10th May 2004, 3:40 PM
"Calling" a cat around here means making chittering noises and whistles, things that get their attention. We learned a long time ago that their names, while they might recognize that's the noise we humans make when addressing them, are not things they understand as "commands", so much as "okay, something having to do with me, whatever, I'm tired".
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)