Dougy often stops by my bed when I sit on the side in the morning. He’ll scratch on the box spring (bad boy!), stretch, give me a look that tells me he wants to hop on my bed but is waiting for my OK.
The sign he’s waits for is a pat-pat-pat on the mattress, my hand signal to him to jump up and join me. Once he has the sign and jumps, he always lands with a thump and one “meow”!
I then pat, stroke, scratch, and talk with him. He gets all excited and walks back and forth, tail up, making contact with my hand and side till I start a nose rub, something both boys really, really like! (Persians have a difficult time reaching that spot after all!)
Today, during the back-and-forth business, I thought I heard something. I leaned closer to Dougy, and realized all this time he’d been purring!
Purring! PURRING!
That may not be a big deal to most people, but I am totally deaf in my right ear because of an infection when I had shingles in 2007. My left ear “works” but ringing in it sometimes cancels out subtle sounds…like Dougy’s soft purr. Yet there he was, rumbling like a freight train this morning, probably every time he “asks” to hop on my bed and I play our little ritual out, just not loud enough for me to realize he reacted to the ritual with a purr.
Today, though, I finally caught a slight hint of a sound, leaned closer to Dougy, and heard that soothing, happy sound of a happy cat!
Happy cat, happy me! If you don’t hear, then hear, it is a miracle, a joy I can’t describe!
What a lovely holiday miracle to get a little relief of the tinnitus and hear your boy’s purr! I had a wonderful black Maine Coon Cat mix named Harry D. Furball who used to come up on the table when I was having tea (not a good boy, but a loved one). He’d sit right in front of me, lean against my chest, and rub his face against my chin, purring so loudly and deeply that I could FEEL it. It was such an incredible feeling that I never could complain of his being on the table.
What a wonderful remembrance! I’m not so sure now that I didn’t feel Dougy purring, then verified it by leaning closer to him. That almost makes more sense. Regardless, it was a magical moment, and I know now to lean in just in case my naughty boy’s purring, too!
Pickles purrs in the felt vibration range. As most robust purr.
Andy, the smaller of my two cats, has a louder purr that I hear more readily than Dougy’s, but I’m sure I feel it when I pet him more than hear it. “Pickles”! What a great name for a cat beard! Ha! (Lovely cats, too! Black and white cats are a favorite, especially tuxedo cats.)
What a wonderful sound to be able to hear. Nothing sounds more soothing and sweeter than the purr of a happy cat.
Ali has a purr like a putt putt car starting and a lot of times she just squeaks when she meows.
We call that squeak her little girl meow even though she is almost 4.
Have a good week end coming up way to fast again.
I had to laugh at your description of Ali’s purr! Dougy has a kittenish purr that is sweet and his brother Andy has a louder, more adult sounding purr.
I hope that this is a sign that any nerve damage is healing, and that soon you will be restored to full hearing! Woof! (tail wags)
The right ear would require surgery that has a probable success rate of 30% because of my Wegener’s granulomatosis history. (It is unlikely the repaired ear would heal properly for lack of adequate vascular support.) The tinnitus comes and goes, again an effect of the Wegener’s. That’s the way it goes…!