Pink Blog

In 2002, the Japanese company Takara released the Bow-Lingual. Reportedly, this device could tell you if your dog was happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive, or needy - all based on its bark. In 2003, the company followed up the Bowlingual’s success with the Meowlingual, designed to tell you how your cat was feeling. The product was never successful, though, and it was only ever released in Japan.

But you see, there are a few flaws inherent in this device. For one thing, most dogs say woof woof woof. Cats, however, have a much more broad vocabulary - meeeeeeow, mrrrowt, purrrrrrpurrrrr, mewr, mow, and so forth. Additionally, cats have a greater depth of feeling than the six emotions seen in dogs. They would have to write a translation mechanism that could interpret “if you touch my tail again, I’m going to claw your skin off your face” as well as one that could handle “I don’t CARE if it’s tomato soup, you opened a can and I want what’s in it!” So it’s really no surprise that the Meowlingual did not do very well. Besides, you had to get up close and have the cat meow into the little pink kitty device. And what feline would put up with THAT? The only thing your cat would ever say would be, “get that thing away from me!”