A cat owner has captured the moment her four-legged friend appeared to tell her how she really felt—and it’s got people feeling teary-eyed.
Most can only dream of someday hearing their beloved cat or dog say those three magic words—”I love you.” However, for the owner of Jackson the cat, it’s something approaching reality—albeit with a little help from technology.
In a clip posted to TikTok under the handle @speaking_of_cats, Jackson can be seen pressing several buttons on a button board to request that his owner gives him a “brush” right “now.” His human duly obliges, pressing both the “brush” and “now” buttons to reinforce Jackson’s association between those words and the act of brushing.
Jackson is not without gratitude either. He taps on the “mom” button a couple of times before following it up by pressing “love you.” As the brushing continues, Jackson presses on the “love you” button again and again to further emphasize his feelings.
Watch the video here.
Button boards are a type of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) device that in theory allow our pets to communicate with the world around them. Similar technology was previously utilized by the likes of Professor Stephen Hawking.
Several dogs have already gone viral having shown off their impressive skills in using these boards. Bunny the sheepadoodle is arguably the most famous, though Copper the Labrador showed a similarly impressive level of skill in another clip in which he asked his owner for a bath.
Most button boards feature a series of circular buttons with words or icons on them. Press on a button and a pre-recorded word is played. The idea is that, over time, your pet learns that pressing on a particular button results in a specific outcome.
Training a dog to learn this pseudo-language is tough, but to get a cat is even harder. Our feline friends are not so easily trained, making Jackson’s efforts that bit more special.
Commenting on the TikTok video, Jackson’s owner explained how she got her cat started using the mat. “First step was teaching them to press for treats, then introduced other words and paired them with what they meant (petting him when he pressed pets),” she wrote.
Though cats don’t necessarily show it in the way that a dog might, research has shown that felines have a similar level of attachment to their owner.
A 2019 study published in Current Biology found that cats have a level of attachment to their human that is similar to that of parent and infant. Researchers reached that conclusion following an experiment involving 108 cats and their owners.
First, each cat was placed in a room with its owner for two minutes. Their owner was then asked to leave for two minutes before returning for another two minutes. Researchers then observed the cats’ behavior upon their owner’s return.
They found that 64 percent of the cats studied exhibited a degree of secure attachment to their owner, meaning they felt comfortable in a new scenario due to the presence of a parental figure.
In this case, the cats surveyed greeted their owners when they returned before going back to what they were doing. In cases where the cat felt insecure, they would twitch their tails, lick their lips or avoid their owner altogether.
While these behaviors may offer pet owners some clue as to how they are feeling, Jackson’s human has no such problem thanks to his button board. Though it would perhaps be understandable for other pet owners to feel a tinge of jealousy, the response to the clip was largely an emotional one with crying face emoji sprinkled throughout.
“If my cats told me they love me I’d immediately sob,” one viewer wrote with another commenting: “I want my cats to tell me that they love me too.”
“Awwwww how stinking cute is this!” a third added while a fourth declared “my heart is full” upon watching the clip.
Source from: Jack Beresford/ newsweek 90
