Eva, age 11 from the Midwest wondered how animals and people communicate.
Q: Do dogs bark and cats meow to you when they are communicating?
Great question, Eva! Animals don’t use barks or meows or whatever sounds they usually make to communicate with humans, though of course sometimes they do! And they can usually understand what we are saying no matter what language we speak. It’s often how we say something, rather than the words themselves that they understand and respond to. Like us, we can tell by how someone says something to us through voice tone, facial expression, etc. what they want us to understand. Animals too, though they can learn what a few words mean if they’ve been trained, like a dog to “sit” or “stay."
Communicating with animals is like a cartoon strip, where the characters “talk” with thought bubbles. The animal communication works like that where we humans and animals can “read” each other’s thoughts (using telepathy) though sometimes animals also express themselves through a feeling that can be felt, or an image that can be seen like we get when we're having dream, rather than with our eyes.
You may already be communicating with your cat. If you suddenly get an idea, or a thought pops into your mind that your cat is outside and you go to the door and there he is, this is not just coincidence. That’s an example of communication that you likely received from your cat as a thought.