I am still laughing. Elsie's relationship with my husband is so great. These two are the goofiest. Still. Laughing. #cutecalico #talkingcat | Elsie wants
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I am still laughing. Elsie's relationship with my husband is so great. These two are the goofiest. Still. Laughing. #cutecalico #talkingcat | Elsie wants
104.3K views5 months ago
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Elsie and I have been gone since October 9th and I was not the one that Guppy was most excited to see. Glad to reunite these two. #fluentpet #talkingcat #catbuttons #felineaic #cutecalico #theycantalk #catsanddogslivingtogether #pitbullmix | Elsie wants
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Elsie and I have been gone since October 9th and I was not the one that Guppy was most excited to see. Glad to reunite these two. #fluentpet #talkingcat #catbuttons #felineaic #cutecalico #theycantalk #catsanddogslivingtogether #pitbullmix | Elsie wants
30.5K views6 months ago
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After having 35 family members in last night, which was big loud human, Elsie had some delicious paper this morning Whatever holy days you keep and however you keep them, I hope you find as much joy as a small cat with a giant pile of paper. #cutecalico | Elsie wants
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After having 35 family members in last night, which was big loud human, Elsie had some delicious paper this morning Whatever holy days you keep and however you keep them, I hope you find as much joy as a small cat with a giant pile of paper. #cutecalico | Elsie wants
21.2K views4 months ago
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To be clear, Elsie probably actually wondering why Guppy got a treat and she didn't. The reason I can't explain democracy to her is that there are so many pieces between her understanding of the world and mine that I would have to explain first Scientists have demonstrated that animals of various species have an understanding of fairness. They also demonstrate compassion. So to explain how democracy led to Lauren Bobart being my representative in button speak would be a challenge. Meanwhile, I d
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To be clear, Elsie probably actually wondering why Guppy got a treat and she didn't. The reason I can't explain democracy to her is that there are so many pieces between her understanding of the world and mine that I would have to explain first Scientists have demonstrated that animals of various species have an understanding of fairness. They also demonstrate compassion. So to explain how democracy led to Lauren Bobart being my representative in button speak would be a challenge. Meanwhile, I d
103.9K views3 months ago
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Home! I had 2 weeks of travel that I couldn't take Elsie on because one of the locations didn't allow cats. I had greeted Guppy outside and done a lot of play with her. I had been in the apartment for maybe 2 minutes when Elsie said this. Don't lie. How many of you were expecting her to say LITTER BOX? #fluentpet #talkingcat #felineaic #catbuttons #cutecalico #theycantalk #catsanddogslivingtogether #pitbullmix | Elsie wants
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Home! I had 2 weeks of travel that I couldn't take Elsie on because one of the locations didn't allow cats. I had greeted Guppy outside and done a lot of play with her. I had been in the apartment for maybe 2 minutes when Elsie said this. Don't lie. How many of you were expecting her to say LITTER BOX? #fluentpet #talkingcat #felineaic #catbuttons #cutecalico #theycantalk #catsanddogslivingtogether #pitbullmix | Elsie wants
59.7K views10 months ago
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While Elsie and I are at Worldcon. I thought I would do a throwback Thursday to shortly after we found Guppy. Now they love each other so much. But Elsie was highly suspicious of this 5-month-old puppy. This is also at a time when she used DOG as a curse word. And I just want to do a big shout out to everyone who is at the convention and who's come up and told me how much they love Elsie. I am so happy to be able to share my little cat with you even virtually. #fluentpet #talkingcat #felineaic #
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While Elsie and I are at Worldcon. I thought I would do a throwback Thursday to shortly after we found Guppy. Now they love each other so much. But Elsie was highly suspicious of this 5-month-old puppy. This is also at a time when she used DOG as a curse word. And I just want to do a big shout out to everyone who is at the convention and who's come up and told me how much they love Elsie. I am so happy to be able to share my little cat with you even virtually. #fluentpet #talkingcat #felineaic #
40.9K views9 months ago
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In my defense, Elsie was very fixated on the door. She can hear my husband and a friend that she's met before plus there are two cats that she doesn't know in this house. Her body language even in this is more curious than it is scared. What I love about this is that it is her telling me about something that happened while I wasn't in the room. Also, a shout out to people who think that she is pressing buttons randomly while she walks around the board. I can't wait to see how you tell me that th
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In my defense, Elsie was very fixated on the door. She can hear my husband and a friend that she's met before plus there are two cats that she doesn't know in this house. Her body language even in this is more curious than it is scared. What I love about this is that it is her telling me about something that happened while I wasn't in the room. Also, a shout out to people who think that she is pressing buttons randomly while she walks around the board. I can't wait to see how you tell me that th
196.7K views8 months ago
