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When Kim Silva retired from teaching at the American School for the Deaf, she decided to start teaching sign language to her cats.
"Guess I missed the kiddies so I began teaching the kitties!" Silva says.
It all started after setting sights on a deaf cat named Bambi.
In 2009, after losing another beloved pet, Silva and her husband, John -- who are both deaf -- were ready for a new feline companion.
"[We] fell in love with Bambi on Pet Finder," Silva says.
Silva's previous teaching experience was pretty much limited to humans, but she was optimistic that American Sign Language would help Bambi live most fully -- and that the cat would be a perfectly good student.
"Since my daughters learned signs from infancy, I had ideas how to introduce sign," she says.
Bambi was at a rescue shelter in Texas, though, and it would take a while before she could be brought to Connecticut, where Silva lives. In the meantime, she figured, she might as well get started with the cats she already had, even though both of them could hear.
"Bobcat immediately understood," she says. "My other cat, Bear, was very old and was not interested."
Bobcat learned one sign after another "until he learned the new vocabulary," Silva says. "Bobcat was a sponge for sign language! He showed off. He was fabulous."
Bambi picked up the signs even more easily, since, Silva explains, she had "peer reinforcement and copied Bobcat."
Thomasina, who then joined the family in 2013, after Bear died, learned even faster.
The cats have a delightfully expansive vocabulary. Among the words they now know are: "come," "more," "sit," "stay," "shake," "high five," "sleep," "circle," "shrimp,' "play," "canned food," "finish" and "dance" (though sometimes they don't feel like doing that one). They also know "off," which Silva must spell out, letter by letter.
Source
How awesome is that!
"Guess I missed the kiddies so I began teaching the kitties!" Silva says.
It all started after setting sights on a deaf cat named Bambi.
In 2009, after losing another beloved pet, Silva and her husband, John -- who are both deaf -- were ready for a new feline companion.
"[We] fell in love with Bambi on Pet Finder," Silva says.
Silva's previous teaching experience was pretty much limited to humans, but she was optimistic that American Sign Language would help Bambi live most fully -- and that the cat would be a perfectly good student.
"Since my daughters learned signs from infancy, I had ideas how to introduce sign," she says.
Bambi was at a rescue shelter in Texas, though, and it would take a while before she could be brought to Connecticut, where Silva lives. In the meantime, she figured, she might as well get started with the cats she already had, even though both of them could hear.
"Bobcat immediately understood," she says. "My other cat, Bear, was very old and was not interested."
Bobcat learned one sign after another "until he learned the new vocabulary," Silva says. "Bobcat was a sponge for sign language! He showed off. He was fabulous."
Bambi picked up the signs even more easily, since, Silva explains, she had "peer reinforcement and copied Bobcat."
Thomasina, who then joined the family in 2013, after Bear died, learned even faster.
The cats have a delightfully expansive vocabulary. Among the words they now know are: "come," "more," "sit," "stay," "shake," "high five," "sleep," "circle," "shrimp,' "play," "canned food," "finish" and "dance" (though sometimes they don't feel like doing that one). They also know "off," which Silva must spell out, letter by letter.
Source
How awesome is that!
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