rorarora

"...to purr as a cat: rorarora."
This perfectly onomotopoeic (= a word that sounds just like its action) word comes from a language once called Secwana.  I found it in a dictionary old enough to call it that and not the present-day Tswana. Tswana is a Bantu language spoken by about 5 million people in southern Africa.
A language's words can paint a vivid picture of its speakers' interaction with their world.  To this end, I went looking for Tswana words about their animal companions.  Here are some more.

to scratch as a cat: napa.
A dog, as distinguished from a bitch, seheke; 

a lean, starved dog, mokgara; 

an old and poor dog, motau; 

a wild dog, leteane, lekanyana, letlhalerwa; 

to scratch a hole, as a dog, hata; 

a sleeping place of a dog, or a hole scratched in the ground, kutla;
to snap at, as a dog, kgogogela;
to be angry, as a dog, tlhonya;
to doctor a dog so as to make it fierce, galodisa; 

the medicine for making a dog fierce, kgalola; 

a dog's lying-in place, serubi; 

a little dog, ncana;
the dog is angry, nca e tlhontse. 

 - Brown, J. Tom d. 1925. (1895). Secwana dictionary: Secwana-English and English-Secwana. Frome [Eng.]: printed for the London Missionary Society by Butler & Tanner. Passim.