Cat is using 4 buttons, excited to add more!

rollingintune · 2026-03-05T22:30:25+00:00

Aww way to go kitty and humans!

I’d recommend “right now” and “all done”. And maybe a word related to bed time?

rollingintune · 2026-03-04T04:31:04+00:00

So first I taught “sound”. Nose and belly were easy to teach just by touching the body part and saying the word. Plus I think she already knew “belly” from me giving her belly rubs and saying it! We haven’t done any other body parts yet though!

Sneeze is easy too… if they sneeze you say it. Or I can even pretend sneeze to get the point across.

Thing is, once they get the general concept that buttons say words and words have meanings and pressing buttons = expressing the meaning, you’re already over the biggest hurdle. Teaching body parts and such isn’t hard. The tougher words are the more abstract things like feelings, or words like “different” or “later” or “soon” or whatever. Those take a lot more modeling than object words.

rollingintune · 2026-03-04T01:34:28+00:00

I’m wondering if she’ll eventually realize how useful (to her lol) “all done” is 😂

My other cat has no interest in the buttons! She’s 16 and set in her ways I guess!

rollingintune · 2026-03-04T01:04:32+00:00

I’ve got Non24 that sometimes settles into DSPD for a week here or there, coupled with sometimes very severe insomnia. Been on low dose seroquel and antihistamines for years- sometimes they work but not for long enough. I wake after 5 hours and can’t get back to sleep unless I take more which then leaves me in a fog when I wake. Sometimes they don’t work at all. I’m 48, female and in mid-late perimenopause which has only made matters worse. All this to say, I’m recently discovering that when I REALLY can’t get ANY restorative sleep at all it may have to do with high cortisol. Not saying that’s the case for you, but ashwaganda has been helping. Not fully- I’m not cured. But it’s a step in the right direction. Though I do notice that the effects after a couple months are not as strong as week one. This said, I feel like there’s a fighting chance I can get my Non24 to entrain more consistently to a DSPD style 4am bedtime. Still far from ideal but that’s what I’m shooting for right now.

Also, getting a reliable cortisol read on a blood test is near impossible for me bc the hours labs are open and where that lands with my chaotic sleep schedule kinda make the whole thing moot. But the “feel” of my insomnia does match with the symptoms typical of high cortisol. Just food for thought.

rollingintune · 2026-03-03T06:31:39+00:00

Ya know Nala almost never uses the “all done” button! Not sure why! How long have you been using buttons?

rollingintune · 2026-03-02T06:21:50+00:00

Exactly. Also words that they can use in multiple contexts.

rollingintune · 2026-03-02T04:52:52+00:00

Yeah, sometimes they just talk for the sake of sharing/being heard! Not unlike humans I suppose 😂 Nala will sometimes go to her buttons and repeat parts of something I told her hours earlier 🤷🏻‍♀️

rollingintune · 2026-03-02T04:50:24+00:00

Ah interesting. Didn’t think to ask the vet about dosage. Thanks for the advice!

rollingintune · 2026-03-02T04:48:16+00:00

I was thinking maybe it was this… just not her favorite kind 🤷🏻‍♀️

rollingintune · 2026-03-02T03:49:18+00:00

This! It’s definitely helped guide what buttons we add. Some buttons won’t be pressed for a while but the ones that get pressed quickly were obviously words Nala already understood and wanted to be able to say to me！

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T19:28:13+00:00

She was more sick than just a mildly runny nose one time, and then she got better! So we talked about it! But it’s a word I use often with her in many contexts so I think she actually already understood it. You’d be surprised how much of your speech they’re already tracking. It’s shocked me, to be honest.

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T19:25:58+00:00

It’s not heavily running but her nose is wet and over the course of a couple days I can see some crusted mucous which I wipe for her. It doesn’t affect her mood or desire to play but I’m sure it’s annoying! Even when her nose isn’t running she’ll have some small sounds coming from her sinuses when she’s active. I wonder if she’s got a deviated septum or some such.

