@Ponderable saidWe have three cats, rescues from our own lot and one somehow in our basement just a week or two old and I think he was traumatized being scared, mom not present, no siblings and mewing louder than I thought possible for such a tiny kitten, and I think it effected his mental makeup, he is a huge complainer🙂 And he DOES meow vociferously when he doesn't get his way and like the paper says, it is mostly aimed at me, not Susan.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.70033
The original paper and:
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-cats-adjust-communication-strategy-meowing.html
This is not behind a paywall
Seems like cats are great psychologists (no surprise to the cat-lovers)
Our other rescue cat also from our lot, found as a kitten with eyes barely open, she has some odd obsessions, one is even as a kitten and not getting moms milk, would start the kneading thing with her paws and when I held her on the bed and put her tail by her mouth she sucks on the end of her tail and for quite a while and she still does that even now at age 5, but not as long. I think it was a reaction to not having mom around to suckle. Then there was HER kits, one was an alpha male SO alpha he was terrorizing the other two so we got him to a no kill shelter but her other kit was a total scarecrow, and almost silent, little tiny squeak comes out when she wants something AND momma HATES her, like if we are in our bedroom and EMMY (her kit) is on our bed, Momma comes in looks at Emmy goes SCREW YOU, and jumps down from the bed and into another room🙂