Adrienne Petersen, age ii, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for her question:
How does a cat purr?
A purring cat is a living example of relaxation. If she is your cat, she manages to share her happy mood and bestow upon you the warmth of her furry affection. This, of course, is one of the many rewards for the proper treatment of pussycats. If you have missed these rewards, Christmas is a good time to adopt one of these charming pets.
A mama tiger can purr a soft lullaby to her sleeping cubs, and even the prowling puma can rest in the sun and rumble a parry song in his throat. Only members of the feline family can purr, and perhaps the most purrer of them all is the amazing little house cat. And her very best purring usually is done for her favorite human friend.
The purring machine is in a pussycat's throat. It is a built in vibrator. If, when she is purring with relaxed affection, you place your hand gently on her furry throat, you can feel the soft throbbing of these vibrations. It is vibrations, of course, which cause the sound of your voice. Like you, the cat has a voice box or larynx for making conversation and other sounds.
The vocal cords in the larynx are strips of skin or membrane. When Miss Puss breathes out, she can force the air against these vocal cords and make them vibrate. The vibrations coming out through her mouth may be mumbling mews or loud Meows, or, if she chooses, they can be wild and resounding yodels. All these sounds come from her true vocal cords.
Below the true vocal cords are a set of false vocal cords. These can vibrate with a gentle buzz, but they cannot make loud sounds. When a cat purrs, she relaxes her true vocal cords and lets her breathing play softly against her false vocal cords. This produces the soft, sweet hum, which we call purring.
Miss Puss is a person of character who never does things by halves. When she hunts, she is as tense as a miniature tiger. When she plays, she flings her whole heart into the game. When she rests, she relaxes every her whiskers. If she is both happy and relaxed, she purrs. And the little charmer is happiest when she can share her affection with a human friend.
Miss Puss is a loyal member of the family, always polite and clean. But the furry little cutie also likes to have a private life of her own. She loves to roam and hunt and keep a sla,nty eye on life in the wilds. In this role, she is our valuable ally in the war against the pesky rodent population. Aside from being a charming pet, the furry porter helps to save our grains and other stores from destructive rats and mice.