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Our eldest cat has weird behaviour that I thought I'd see if anyone can explain.

For her whole life, if one of us has to yell upstairs to the other, or if we whistle or sing loudly, or even if the home phone voicemail is put on loudspeaker, she sort of freaks out. She clambers all over us, walking back and forth, purring and trying to get lots of fuss but in a very desperate way. Like, she has to have attention and she has to have it NOW!!

Any idea why!?

I haven't seen this behaviour, but then I live alone and the household is quiet. My guess would be that your cat is frightened by loud noises, and needs reassurance that everything is all right, and that no one is angry with her.

I would say something similar. Does she react this way to automated noises or just vocal sounds? It sounds like shouting scares her a little.

Did you/do you have a dog that required strong commands? It's possible your cat is reacting to this.


It sounds like you have children/teens if you have to yell a lot. Do the kids treat the cat well or does she shy from them?

I guess it's possible she's reacting to your stress.

Thanks both.
As far as her behaviour goes, she's a curious mix. Overall, she's pretty well behaved but she also has a naughty streak and no amount of telling her off puts her off her behaviour, lol! She used to climb the net curtains in our dining room until she was half over the top of the curtain and half the other side, then sit there and meow, but resist being pulled down. She completely destroyed that curtain because she did it so often. She also jumps on kitchen counters and won't respond to the 'down' command. So I don't think her reaction to raised voices is fear at being told off or anything. She would climb IN my mouth when I'm calling to my husband if she could! Really weird.

I don't have kids, thank goodness, so it's impossible to say how she'd react to someone else doing it but she reacts when my husband does it as well. She also reacts this way if you whistle!

Ah. Frequencies.

Many cats react to whistling - an extreme example was my George (aka the Beast of Bodmin) who responded to me whistling just one tune -

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ser ... &FORM=VIRE

(Not to everyone's taste I know but I chose this version because one of the singers in this performance was called Gwen Catley lol)

When I whistled the tune in the house George would go mad, and at the high notes near the end he would come and bat me round the face, claws in, gentle lad. But he didn't resent the tune - he'd often go up the field behind the house where we lived then, hunt rabbits, dine and sleep it off, and just to make sure he was ok, a day or so later I'd walk up the field whistling 'his' tune and I'd hear an answering 'waow' and a pair of black ears would stick up over a bush and George would come running.

It was just like that bit in 'Help' where the Beatles have to sing Beethoven to the tiger lol.

I've also known snakes (who are said to have no hearing, only awareness of vibrations) to recognise high voices; read about it too.

Sorry - this doesn't really solve your cat's problem but it might add a bit of info