Possible Clues:

• Bad-tempered pussy will turn up before I turn down
• Talking little
• Saying very little, uncommunicative
• When the animal returns, I go quiet
• Aloof
• Without saying much, historian's son leaving for service at sea
• Understood to have run out on, is not commenting
• Perhaps it's I, cat, that's so 25 down
• One pet about to become uncommunicative
• Silent vessel is uncommunicative