The Pinecone Theory

Jake insists that animals don't *really* know their names. They instead respond to the tone of your voice. To try to prove his point he now occasionally calls the cats Pinecone. Just randomly. He'll be saying "Daaa-la" and then will call her again "Pineeee-cone". I, on the other hand, think my kitties are perfectly smart. Of course they'll respond to your tone, because it's almost like baby talk; it's totally different than you talk at any other time. This is, of course, when you're talking directly to them. (I dare you to look your cat in the eye and talk to him/her for 2 minutes without defaulting to the baby talk) So anyway, yes they'll respond to the baby talk because they obviously know that even though you haven't said their name you're still talking to them. But i've noticed plenty of times i'll be talking to Jake about the cats and when i say their names they either look at me or at least give me the obligatoy ear turn. But either way, Jake has now decided we need to get another cat and name it Pinecone.