Hungry cats trick owners with baby cry mimicry
Found on New Scientist on Sunday, 12 July 2009
According to Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, UK, domestic cats hide a plaintive cry within their purrs that both irritates owners and appeals to their nurturing instincts.
The louder this high-frequency element, the more urgent and less pleasant the purr was rated. Cats may be exploiting "innate tendencies in humans to respond to cry-like sounds in the context of nurturing offspring", McComb says.
So that's why I never feed the cat and throw it outside when it's getting noisy: because I don't like kids.