when we had the old answer machine that you could hear the message being recorded as they were leaving it we would call and say hi to the kittys. i had my husband do that and watched while they would look for him in the phone and hug it.the cat we just lost a few months ago thought the phone calls were for her so i would put it on the phone on speaker phone and she would purr and meow like she was part of the conversation too. our others now that are left could care less so we don't have to share the phone anymore