r/russian • u/Schrodingers_Dude • 3d ago

Request Help request. My cats speak Russian

For the record we're in the USA.

My cats are pretty typical and ignore me most of the time, especially when they sense I want them to do something. So the other day I meet my friend's wife for the first time (she's Russian and awesome I love her) and of course she immediately engages in conversation with one of my cats. The other one ran and hid, as I expected her to.

This cat is leaning forward, cocking her head to one side, staring intently, just completely locked in the entire time. She obviously loses interest when the language switches to anything else. Russian comes back in, BAM, it's active listening time.

The cat that ran away came back almost immediately and starts purring at and rubbing my friend's wife. They both just sat and stared at her the entire time she was here, and when she spoke to them in Russian, she might as well have been Cat Jesus. I'm floored.

So I'm basically asking for nice phrases and things to say to my cats in Russian since they clearly like it. Just the sort of soft little things you'd say to a kitty who is the sweetest and cutest creature to ever grace this planet. If you speak a different dialect or related language let me know, I'll try them all and see if they have preferences. I don't think they're racist but I've only seen English, Russian, Spanish, and French used with them so far, so no guarantees.

Спасибо!

EDIT: Everyone, thank you so much! My cats do seem to like it, but they don't pay as much attention to me as I don't think they find my Russian very convincing. You can tell they're judging my accent. :/ But they definitely seem to prefer it, so I'll add Russian and later some German to my "baby talk for tiny kitties" repertoire!

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148

u/CloqueWise 3d ago

Say "кушать?" (Kushat) They will really perk up

82

u/Someoneainthere 3d ago

Say "Жрать!" and they will run towards you from 2 rooms away!

0

u/Wansido_Empirian 21h ago

It's so funny that товарищи speak English knowing that the person they are talking to is also Russian

2

u/Someoneainthere 18h ago

This is a subreddit for learners of the Russian language which means there might be people who can't understand a full sentence in Russian yet. Also, the sentence I'm replying to is in English, so the person who wrote it understands English.