Cats and Music

I once adopted a stray cat named Snoopy. She was starving when we first met her. We felt sorry for her, and fed her and after that she never left.

At first she was granted a blanket in the sunroom, along with a mat on which we placed food and water. When I worked in the garden or read in the sunroom, or when we ate dinner on the patio, she would hang out with us. We’d pet her, talk to her, play with her. But when it was time to close up shop, she was left outside.

Over time, though, she wore down our defenses.

I asked the neighbors if she actually belonged to anyone. Apparently one neighor had had several cats, but fed them all from the same large container. None of them were spayed, either.

So we adopted Snoopy. We thought she was a half-grown kitten. Turns out she was over a year old, but malnourished and she’d had a litter of kittens.

We immediately took ownership. I took her to the vet after getting her washed and brushed. She did not like that, but I wore my old leather fencing gloves and her claws proved no match.

After that came her vet visit, and we set up a place for her to recover, but she was having none of that. She wanted to sleep in our bedroom, with us. She soon had full run of the house as well as the backyard.

During the day, while I worked in my office, she would come in and out as she liked. We lived in Colorado, so there was no issue with leaving the patio door cracked for her except in deep winter.

While I worked, I would often listen to music.

That is when I learned that Snoopy had discerning tastes.

She enjoyed classical music of the baroque and romantic periods, and she loved Enya. Whenever I played this type of music, she would end up on my desk, close enough for me to occasionally pet her while she purred.

She purred the loudest for Enya, particularly for the song China Roses. That was her favorite song.

However, she hated rock music and nothing could make her vanish faster than my switching to Rush or Led Zeppilin. Even Abba made her scarce.

My current cat, Opal, was a bona fide feral cat. She has the clipped ear to prove it. She was rescued and eventually we adopted her. She is a remarkably sweet girl for being feral. She will jump in visitors’ laps and demands attention.

Her favorite music is Pippin’s Song from Lord of the Rings. She also seems to like cello music, Simon and Garfunkle, and, oddly enough, the music from The Elder Scrolls games.

While I have found that cats seem to enjoy music and, in fact, show definite preferences, I never really found the same with my dogs, except one of my dogs would howl in agony whenever a friend played his clarinet. The friend felt insulted, but myself and other friends just told him obviously my dog had good taste!

Interestingly, other animals are also affected by music in positive ways. There are numerous YouTube videos of people who perform for animals in zoos or on farms. I’ve shared a few of these below.

Seeing for myself how much my cats enjoy their favorite music, and how the diverse animals in the video above interact with the sounds that people create for them — it shows how much we have in common with the other beings that share our planet.

I am fighting stage IV cancer. If you can help with medical bills, I would really appreciate it. Or if you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a cup of coffee, that’s great too. Maybe someday I can return the favor.

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This post was previously published on Shefali O’Hara’s blog.

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