby is. So, we got Wabby a bed for her 17 year old bones...and she has pretty much ignored it. The only time she gets in it, is when we're not looking. IF we come into the room and she's in the bed, awake, she slowly gets up and moves to another part of the bed. <sigh>

I'm tuned in to her meows fairly well - she has her, "Can't I eat NOW!" meow, and her, "I know it isn't dinnertime but...maybe just a treat?" meow. During the night she has a wail - that's all I can say, a very loud, insistent wail. From reading on the net about why cats do t his in the middle of the night, I have figured out that she's just getting old and her wailing is a call for help.

The wailing says, "Where's my bed?" Or, "Where's my Mom?" As an elderly cat, so the other pet owners say (my reading was on several pet forums and vet blogs), Wabby can get disoriented and forget where she is. So, I need to get up and pick her up and carry her around for awhile. I need to make sure she remembers we're here and we love her.

In fact, I find that she needs picking up during the day quite a bit, too. She likes to look around at what's happening "up there." She can't really see what's happening up where we are, so when I pick her up and carry her around the house, she loves looking at all the "stuff"... stuff she can't see from the floor. It's amusing and loving. She purrs the whole time.

I guess dogspeak and catspeak isn't really a language you could write down. It's an understanding of your pet. It's being tuned in to the nuances of your pet's actions, and even the barks, growls, meows, and other sounds they make.

We do it for babies, why not for our pets?