Did the Ca t really say I Vant to be alone?

or it just said meow ?

Dear Mouse,

This was e-mailed to me by Dr. Emer. This is not a funny story but the response of the Ca t is.

September 7, 2004

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

One night, asking his wife about their dinner plans,Stephen R. Anderson, a Yale professor of linguistics and psychology, got the reply: "I want to go out."

The next night, he found the cat clawing the rug near the door. His wife calmed him down by translating: "She's saying, 'I want to go out.' "

So do we conclude, Dr. Anderson asks, that the cat can talk?

The answer, he argues, is no - although, as a human, he could say the same thing by shaking his head, rolling his eyes or even saying sarcastically, "Yeah, sure."

Dr. Anderson is the author of "Doctor Dolittle's Delusion," to be published by Yale University Press in November. The book is a linguistics-based argument that if kindly John Dolittle of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh was hearing voices, they weren't coming from Jip the dog or Gub-Gub the pig.

The Ca t meows:

Of course, I can talk guys. Open the door..open sesame. No need for clawing and meowing.I'll be back in an hour. We also need fresh air, you know.

The Ca t