1
Get Reacquainted with Your Feline Einstein
How well do you really know your cat? You may have been living with him for many years, but do you truly believe you know what goes on inside his mind or what he’s trying to say by his various behaviors?
You may be sitting there shaking your head, thinking you know your cat all too well. You may be able to predict how he’s going to behave in a particular situation and whether he’s going to react negatively to one thing or another. Maybe you can easily label your cat as finicky, ornery, mean, unsociable, or spiteful, or maybe the label could be loving and affectionate. Is your cat too needy? Timid? Shy? Skittish? Do you joke about how he rules the roost? Is he very playful, or is he a furry couch potato?
Maybe you’re reading this and thinking how you don’t have the first clue about what goes on inside that feline head of his. Maybe he totally perplexes and frustrates you.
What I see in so many of my consultations is that my clients really don’t know what it is their cats are trying to communicate by particular behaviors. Cat owners often misinterpret feline behavior, and as a result, problems can’t be effectively corrected.
Your cat is an amazing communicator. His mind and body work perfectly together. If you take some time to get a better understanding of what he might be trying to communicate, there’s an excellent chance you’ll look at so-called misbehaviors in a whole new light. You’ll develop a new appreciation for that cute ball of fluff you’ve lived with all these years.
For example, you may have commented many times about how your cat always faces away from you when he sits on your lap. Maybe you’ve considered this rude, since your dog always wants to be eye to eye with you. In reality, this posture is very positive. When he sits with his back toward you, he’s showing ultimate trust. It’s very comforting for him to feel you there. It’s a source of security that he might be trying to provide for you as well. Become more aware of how a cat shows trust instead of expecting him to show it in the way your dog does, or even the way a human does.
Your cat is also a hunter who is extremely in tune with his environment, so when he lounges on your lap, he wants all of his sensory receptors facing forward. If you always keep in mind that your cat is hardwired as a predator, regardless of whether he has ever caught a mouse, you’ll better understand how and why he positions himself in certain ways.
Another misinterpreted behavior is when your cat stands on your lap and presents his hindquarters to you. While that may appear to be the ultimate in rudeness, he’s actually trying to follow appropriate feline protocol. In the feline world, two familiar cats will approach each other for a little nose-to-nose sniffing and then anal sniffing. What may seem repulsive to you is crucial to cat etiquette because, unlike us, cats rely on scent as a very important tool in communication and social structure.
The cat’s use of scent is very much misunderstood by humans, since we’re such a verbal and visual species. Many of our assumptions about how and why our cats use scent are inaccurate. If a cat sprays, what’s the first thing you think of? He’s marking territory, right? Well, that’s not always the case. Urine marking is a complex form of communication that’s used not only for marking territory but also as a form of covert aggression. When a cat is unsure of how much of an opponent he may have to face in his territory, he might spray as a way of leaving a calling card. This scent-mark lets the other cat know about him. He’ll also use the information gathered from the other cat’s urine-mark to learn about him. What we may view as just a troublesome behavior your cat views as a necessary information exchange. It’s also how a cat may combine his scent with yours as a way of comforting himself. Confident cats may spray, but cats who aren’t confident can also spray. Both males and females can spray. If you’re experiencing a spraying problem in your multicat home, don’t assume it’s the male doing the spraying. It might actually be the female.
When your cat rubs on you or an object, do you again think that he’s merely marking his territory? There are actually various reasons why a cat may rub. Where and how he does it communicates what he’s feeling. When he comes up to you, lowers his head, and seems to butt it gently (or sometimes not so gently) right in your face, he may be doing what is referred to as bunting. This is a very affectionate behavior that is displayed only toward another companion animal or a human family member. Bunting is a very respectful way that a cat shows affection.
How about when you see your cat rubbing his cheek along an object? Is he marking? Yes, he is, but do you know what he’s feeling when he displays this type of marking versus urine marking? Facial rubbing releases pheromones (scent chemicals) on objects, and these facial pheromones are the “friendly” ones. When a cat facially rubs an object, he’s marking it in a calm way to reaffirm that he’s in familiar surroundings. The emotion associated with facial rubbing is very different from the high-intensity, anxiety-related emotion connected to urine marking.
When you walk to the kitchen, does your cat weave in and out of your legs, rubbing his flanks along your shins and almost tripping you? Is he just excited? He’s certainly excited because he’s anticipating dinner, but flank rubbing is a respectful form of marking that shows he acknowledges his place in the social status and knows that you’re the higher-ranking member. I’ll bet you weren’t aware of how much respect your cat was showing you on a day-to-day basis.
