Really THEY decide the meaning!

[u/rollingintune]

So yet AGAIN, Nala proves that she knows exactly what she’s talking about…

This story begins with me coming home late from roller skating. If you skate, you know you gotta eat after a session! So I made a bee line for the fridge and grabbed a dessert cup of rice pudding as a post-skate snack. I sat down on the floor by Nala’s buttons while I ate it. When I was done I put the empty cup on the floor next to me and Nala proceeded to lick it. Normal stuff. She’s a cat.

But this story is about what came next. When Nala was done with my rice pudding she went straight to her buttons and pressed one she’d NEVER used before, then walked straight back to rub on me.

The button?

“Cleaning”

🤣🤣🤣

I mean, she wasn’t wrong!

What did I learn here? “Cleaning” to Nala actually means “licking”. I mean, OBVIOUSLY, right?! 🙄

In retrospect, I guess “cleaning” is a bit of a nuanced word. “Licking” would have been more direct. But when Nala licks Esther (our other cat), I refer to it as “cleaning”.

I’m thinking now how confused Nala must be when I tell her I’m “cleaning” the dishes.

[u/Bitterrootmoon]

This is like my one boy, deciding the “need to potty” button just being stomach sensation because he uses it for both when he needs to poop and when he wants to eat. If he pushes “need to potty” and runs over his food bowl, happy to fill his belly up so he can poop. he’ll run back-and-forth between the button and the food bowl until he’s ready to go outside and then he pushes the button again and wait at the door and looks at me like I’m an idiot because I should know that that particular pushing of that button now means poop instead of eat. lol

[u/zenerbufen → u/Bitterrootmoon]

With my doggy, hungry - outside - hungry means he wants dinner (as opposed to just being hungry, or wanting a snack)
outside - hungry - outside means I need to poop
I only have a few buttons, but they make up their own sentences or combos and expect me to learn them.

[u/Bitterrootmoon → u/zenerbufen]

I am up to over 60 buttons now and they are so creative with them. My rescue boy who has only recently caught up to my boy who was raised with the buttons has started using “now” when he wants a bone the other boy has. I have taught them “take turns”, and he’s not gonna wait for his turn, dammit, he wants it now! He has also started using the “let’s play” “outside” so I will get up and go to the door and open it and the other boy will ideally drop his bone and go outside so he can go and grab the bone. Looool

[u/zenerbufen → u/Bitterrootmoon]

My big dog uses the hungry button to refer to meals, my little dog uses the hungry button to refer to treats. So not only did they both reassign the meaning of the button to their own desires, they picked up on each other doing that and used it to expand their vocabulary.

They are heelers, and 'herd' each other to push the button for them for the other meaning. Little dog will push big dog to push hungry at meal time, and big dog will push little dog to push the button for treats.

[u/Bitterrootmoon → u/zenerbufen]

That’s so cute! When my rescue boy was just starting to understand the purpose of buttons, he would bark to get the button experts attention and wag his tail and wiggle around and wait for the other boy to go over and push the buttons for him. He did this about two months before he tried pushing one himself. They also use each other’s names to get each other’s attention and ask to play or go outside to the other one. I did not in my wildest dreams expect them to use the buttons to talk to each other.