Last updated Jul 7, 2025
Have you ever seen a talking cat? Talking buttons are large buttons that record a single word or phrase, which animals can press to communicate their wants, needs, or general thoughts. These buttons can offer fascinating insights into animal psychology, including how they process and understand human language.
Many pet parents have reported another important use as well: The ability for their pets to tell them when they’re physically unwell.
Roscoe the cat did just that, alerting his mom to his stomach pain which turned out to be inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Meet Roscoe
Roscoe was adopted from a Los Angeles shelter in 2016 during a big adoption event. His mom and her roommate adopted him and his brother Rocky from two different shelters during the event.
Roscoe’s mom describes him as very different to other cats. He’s always been shy, quirky, and surprisingly clumsy for a feline! His meow is squeaky, like a chirping bird.
Introducing the buttons
The talking buttons were initially for Rocky, who sadly passed away a few days after starting them. Roscoe and his mom struggled a lot with Rocky’s death. He became depressed, lost some of his appetite, and spent a lot of time laying down.
His mom began to wonder if he would use the buttons, so she decided to press the “food” button each time she fed him. She’d originally thought of Rocky as the smarter cat, but Roscoe surprised her by taking to the buttons quickly.
It seemed his mom had totally misjudged him! She says that Roscoe taught her that just because someone’s quirky, doesn’t mean they can’t be intelligent as well.
Creative use of buttons
Like many cats who use talking buttons, Roscoe began stringing words together to describe things he didn’t have buttons for. He called rain “window water” and the birdsong from the neighbor’s bird “happy noise.”
Of course, he also found plenty of different ways to ask for food, even after his mom told him no!
But, perhaps Roscoe’s most important use of buttons was to say “belly ouch!” He continually told his mom that his stomach was upsetting him, until she insisted on a second exam from her vet.
Though they hadn’t initially found cause for concern, it turned out that Roscoe had inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD.
Roscoe continued to update his mom about his health even as he grew sicker, eventually developing cancer. Though Roscoe has since passed away, his memory lives on in his videos, which his mom hopes can continue to bring joy–never sadness–to those watching.
