I Gotta Try This With Our Cats

I once had a friend who said that when she was babysitting, she would fake an exaggerated yawn. Doing so would make her charge yawn, and she would pounce, saying,

Oh, I guess you're tired. It must be time for bed.

From the LA Times, it works even better for dogs:

A study published in the journal Biology Letters this week found that human yawns are contagious to dogs...

The study of 29 dogs was conducted at the University of London in two stages. First, each dog watched a male researcher perform a large yawn, and then, in the control portion of the experiment, the dogs took turns observing the same researcher merely open his mouth.

Seventy-two percent, or 21 of the 29 dogs, yawned after watching the researcher yawn -- higher than the 45% to 60% rate reported in humans and the 33% rate reported in chimps.

Do you think maybe it works with cats??

Comments

[Rebekah K]

I'm thinking a cat can get us started yawning, but most of them don't give a rat's patootie what we do, unless it provides them with more or better food, more comfortable beds, or other essential creature comforts. They mostly yawn at our attempts to amuse them.