It’s one of the most lovely sounds in the world…the low, soothing rumbling of a cat’s purr. I love this description of the purr supplied by Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic.
“A purr is a warm tea and fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, all rolled in a fleece lined hug; it is the auditory salve of a babbling brook; it is coffee brewing at dawn.”
From a scientific standpoint, the purr is not fully understood. What is known is the cat’s brain sends messages to the laryngeal muscles, causing them to twitch at a rate of 25 to 150 vibrations per second. This causes the vocal cords to separate when the cat inhales and exhales resulting in a purr.
Purring occurs when a cat is relaxed and content. However, cats may also purr when they are frightened, threatened, hungry or hurt. In these cases, animal behavioralists speculate that the cat might be trying to soothe itself.
Purring begins when kittens are still blind and deaf. Their mother purrs a lullaby and the tiny kittens purr to say, “I’m here, mom, and I want some food.”
Purring is a feature of the smaller cats and not just our house cats. Bobcats, ocelots, lynxes, cougars and others can purr. The ability to purr, not size or behavior, is one of the major distinctions between the two classifications (genera) of cats, Felis and Panthera. The big cats, Panthera, which includes lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars can roar but are physically unable to purr.
And then there is the oddball. Cheetahs have a genus all their own, Acinonyx. They can purr but cannot roar. They also have claws that can never fully retract.
Our beautiful, orange tabby, Neko, had a super loud purr, and he loved to sleep right next to our heads. But his purr could not compete with this cheetah’s purr. Check it out below.
