Benji knows quite a few words, chooses to listen or ignore depending on her mood and prospective reward. I talk to her a lot, mainly so we can communicate better and she responds with a lot of vocals, even though quite often neither of us may understand the exact message at the time.
She definitely understands: No, out, here, down, up, sit, paw, beg, spider (generic use for any insect), stop, go, quickly (used when crossing a road), pick it up (as in the pace when we are walking), lets go, take your seat, go to your bed (ie when bad), bedtime/night night and of course her own name and shortened version Benj, also Benj-o variant. Also ready (game is imminent), coming to get you (me chasing her), come get me (her chasing me). I used to use davei (not sure spelling - Russian for lets go).
I think she understands breakfast/tea (although prob not the difference), hungry, go and bug Gemma (ha ha prob not), go see (usually postie or some random noise), inside, good girl/clever girl etc, this way, doggy and birdies. Oh yeah I think she understands cat (in context of another cat and maybe when se is being talked about)
Trying to teach her fetch, left paw, right paw and similar.
Similar with human to human communication a lot of it is tonal and body language. These cats are very perceptive?
Also a few more I forgot about, adding now (ie when bad get down NOW), right that's it (when get down now is ignored) which leads nicely into her favourite game - chase me. Wait (ie when I'm cleaning her litter and she wants to go), hello (maybe, hard to tell as they greet you anyway), what you saying/what's up (usually invokes a meow of some sort).
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