Falstaff and Shylock were born in Wolverhampton, which is not far from Birmingham here in the UK. People from that area has a very distinct accent (known as a brummie accent). Its quite difficult to describe in words, so I'm not evn going to try. It appears that Shylock has stayed true to the area of the country that he was born in and meows with a brummie accent.

Falstaff has what I would call a normal meow, it was quite high-pitched (he'd even go ultrasonic at times) when he was a kitten, has deepened slightly now he has grown up, but is your traditional cat meow.

Shylock has never had this, and as a kitten when heard to say something, it usually came out as a sort of deep meerp sound. He never said much as a kitten, probably couldn't get a word in with all the things Falstaff was saying. So when Shylock meows, you know its important. He sometimes does a yowl, bit like a siamese, but in general now he has grown up, he definately meows with a brummie accent.

Shylock also announces when he is about to go mountaineering in the house. You normally hear 3 or 4 deep meows just before he attempts to jump onto the wardrobe or tall bookcase. Either he's building himself up for it, like sportsmen do on the TV or he's giving some sort of warning to anyone within hearing distance. We're not quite sure which, but it is useful to know what he's about to do, especially when he's climbing the bookcase, so you can prepare to catch anything breakable that gets dislodged.

Copyright © Rachel Craddock
February 11, 2005