this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Never understood the dumbass pspsps thing. It's annoying and I've pretty much never seen it work. What always has worked for me is to chill just a little ways away and completely ignore them. Just as non-threatening as you can make yourself if you were a piece of furniture left out on the sidewalk.
From personal experience, cats hate being made to do things and don't come when called unless they already know you and like you a lot. But they also loathe being ignored and will snoof right over shortly to the one person being completely indifferent to them.
This would be the same reason they seem to mercilessly hunt anyone with a cat allergy. Your perceived dislike of them shall not stand!
The psssppsssp thing just gets their attention. It may not get them to come over and they may act like they’re ignoring you, but it absolutely gets them to notice you- especially if it’s quiet.
It doesn’t change how the cat is going to behave after noticing, though and it’s best to play it off as not meant for them.
Another way I’ve had good luck is in creating some kind of toy to entice them to play- anything similar to those feather toys, for example. Rather than trying to play directly, flip it around in an open space… make it twitch… trigger their predatory instincts.
It’s also regional. Most people around here click their tongues at cats. In Quebec I’ve heard people whisper “ici” at cats.
Oh, that's interesting. It never occurred to me to think the sound might vary. Does ici mean anything, or is it just a noise?
It’s means “here” in French