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That glorious, familiar calming rumble we all adore.
The cat purr, unique to the feline species, has been proven to lower heart rates and reduce stress in humans, and even help with broken bones and joint issues – magic. But have you ever wondered why exactly it is that our fluffballs purr?
Do cats purr because they’re happy?
Let’s start with the ones we’ve heard before. It’s easy to believe that cats simply purr when they are happy – it’s a voluntary and instinctive behaviour the floofs display when they are most content. Another popular theory is that our little ones use the gentle rumbling to self-soothe after a particularly stressful event.
Do cats purr to talk to us?
Have you ever been greeted by a furry alarm clock whose tone resembles a small mower?
It turns out that this is a tactic your cat might have learned from as teeny as two weeks old. Impossible to ignore (we know, we live this story on repeat), the humble purr let mumma cat know their whereabouts when they were hungry so they didn’t get forgotten at dinner time. They learn to continue this behaviour well into adulthood to make sure they let you know exactly when it’s time to plate up their dinner.
It gets cleverer. When digging through purr-based research, we found evidence to suggest that cats purr during a cuddle fest to keep us stroking them for as long as possible* (*until they’ve had enough, we all know festivities then get called to a close exceedingly quickly). Our clever kitties know that unleashing the rumble gives us no choice but to continue to shower them with love and affection. Genius.
Does a cat’s purr have healing powers?
The purr even holds the power to heal, and maybe this is why humans have become so attached to their feline counterparts over the years. Keeping those purring furballs around in our homes to heal our aches and pains. A 2001 study by The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America showed both domestic and big cats could power their purr to reach frequencies optimal for pain relief and bone repair. The vibrations flow through their body and can ease breathing, help with muscle repair, pain and swelling. Maybe the old 9 lives theory really just comes down to the superpower of their purrs.
So whether their purrs are made heard to solicit food from their humans, heal aches and pains or simply just because they’re happy as larry, cats really have finetuned this soothing tool to gain exactly the results they require.
Every day us mere mortals are reminded just how smart and superior they are as a species, they have made it practically impossible to resist the calming calls of a purring puss.
So it’s proven – cats are scientifically good for the soul.
