Dogs bark at something, it is directed, given with intent, and they bay at the moon and when they are in a pack at prey, but for the most part they express desire silently, with a look or by straining their bodies to a point. Dogs may have a sense of self but they are not reflexive. Cats on the other hand meow to express desire but in doing so they refrain from pointing to what they want, they might just mean to tell you they are hungry or that they want to be let inside, but the message is shrouded in ambiguity, they won't make it plain and instead make it about themselves. A cat seems to be all sense of self, its every gesture reflexive, to be a kind of solipsist only reluctantly conceding that you might be of some assistance in this case. The cat says, 'I want something, but I don't know what I want', in this way expressing the pure form of desire. This may be a cultural thing. Dogs in India sometimes seem to draw attention to themselves with a strangled bark, as if they have learned to speak from cats.