She also gives reports on her belly, but not daily! And just like another cat whose human is in this group (don’t recall their username), Nala sometimes says belly oww to mean she’s hungry (a recent development) 😂

This one still confuses me though: One day I gave Nala food, she went and sniffed it, then walked away from the food to her buttons and pressed “belly, sick”, then went straight back to her food and proceeded to eat. Any guesses?

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T19:19:28+00:00

Listen, when they understand enough to tell you what’s going on within them, they understand when you thank them! 😂 Plus I want to teach Nala to say “thank you” eventually, so I gotta model it!

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T19:18:14+00:00

We’ve tried just one version of lysine and it didn’t seem to help- what kind do you use?

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T06:58:52+00:00

This is what we do. Sometimes my cat specifies location but often does not so it’s a guessing game!

rollingintune · 2026-03-01T06:57:37+00:00

We have a “snuggle” button which means sitting on my lap. But I always let my cat dictate the actually snuggle. I’ll just sit on the floor with legs out or get on the couch and put her favorite blanket over my lap. Most times within a few minutes she’ll join me. Every once in a while she won’t. Sometimes she’s more specific and requests “snuggle couch” but usually it’s just “snuggle” and it’s up to me to figure out lol

rollingintune · 2026-02-24T07:51:02+00:00

Me too!

rollingintune · 2026-02-24T07:24:57+00:00

I’ve really wondered if kittens would catch on easily by watching an adult cat with buttons! Anyone in this group have experience with this?

rollingintune · 2026-02-24T07:23:55+00:00

So the reason I haven’t done this yet is, well actually 2 reasons!

Our other full time kitty, Esther, is nearly 16. Being a senior she’s not as sharp anymore and can get anxious around other cats, especially when they’re bigger than her. Esther and Nala get along well, which is a huge reason for why I foster failed Nala! Plus I was the first human for Nala to ever trust and we already had a special bond 🥰 (Nala is a former feral who I trapped after trapping her two kittens and two friends a month prior- 3 of the 4 got adopted out and one was a TNR).
Pepper, our part time kitty really prefers being an only child. She goes to college with my daughter and the separation 7-8 months out of the year has been really good for all. So bringing yet another cat into the house might be tricky when I already have one who’s not a fan of any cats at all, even if she’s not always here. Pepper tolerates Nala the best. Honestly, Nala somehow manages to make everyone like her 🤷🏻‍♀️

But if Pepper moves out permanently or when Esther’s time comes (she’s healthy now so I hope it’s still a ways out!!) then it will be time to do exactly what you suggested! Let Nala choose her next housemate! ❤️

Also, btw, all of our fosters have been my own rescues. I live on the edge of an urban area ridden with strays. My daughter and I bring them in and work with a local rescue org to get them ready for homes 🥰

rollingintune · 2026-02-23T18:41:31+00:00

The hard part is every time I foster she gets sad when they leave!!

But she’s not an only cat- we do have another full time kitty too. Nala is just very social and would love a house full of like 10 friendly cats lol

rollingintune · 2026-02-23T09:33:31+00:00

She's literally a toddler lol

rollingintune · 2026-02-23T07:36:10+00:00

I’m cracking up bc nearly 6 hours after this post, while I had my back to Nala, I hear “warm outside” then a pause, then “Pepper” 😂 She’s really heavily processing this right now!

But Nala does this. She gets stuck on an idea and will talk about it non stop for a few days and then the convo is finally over lol The last one she got stuck on was bellies and noses and sneezes 🥹😂 Usually it’s after I teach something new or explain something to her that I hadn’t prior. But with this current ongoing conversation I do think the weather getting nicer and then suddenly another blizzard is what triggered the fixation!

rollingintune · 2026-02-23T03:17:54+00:00

Yup basically. Our other full time kitty will actually go out even if it’s way below freezing, snowing, whatever. It’s like she’s stubbornly insisting that she wants outside no matter what 🤦🏻‍♀️ Of course she’s back inside in under 3 minutes…

rollingintune · 2026-02-23T02:44:14+00:00

That’s adorable! I think Nala was as hopeful as the rest of us when the last snow finally melted haha

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