I have just observed an interesting reaction from my cat Cleo. As I watched a football match on tv today, Chelsea v Liverpool, she curled up and went to sleep in her favourite-for-the-purpose chair. When the final whistle went, the commentator's tone altered: his delivery changed into summarising mode; the words accelerated and his volume increased, as he emphasised points about Liverpool's having turned the game around, and speculated on what the defeat might mean to Chelsea's embattled manager. Cleo immediately leapt up, & ran over to sit on my lap, as if to tell me it was time for me to stop watching the silly old telly and give some urgent time for her to be petted and fed. The point is, the change of the tone of the tv commentary had obviously indicated to her, even comatose as as she appeared, that the game was over, and I would soon be switching off and my attention could transfer to her. The commentator's voice and delivery at that point had clearly indicated to her what the following sequence of events would be.

There seem to me to be some extraordinarily sensitive reactions at play in her behaviour here. Has anyone else experienced such specific recognition of a particular situation in an animal's behaviour?

≈M≈