Last night I was in the kitchen looking for something, anything, to satisfy a sudden craving for sugar when Bud padded up and gave me one of the standard greetings in his Buddinese repertoire.
It’s just a “Hmmmmph!” in his high, Elmo-like voice, an acknowledgement that he sees me and he’s watching with interest, but without any of the typical demands or strong opinions attached.
“Hmmmmmph!” I replied.
“Hmmmmmph!” he said again, and we went back and forth until he stopped, tilted his head curiously, and gave me a look that said “Are you making fun of me again?”
I couldn’t help myself and busted out laughing, bending down to mess up the fur on top of his head as he rubbed up against my leg.
Of course I can’t actually prove that he understands our little exchange, but I know in my heart that he does. Sometimes he gets indignant when I laugh at him. Sometimes I get indignant when he gleefully smacks me or tries to chew on my glasses.
But mostly we laugh together, and he understands that human laughter is a happy sound, even when he’s deeply confused about what exactly I find so funny.
Will I ever have this kind of bond with another cat? I don’t know. It’s taken more than a decade to get here, a decade of being inseparable and understanding each other on a fundamental level.
But I’m not going to spoil it by spending too much time thinking about it. That would ruin the joke.
Pain In The Bud 
Some cats clearly have a sense of humor. For example, my girl, Charlie, loooves to play hide and seek — and she takes great glee in shooting out from somewhere unexpected to surprising me and make me laugh. She randomly crouches on the other side of my laptop screen and then pops her head up. (“Peekaboo!”) And just by the way she reacts when we talk (in human and cat OR in my feeble attempts at cat), I know she’s laughing too.
I am SURE that little Bud is in on the joke!
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The laptop peekaboo sounds really cute. You never know, if you get good footage of it, it could go viral as a TikTok or Youtube short. Somehow it seems perfectly appropriate for cats to have a sense of humor. After all, they’re all about mischief.
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Me and Puspus have a relationship lîke this, he’s a massive cat , I mean a huge tabby and he never miowed because he was copletely wild so I don’t think he ever had any parenting.
But he has just started after7 years to miow but it’s a tiny high pitched squeek!
And I try so hard not to laugh but it’s so sweet.
Anyway , he’s not happy as we have storms and it has rained for 4 months. He can’t understand why I can’t stop it raining.
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Me and Puspus have a relationship lîke this, he’s a massive cat , I mean a huge tabby and he never miowed because he was copletely wild so I don’t think he ever had any parenting.
But he has just started after7 years to miow but it’s a tiny high pitched squeek!
And I try so hard not to laugh but it’s so sweet.
Anyway , he’s not happy as we have storms and it has rained for 4 months. He can’t understand why I can’t stop it raining.
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That’s awesome, it means he knows you communicate verbally and he’s trying to talk to you on your terms. That’s a major step for a formerly feral little guy.
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He understands. You two have a language all your own.
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The Buddinese language!
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🤣My cat TT has more of a gutteral sound when i am in the kitchen.
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I think cats can definitely have a sense of humor … I’ve watched a cat pull off a joke on another cat.
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They love to ambush each other, even big cats. There’s a video from Big Cat Rescue showing a jaguar playing with a large box, and his sister sneaks up behind him, clearly delighted as she startles him and he jumps several feet backward.
Did you see the video of a guy performing a magic trick for an orangutan at a zoo? The reaction is so human:
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I’ve probably posted more than once about my cat Lydia, who I had in the 1990s for only 8 years. She was like Bart Simpson in a cat suit. She made me laugh every day of her life.
She was also kinda bratty, so she was probably under the impression that her name was Stop It Lydia.
This makes me laugh to this day:
Back then I had a kitchen trash can with one of those lids that swing back and forth.
I was in the living room, and heard somebody rooting through the trash can.
Suddenly Lydia runs in the room at top speed, meowing with everything she had. Translation: “It’s not me this time!”
I went in the kitchen to see one my other cat’s tail poking out the lid of the trash can.
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Lydia was a snitch! For good reason though, as she would have gotten the blame otherwise. Cats are a lot smarter and more aware than we often give them credit for. Thanks for sharing the anecdote!
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He is such a handsome mancat. Of course, cats understand us. It just doesn’t influence their behavior in any positive way. 🙂
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That’s why he founded Le Handsome Club: The Club for Le Handsome Cats. It has French in it, so obviously it’s legit and fashionable!
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Sounds like you have the perfect relationship, but there’s no doubt who’s boss…and it ain’t you, my friend!
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You’re right, it’s most certainly not me, as I’m reminded daily!
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