Have you ever experienced something like this?You haven’t even put the key in the door yet, the door hasn’t opened, but you already hear a faint sound coming from inside the house. The next second, a cat appears at the door. You might think it’s just a coincidence, but in reality, cats can hear your footsteps.
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Cats Can Accurately Recognize Your Voice
In 2013, Japanese scientists Saito & Shinozuka conducted an experiment using the “habituation-recovery” method to test whether cats can recognize their owners’ voices when they can’t see them. The study involved 20 cats. The method was simple: unfamiliar voices calling the cat’s name were played multiple times, followed by the owner’s voice calling the cat’s name. Researchers then recorded the cats’ attention and location behaviors (such as ear movements and head turns). The results showed that cats’ reactions to unfamiliar voices gradually diminished, but when the owner’s voice was played, their reactions significantly increased. Interestingly, cats do not remember individual sounds in isolation. Instead, through repeated exposure, they associate the entire sound pattern with a specific person. Human footsteps carry a wealth of detailed information, such as the rhythm, pressure changes, and the sound of the soles of shoes rubbing against the floor. Cats can pick up on all of this. As these sounds are repeated, they form a stable “sound pattern.” Once recognized, cats can detect when a familiar person is approaching, even before they actually appear.
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Why Do Cats Know You’re Home Before You Even Walk in the Door?
Cats can hear a frequency range of approximately 48 Hz–85 kHz, which is far beyond the range of human hearing. What’s more, footsteps aren’t just low-frequency “thumps”; they also include high-frequency, subtle sounds that humans can’t hear, like the friction of shoe soles and the rustling of clothing. Cats can pick up on all of these. Even more importantly, footsteps transmit structural vibrations through stairs, floors, and walls. These low-frequency vibrations travel much farther in a building than sound from speech, and cats are particularly sensitive to them.
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Does Not Greeting You Mean They Didn’t Hear You?
Many cats will perk up their ears, raise their heads, or even head toward the door when they hear their owner approaching. However, some cats may choose to stay lying down or continue doing their own thing. Cats can accurately recognize their owner’s footsteps, but whether they get up or not depends on their current mood. If they choose to stay put, it doesn’t mean they didn’t hear your footsteps. In most cases, the cat simply “knows” you’re there but chooses not to take action.
So, does your cat recognize your footsteps and wait for you at the door?Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below!
