[lloeki]

Our cat has developed extreme levels (for a cat) of communication skills. From the top of my head there's about 20 meow/maw/mraw/meeaw/mwaw/mwo we can distinguish (possibly 50 if I include variations in tones and length of each phoneme). Combined with subtle (compared to dogs) body language, including various tail and body positions and ears + eyes + eyelids + facial hair movements, the overall palette of "words" and "sentences" is much more rich than I could ever have expected.

The counterpart is that he grew to be extremely dependent on us, even more than a typical dog, including attentiveness and perceptiveness.

The thing is, cats can easily be quite independent (autonomous even if you're leaving by the countryside), so if you don't go towards them, they'll never feel the need to develop any more communication skills towards humans. Contrary to dogs though, they need time alone, just like humans do. Yes, "fuck off, I need to be alone" is definitely part of mine's language (way, way before it includes claws)

[bambax]

My cat is quite autonomous (lives outside, relieves himself outside, goes out for errands that can last days, etc.) but at the same time talks to us for many things.

For instance, there is no flap to our front door so if she needs to go outside during the day, she comes to us and meows.

But if it happens during the night she has noticed (I think) that I hate being woken up by hard "meoooo" in the middle of the night; and so she doesn't emit a sound -- she jumps on the bed and does a very soft "dance" on my legs until I (gently) wake up; then she meows and goes to the door, waiting for me to open it.