There are many signals your cat gives with his body that convey what he’s feeling. Becoming more familiar with some of those signals may reduce misunderstandings that result in your getting bitten, scratched, or having your cat run from you. Even if you have a wonderful relationship with your cat except for a few pesky little behavior problems you’d like to correct, familiarize yourself with his method of communicating and you’ll strengthen the bond between the two of you. Communication is key in any relationship, and when it comes to your cat, it can make solving a behavior problem so much easier.
BODY AND POSTURE
Your cat’s body is quite a magnificent and efficient machine. It is extremely flexible with loosely connected vertebrae. There are more bones in the cat’s body than in ours. Did you ever wonder how your cat manages to squeeze into the tightest spaces? His clavicle (collarbone) “floats” by being attached to muscle, as opposed to being attached to bone, as our fixed clavicle is.
He’s a swift and silent sprinter, since he walks on his toes and not the entire foot, the way we do. This is very important for a hunter who relies on silently and swiftly stalking his prey. The positioning of his shoulder blades allows for long strides, and that gives him quite an advantage when hunting.
As a hunter, he depends on being able to keep his senses fixed on his target and not lose sight of it. Watch your cat when he’s stalking something and you’ll notice that his shoulder blades rise and fall but his head remains still and locked on his intended target. The cat’s body is very efficient.
A cat’s amazing ability to jump from the ground to a high perch is not only useful for hunting but also keeps him safe when he needs to get out of reach of a potential opponent. A cat can jump five times his height.
Let’s look at some basic feline body language that can be easily misinterpreted.
One of the most misunderstood postures is when the cat rolls onto his back and exposes his belly. Many people interpret this to mean the cat is asking for a tummy rub or is showing a sign of submission the way a dog would. Wrong! If you rub or pet your cat’s exposed stomach, you’ll most likely end up with eighteen claws sinking into your skin and maybe quite a few teeth as well. Belly up is the ultimate defensive position because it enables the cat to engage all of his weapons. For many cats, when you pet the exposed belly, you automatically trigger the response, regardless of how easygoing the cat is normally. What the cat is saying with this defensive posture is that he doesn’t want to fight, but if the opponent proceeds, all weapons will come into use.
Your cat may also display an exposed belly when he’s stretched out relaxing. If he’s in that position under calm circumstances, he feels comfortable being so vulnerable. He may be expressing trust, affection, relaxation, or even love, but that comfort level can change in a heartbeat if you pet his stomach.
Kittens often display belly-up posture during playtime as well as when they feel defensive. Kittens tend to use all sorts of mixed signaling as they learn about their bodies’ abilities and how to communicate.
Your cat’s body language communicates whether he wants interaction with you or would prefer to be left alone. You can also tell whether he’s uncertain, feeling threatened, or just relaxed. If your cat walks up to you with a confident gait and a spring in his step, holding his tail high over his back, he’s looking for interaction. His tail may have a slight curl on the end or he may even give it a little twitch as a friendly greeting.
Since the cat’s tail is easily visible when upright, he may use that position when walking in grass or brush to indicate to another cat that closer interaction is wanted or at least allowed. Compare that to the cat who is crouched with his tail tucked tightly around him. While in this position he also avoids making direct eye contact. This posture is saying he doesn’t want to interact with you and may be fearful or trying to appear invisible.
By becoming familiar with the crouched posture of a cat who wants to be left alone, you can help him feel more trusting around you because he will know he doesn’t have to worry about being approached when he doesn’t want to be.
Body language ultimately comes down to two messages: distance-increasing or distance-decreasing. With distance-increasing, the cat may be saying go away or that he doesn’t wish any further interaction. Distance-decreasing can indicate an invitation to come closer or can signal indifference. Distance-decreasing posture can turn into distance-increasing if an approaching cat oversteps his boundaries.
In a multicat household you may have noticed one of your cats displaying a stiff-legged, forward-facing posture toward another cat. The forward-facing cat’s head is lowered, his pupils are constricted, and his ears are flattened back against his head. His whiskers are erect and fanned forward. Your other cat may be sideways-facing, not looking directly at his opponent. What’s going on here? The forward-facing cat is displaying offensive aggression. The cat facing sideways is being defensive and may go into the “Halloween cat” posture by displaying a piloerection of fur. He may arch his back and tail to try to appear as large and threatening as possible. His sideways stance is to make him look large, but it also says he’d rather not do battle. He’d rather the opponent just turn around and retreat. The defensive posture also says that if the opponent continues to advance, the defensive cat will certainly engage in battle. Become familiar with which cat is displaying a particular posture and you’ll have more clues to help you determine who is being the offensive aggressor and who is being defensive.
Signaling can be uniform and consistent or it can contain conflicting messages. With concordant signaling, the cat’s body parts are in agreement (tails, ears, whiskers, eyes), so you know the cat is certain about whatever message he’s trying to relay. With conflicting signaling, the cat may have his feet facing one way, hoping for a chance to get away, but his head or body language is saying something completely different. Fear aggression is a good example of conflicting messages because the cat’s vocalization, eyes, ears, whiskers, and head are in a position to do battle but his body and feet are turned sideways, hoping there’ll be an opportunity to get the heck out of there.