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I was not expecting to record an endorsement. I was just mixing this up and happened to catch Elsie being enthused. Elsie loves this. Guppy loves it. And as the human, I can honestly say that it is extremely convenient because it arrives in a powdered form and I can just mix it up in a bottle. Usually I just do pupsicles with it, but sometimes I add it to their food for a little bit of variation. Check out @mywoof and use the code ELSIEWANTS for a 10% discount. This was actually a much longer co
131.4K views8 months ago
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I always tell people that Elsie wants to travel with me, but it still is hard to believe. She seems to really enjoy being in new places and meeting new people, even though she hates the airport. Which is good, since we're in the middle of book tour. Our last stop together is Portland, OR and then we head home to Denver. From there I am headed on my own to a couple more stops. But she is ready to be home, because she has asked for Guppy and Rob a couple of times. But if Elsie really wants to come
104.7K views6 months ago
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Elsie doesn't care, but I am so happy to have so many new people following this little cat. She's been using AIC buttons for 4 years and is almost 7 years old. She is sweet and sassy and full of curiosity about the world around her. It makes me really happy that you are getting to know her. #20kfollowers #fluentpet #talkingcat #felineaic #catbuttons #cutecalico | Elsie wants
36.3K views10 months ago
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I sometimes tell people that Elsie had behavior problems before we got buttons. This is not fair to her. What she had was a limited way to express her feelings. Biting, kicking, and climbing inappropriate things were some of her options. She is actually surprisingly gentle, because she's just trying to express herself, not do damage. And I know people say, I don't need buttons to know how my pet feels. It's true. I knew that Elsie was frustrated. What I didn't know was exactly why. That video of
217.5K views6 months ago
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This goes out to all the haters who think Elsie is pressing buttons randomly. This was a 15-minute conversation and I had to cut it down to 3 minutes to post it here. You're only missing some of the things that I said and a couple of thinking circles. What I love about this is how much of it I don't understand. Like she started being interested in The watering can the moment I moved it the first time. Was it reflections? did I bump it on something and it made a sound and I didn't notice it? She
575.3K views11 months ago
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Elsie has grown up with puppets, so she's not startled by them or anything like that. But something about the voice that I was doing that day kept catching her attention. She would be curled up on her donut and then suddenly get up and move to get on my lap and chat. I also threw in a blooper because I thought you would enjoy seeing it. And I should note that although fluent pet is still having their sale, today is the last day and the one you hear me talking about in the video is not the one th
23.1K views4 months ago
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When I return after a trip I get one of three basic paths from Elsie. 1. An expression of feelings ie MAD 2. A recitation of everything she experienced while I was gone in a totally disjointed fashion that I barely understand. 3. Request for games or some other activity that she couldn't partake of while I was away. We are currently at my dad's house. The way the timing worked out for the book tour. It made more sense to come here than to go back to Denver, especially since that meant she didn't
182K views6 months ago
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There's someone in the comments on one of the other videos saying that Elsie doesn't know what she's pressing and that it's just stimulus/response. Listen. She has zero reason to walk away from the seaweed, even if it is stale, to thank me. She has even less reason to cross the board back to where she was to press PETS when she can actually get me to pet her just by rubbing against me. But, she wanted to make sure that I understood that it wasn't an accidental press previously. Side note, having
124.9K views7 months ago
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Elsie likes getting to know new people. To keep her button bored from getting out of hand (more than it already is) I rarely add name words for people. Most people just are assigned FRIEND or STRANGER but sometimes Elsie will give them a nickname. Before my nephew had a button, she called him MOUSE. I had a friend with very long hair that Elsie called YARN. So it's not entirely surprising that she called my friend Katherine. She did it a couple more times during this visit, always with a very cl
57.2K views11 months ago
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I love the way Elsie comes out to meet new people now. Before buttons. She would have stayed under the bed the whole time, but they give her a degree of control that she never had before. I particularly love, the way she almost does a double take when my friend presses the button. And how clear her body language is about wanting to be petted. And also when she's all done, that's also very clear body language. It's just such a nice, short, very sweet interaction. To start your button journey, you
1M views8 months ago
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I know it's probably an environmental cue, but how did Elsie know that we would be leaving the next day? Yes, I told her how long we would be there. Yes, I know she communicates. But there's a part of me that is still skeptical that this is happening and so my mind gets blown when she appears to be able to count. For folks who are new, Elsie uses DELICIOUS to mean "a thing I like." So, Ella Fitzgerald is DELICIOUS SOUND. ** To start your button journey, use the code Elsie want on the @fluentpet
59.3K views11 months ago
