Kim Silva is a retired teacher for the American School for the Deaf . Silva and her husband , John , both having hearing difficulties , and in 2009 fell in love with a deaf Siamese cat they found on the website PetFinder . The cat , Bambi , was in Texas , so it took a while for her to be transported to Connecticut where the couple live . In that time Silva made the decision that she was going to teach Bambi , as well as her other cats , Bobcat and Thomasina , how to sign . Scroll down for video . High five for good work : After adopting a dead cat , Kim Silva , a retired teacher for the the American School for the Deaf , decided she would teach all three of her cats to understand certain sign language signs . 'Stay ' : Having taught her daughters how to sign from when they were young , Silva said she was confident she could teach the cats using a similar method . And she believes it worked . Paws up : In a video posted online , and . Silva told The Huffington Post : 'Since my daughters learned signs from infancy , I had ideas how to introduce sign . She added : 'Guess I missed the kiddies so I began teaching the kitties ! ' Silva said it took time , but after dedicating herself to the task , she eventually got there . The cats are now able to understand her signs for words such as 'stay ' , 'sit ' , 'shake ' , 'dance ' and many more . 'Cats become much more interactive with people because they want to communicate , ' Silva said . 'Bobcat was a `` pillow that ate '' before he learned sign . All rise : The cats seem quite up on the whole 'up ' sign , according to Silva 's YouTube video . Treat time : Silva 's method for teaching the cats involved a lot of discipline . And treats . 'He interacted with other cats , but ignored people . 'After he learned sign at age 7 years , he became the extroverted show cat ! 'My cats will also do tricks with other people who sign with them . ' The video of Silva and her signing was made by her son-in-law , Tim O'Donnell , and originally posted to YouTube .
Kim Silva retired as a teacher at the American School for the Deaf . She then adopted a deaf Siamese cat online . The cat, named Kim, was born in Thailand and moved to America when she was just two years old, according to her Facebook page.