If you do not respond when your cat talks to you, it will soon lose the urge to communicate with you.  Silence is not always golden!

         It is a matter to gain the affection of a cat. He is a philosophical animal, tenacious of his own habits, fond of order and neatness, and disinclined to extravagant sentiment. He will be your friend, if he finds you worthy of friendship, but not your slave.
--Theophile Gautier