> Why is it that when a dog barks or a cat meows (more often with the cats, I've noticed), we like 'barking' or 'meowing' back at them? It's like...
>
> Cat: "Meow."
> Me: "Meow."
> Cat: "Meow?"
> Me: "Meow..."
> Cat: "Meow."
> (etc...)
>
> Personally I'd find it really rather annoying if somebody bigger than me repeated everything I said back to me. But maybe that's just me.

Maybe so, but you don't really speak the language. You feeble attempts at mimicry probably fail badly. I often think that when I converse like that with my cat, it may sound something like this (translation of your conversation above):

Cat: I'm hungry.
Me: You smell very red yesterday.
Cat: Um, what?
Me: Oh whisker of iniquity which litterbox fling...
Cat: Uh, whatever, d00d.

So you're not really repeating everything your cat says, as much as you might think you are.

> - Cia"Meow!"ran.

Don "Think about it." Monkey