You are sat with your cat, fussing it as she is curled up on your lap. She starts purring – your first thought is that she is happy. You are probably right. However, the question arises; how do cats purr? This article will tell you exactly how. However, first, it is worth noting that, according to Veterinarian Kelly Morgan, a cat’s purr is much like a smile from a human. While that seems to fit nicely with the fact that they are happy, you have to first think about when people smile.
People smile when they are nervous, want something, or when they are happy. A cat’s purr is very similar to that, too. That is possibly why you have heard your cat purring when you visit the vets with them. However, that doesn’t answer the question of how they purr. A cat’s purr comes from breathing in and out through their vocal cords, which twitch at around 25-150 vibrations a second. That vibration is caused by a neural oscillator telling the muscles in the larynx to twitch.