If your cat really wants to make sure another cat understands that he poses no threat whatsoever, he may engage in repetitive messaging just to make sure there are no miscommunications. If you have a multicat household, you may notice that when two cats are engaged in a potentially hostile confrontation, there are numerous “pauses” in the action. They may stop in whatever positions they’re in and stare at each other. One cat may have a paw raised at the time, and during the pause the paw remains frozen in midair. These pauses in their hostile dance give them each time to do more information gathering. Cats would prefer not to have a physical confrontation, so the pauses give both of them time to reconsider or back down.
EARS
Your cat’s ears have more than thirty muscles. He can rotate them independently of each other, and that enables him to accurately pinpoint the location of a sound. Your cat may be sitting on your lap, facing away from you with his ears forward, but if someone walks into the room on one side, he may turn one ear toward the sound while keeping the other ear tuned in to the goings-on on the other side of the room. The cone shape of the cat’s ears captures and funnels sound. His ears are so much more efficient than ours, which are nonflexible and cup-shaped.
A cat’s hearing is extremely sensitive, and he can hear at higher frequencies than humans or even dogs. High-frequency hearing is exactly what a cat needs in order to catch those little squeaks from mice and other potential prey.
There’s an organ in the cat’s ear that helps him right himself in midair. You may have heard the phrase “Cats always land on their feet,” but that’s not always true. In order to right himself, the cat needs a certain amount of time in midair. If the distance is too short, then he will not have adequate time. If the distance is too long, regardless of whether he rights himself, he will suffer injuries—possibly severe or fatal.
We take our sense of balance for granted, but your cat truly depends on the efficiency of his inner ear to help him remain balanced during those fast changes in direction when pouncing on prey, making high leaps, or balancing on narrow tree branches.
His ears can also provide clues concerning his mood. Ears that are held erect and forward usually indicate that the cat is alert and interested. Should he change them to a T position, also known as the airplane-wing position, it probably means he has become fearful or is developing increasing irritation or aggression. This position may also be displayed if your cat has an ear infection or ear mites.
When the ears are rotated and flattened against the sides of his head, he may be in a defensive, aggressive state of mind. If the ears rotate completely back but there is some inside pinnae (the cone-shaped part of the ear) visible, then his mood may be one of extreme offensive aggression. This flattening of the ears is how the cat protects them from injury during battle.
A cat may twitch his ears to indicate possible frustration. If one ear faces forward and one is flattened sideways, he may be uncertain of whether he’s in a threatening situation.
EYES
Since he’s a hunter, your cat has forward-facing eyes with binocular vision. His visual field is greater than that of a human. He’s a crepuscular hunter, meaning he’s most active at dawn and dusk. His eyes are equipped with a reflective layer at the back to maximize light. This layer reflects light that didn’t get absorbed on the first pass, which makes his eyes much more efficient. This reflective layer is what gives your cat’s eyes that glow when there’s sudden light in a darkened room.
Your cat has color vision but it is limited to blues, grays, yellows, and greens. As a crepuscular hunter, what matters most to him is movement rather than color. To trigger your cat’s prey-drive, movements need to go across his visual field or away from it.
Cats have a third eyelid that extends up from the inner corner of the eye. This thin membrane protects the eyes when walking through brush as the cat hunts. It also provides extra lubrication to the eye. When your cat’s eye gets injured, the third eyelid may be visible as an extra form of protection while the eye is healing. This membrane is also often visible when the cat is sick. If your cat’s third eyelid remains visible, you should have your cat checked by the veterinarian because he may be ill or have had an injury to his eye.
Your cat’s eyes can also provide valuable clues regarding his mood. When a cat is excited or interested in something, the pupils are generally round. Depending on the circumstances, it could also indicate fear or defensive aggression. Should the pupils become totally dilated, he may be becoming more fearful or the defensive aggression may be increasing.
Constricted pupils may mean your cat is displaying offensive aggression, or he may be in predatory mode, especially if there’s a toy or potential prey in sight. Keep in mind that pupil size is affected by the amount of light in the environment, so you always have to take that into consideration when trying to interpret mood.
Pupils that are slightly oval usually indicate relaxation. If the eyelids appear droopy or even half closed, he’s probably extremely relaxed, if not almost asleep.
