In my quest to try to teach cats ASL, I see that cats have paws and not fingers so they won't be able to sign "angry". It seems possible for cats to learn to sign "fed up", "bad", or "whatever", but not "angry". How does one teach a cat difference between angry and fed up so that they would better express themselves?
I never own cats but did interact with cats including feral cats while working at animal hospital years ago.
Kinda of like with dog, I guess it is up to you to show the sign with associated behavior, so if they are fed up then you sign "fed up" to associated that sign with their behavior. Same thing with sign for "angry".
After they learn sign for "fed up" and "angry", and one dayyou are not sure if they are fed up or angry, you just try to sign angry, to see if they do something but if they do nothing, then you know they are not angry, then you sign fed up..and they express something, then you know they are fed up. Um? It is similar to what I did with my dog.
For example, with my dog, if it seem she wanted something from me, and I can't figure it out. I sign water, and if she ignores me by turn her face away from me, it mean she doesnt want water. Then I wait until she turns her face back, then I sign bone, and she perks up, then I know she wanted rawhide bone. If she doesnt perk up, then I sign something else and so on to see what she wanted from me.
I guess we have to watch for cues from cat--their tails movement, their ear movement, do they stretch out their paws/claws? Etc..
I teach my animals(birds and dogs) ASL signs. It would be nice if other people signing to animals too in front of me even if the animals or the people themselves are not deaf. I wanted to know what is being said to the animals. I dont like to be left out
