Billi the talking cat: her favourite word is angry

Sadly, Billi has already crossed the rainbow bridge in 2024 at the age of 16, but her legacy will live on forever! With elegance and cheekiness regardless of her age, this lively and spirited cat, whom her friends and family called Her Majesty, looked out on the world around her.

You may have heard about the push-button system, first used in dogs. It works on a very simple principle: each button has a meaning and when you press it, you can hear the word itself. All the owners have to do is connect the objects, concepts or verbs in the cats’ minds to the buttons that represent them. The sceptics thought that even if cats were interested, even if they were willing to put in some effort, they would not be able to make such connections. They were very wrong! Next The story of Billi the talking cat!

What is the cat thinking?

Billi’s owners started the project because they were very interested in what their pet was thinking, what was going on in her head. And it was a bonus that this little exercise gave them the opportunity to deepen their relationship with Billi. Billi started actively using the buttons 3 weeks after the owners introduced her to them. She first learned what the word “food” meant and then what “petting” meant. The most important ones, of course.

But what Billi prefers even more than food and petting is the word “angry”. Well, yes, there’s no denying that we can identify with that sometimes. Especially when long-repressed memories of postal service resurface on a foggy afternoon. But let’s not get too carried away! Her owners have observed that Billi never poses, in a manner befitting a real cat, never refines her manners, and never tries to please anyone. She likes to press the angry button repeatedly when she doesn’t get what she wants. And to make a strong enough impression, the button is followed by an eye roll.

Catnip for bribery

After these examples, we really cannot question the intelligence of this cat. She is very smart, even cunning. She knows exactly what words mean and she can use them. According to her owner, Kendra Baker, she was even able to understand the meaning of barter and use it in real life. If the owner wanted to cuddle Billie got something in return. Compensation, so to speak, because we live in a very tough world where it makes no sense to play games. Compensation is usually food or catnip. But of course, Billi also likes to use the love button in her soft moments and, perhaps incredibly, she expects nothing in return. She just enjoys being important to someone, and it being reciprocated.

The talking cat has a vocabulary of 64 words

When they first started learning, Billi was given just a few buttons for simplicity, but in her final days, she was the proud owner of 64 buttons. Kendra says that after 10 months, there wasn’t a button she wasn’t actively using. For example, as you might expect, even such a determined woman can sometimes get confused about what she wants. But Billi is not embarrassed by this and is able to let her owners know it. By pressing the “hmm?” button. Sometimes it was hard to know whether she wanted a game, a cuddle, a treat or a rest. In fact, she was even able to tell us how she felt. Due to a chronic illness, she had problems with her digestive system. One morning, the owner noticed that Billi repeatedly pressed the “ouch” button. Later, Kendra noticed that the kitten was vomiting.

She felt better after the vet’s treatment and expressed this with the “happy” and “all done” buttons.

The difference between cats and dogs

Domestic cats are also in the TheyCanTalk.org research project, whose scientific mission is to find out if, how and to what extent non-human beings can express themselves in a language-like way. Although cognitive scientist and founder Leo Trottier was sceptical about whether cats would use buttons, he was ultimately pleasantly surprised. Now he is investigating how cats communicate differently from dogs.

So far, it seems that cats prefer to use one button at a time, and there are definitely some favourites that they prefer to use.