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Very occasionally, Elsie will trot out a English language grammar sentence. Now in this case, IS was a back foot press so it's possible it was unintentional. But I have seen her do this sort of construction before with just front paw. This is what I mean when I say that she doesn't speak English. Like I can make a grammatically correct French sentence. But most of the time when I'm attempting to communicate it is individual words and hoping that someone can pick it up from context. It's also why
568.5K views4 months ago
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In my defense this was about a 10-minute conversation. It started by Elsie saying hunt and me asking her what she wanted to hunt for so I was very much in a play mindset even though when I get to the two-hand choice part she did not request play. One of the challenges with Elsie when she's trying to talk about a concept that she doesn't have a button for, is that I have to do interpretation. I try very hard not to do over-interpretation and it sometimes means that even when I think I know what s
475.1K views5 months ago
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Elsie really wanted to go out and explore but there were so many new noises, smells, and sounds. She was being really brave to ask for hallway. The first time we tried the elevator arrived and a small child ran out. So, very very brave to try again. Giving her agency makes the difference in her willingness to engage with new things. I'm letting her drag the leash because it's short. For adventuring we usually have a 20 ft lead. If she bolts, she runs for home but just in case, the short one let'
47.4K views11 months ago
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While Elsie and I were in Seattle, we got to visit with Alexis, who is @whataboutbunny's human. Elsie was happy to meet her. Here's the question... Did Elsie say GUPPY because we had talked about home or because she smelled Bunny, Tenrec, and Otter? Yes, she does have a dog button. My guess in the moment was that it was a delayed attempt to join our conversation. You can hear that we'd already moved on to talking about lasers. But working with a learner is a lot like being with a toddler. Someti
67.2K views6 months ago
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Nothing to see here. Total dignity at all times. #cutecalico | Elsie wants
31.8K views5 months ago
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While I was taking my nap, Elsie had come in to check me out, then headed to her button board and said variations on ALL DONE and FRUSTRATED and LIE DOWN NO. This is one of those things that is hard to explain to people that think she's pressing buttons randomly. Because there's a clear pattern in the buttons that she's pressing, but there's minutes spaced out in between each press so if I post any single one in isolation, it looks like I'm cherry picking or assigning meaning to a random button
82.7K views5 months ago
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1:54
This brings Elsie's total to 130 words! We have now been using PLANT and she has accepted that as the word. I have a potted version of the ornamental grass that she likes outside, which is not lawn. I put that down when she presses PLANT so that she does not accidentally equate PLANT with "take me outside." And then when she is outside and chewing on the ornamental grass, I say "delicious plant" "Elsie bite plant" and that kind of thing. Which I had been doing for months before I gave her the bu
158.8K views7 months ago
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Elsie specifically uses STRANGER to mean not just "unknown," but also dangerous. I introduced the word through workmen coming into the apartment when we were having some renovations done. It's different from FRIEND which seems to mean someone who is safe and will give you treats. So I distinguish between NEW FRIEND and STRANGER when someone is coming into the apartment that she hasn't met before. If we had plans to introduce them, I would probably describe Spooner as simply "cat" or "new friend
98.4K views6 months ago
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Once again Elsie has comments on my food, but this time she really wants it. In answer to questions, I know I are going to come... Seaweed is one of Elsie's favorite snacks. We have what we call "fancy seaweed," which is teriyaki seaweed that she gets in very small amounts because it has some salt which is not great for cats. But we've checked with our vet and the amount of Fancy Seaweed that we're giving her is A-Okay. Did she mean bowl when she said ball? Maybe! We've seen learners use homopho
36.7K views10 months ago
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2:20
This poor cat has to put up with a lot. She goes to all the trouble of learning another language and then I just ignore what she says. I feel like her use of GOOD here was like, "Good girl. You got it!" One of the things that I find interesting is the way her use evolves over time to become more efficient. The game that she calls BUG. We originally called HAIRTIE KIBBLE because I threw the kibbles like a hair tie. But she has one type of kibble that is small and brown and another that is a littl
272.6K viewsMay 15, 2025
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If you are in Seattle, you have one more day to get to Sea-Meow. It is an absolutely joyful experience full of cats and the people who love them like @thetwocrazycatladies and @thecatluminati | Elsie wants
29.6K views6 months ago
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So in part one, you saw our set back on Saturday, and Elsie's apparent remorse on Sunday. We made a number of modifications based on those experiences and I'm happy to report that Sunday was an entirely drama-free day. Adding the short lead to Elsie's harness seems to give her enough time to think. Because the first time Flounder was in the room during ballet school, Elsie did move towards her but once she pulled up short she refocused on me. The rest of the day, she stayed lying down when Floun
88.7K views2 months ago
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