August 6, 2009, 8:58 AM
By Answer Fella
Seth Joel/Getty Images
Ooooooh, a kitty question! After nearly ten years, Answer Fella finally gets a kitty question! Thank you so, so, so, so much!
Cats purr for the same reason that Mrs. Fella sighs: because they are cats. And just like Mrs. Fella's sighs, a cat's purring changes and can signify a vast range of emotions.
Carolyn McDaniel, a veterinarian at the Cornell Feline Health Center, affirms that "cats purr when they're happy and content," but adds that purring may also signify a cat is "anxious, fearful, or in pain. Then there are very, very ill cats that purr what does this mean? What is the cat trying to communicate?"
Perhaps the cat is praying?
"Some people think the frequency of sound the purr makes helps release endorphins from the cat the cat is trying to make itself feel better, trying to comfort itself."
Stop, please, or AF may start to weep. What about the physical mechanism?
"Veterinarians still don't have a complete understanding of how purring is generated. The current idea is that a cat's purr originates in the larynx and is generated by oscillation of airway structures that result in turbulent airflow during respiration. We can do an MRI on a cat, treat its cancer with chemotherapy, control its asthma with inhalant therapy, but we can't explain its purring mechanism."
And still some people claim there is no God.
Contact AF anytime at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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