WHISKERS
Your cat’s whiskers are fascinating devices that serve many functions. There are four rows of whiskers on either side of his muzzle. The top two rows can move independently of the bottom two. The follicle of the cat’s whisker is very sensitive and surrounded by blood vessels and nerve endings. When your cat is hunting, he fans his whiskers forward to catch all vibrations or changes in air currents. When he captures his prey, his whiskers help him detect movement. He can’t see his prey very well when it’s that close to his face or in his mouth, so he depends on his whiskers for movement detection.
In low-light situations, the cat uses his whiskers to help detect air currents. This helps him navigate around objects in the dark. His whiskers are also important tools for helping him determine whether he can safely squeeze into a tight spot. Typically, the whiskers extend to the same size as the widest part of the cat’s body. If your cat is obese, he loses this ability because his body width far exceeds the extension of his whiskers.
CATWISE CAUTION 
Never cut your cat’s whiskers or pull on them. They’re extremely sensitive. Cutting your cat’s whiskers may greatly affect his ability to navigate and can cause pain and extreme stress.
There are whiskers above your cat’s eyes that act like extensions of his eyelashes. They help to trigger protective eye blinks when your cat is walking through brush or if something dangerous is near his eyes. There are also whiskers located at the temples. Having whiskers above the eyes, at the temples, and on the muzzle helps your cat maximize his ability to gauge his environment and detect the presence of prey or danger.
On the back of his forelegs are also a few whiskers that become very useful when the cat has captured prey with his paws. The carpal whiskers are able to detect movement so the cat knows whether the prey is still struggling to get away. When hunting, sight and sound may come first, but once the cat has made contact with his prey, his sense of touch takes center stage.
The whiskers also provide some clues as to what your cat may be feeling. When he’s relaxed, his whiskers extend sideways. Should prey come on the scene or if you exhibit a little toy, your cat’s whiskers may suddenly fan forward to capture all the information he can.
If your cat has a hostile relationship with a companion cat, his whiskers will fan forward during the initial stage of offensive aggression. The cat who flattens his whiskers against his face is displaying defensive aggression. Should an all-out battle take place, both cats’ whiskers are usually flattened against their faces.
NOSE
Your cat’s nose is not as sensitive as your dog’s, but it’s much better than ours. Cats have several million more scent-sensitive cells than we do.
If you’ve watched your cat smell his food before tasting it, especially if you’ve heated it, he’s using his nose to detect even the tiniest temperature change. His sensitive nose is what gives him the ability to detect even the smallest amount of medication you may have tried to sneak into his food. This sense of smell is necessary for survival in the wild because it helps him determine if a food is safe. A cat who hunts prefers to eat fresh-killed prey because he knows it’s safe. If he must eat already dead prey, or if he’s forced to raid a neighbor’s trash, his nose helps him determine whether food has gone bad. If you’ve ever left a dish of wet food out until it turned into cement, imagine what his nose told him about the palatability and safety of that meal.
Your cat comes equipped with a very special organ that serves as a bridge between scent and taste. It’s called the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson’s organ, and it sits between the roof of the mouth and the nasal cavity. This organ allows the cat to smell and taste a scent. The odor is flicked from the tongue to the roof of the mouth, where it’s then transferred to the vomeronasal organ. Its primary function is for further analysis of other cats’ pheromones. Intact males use this vomeronasal organ to analyze the pheromones in urine to determine whether it comes from a male or a female, and if it does come from a female, whether she’s in heat. Through analysis of the pheromones, the cat can also determine the social status of the one who left the urine-mark. Cats use this organ when they feel that any interesting or unfamiliar scent requires further analysis. You can tell when your cat is using his vomeronasal organ because his facial expression will almost resemble a grimace with mouth slightly open. This is called the flehmen reaction.
MOUTH
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they must eat meat to survive. Unlike many other animals, they can’t convert beta-carotene from vegetable sources into vitamin A, so they must get it from animal sources. Although you may choose to be a vegetarian for health or ethical reasons, your cat can’t. Serious health complications will result.
Your adult cat has thirty teeth. Since the cat is a carnivore, his teeth are designed to tear and strip meat from the bones. He doesn’t grind food the way an omnivore or herbivore would. A carnivore’s teeth are designed for tearing and chopping.
The fanglike teeth in the cat’s mouth are his canine teeth. They’re intended to perform the “killing bite.” In theory, when a cat pounces on his prey, his canine teeth, if well placed on the prey, sever the spinal cord. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that easily during a hunt.
TONGUE
I’m sure you’re familiar with how rough your cat’s tongue is. That’s because it contains backward-facing barbs. These barbs help the cat rasp meat from the bones of his prey. They also help him groom his hair coat, removing dead hair and debris. Unfortunately, this comes with a downside. Because of the backward-facing barbs, the cat is unable to spit things out of his mouth. When he grooms, he has to swallow the hair. That’s why there’s a danger of choking when cats play with dangerous items such as yarn, rubber bands, or string. He’s unable to remove them from his mouth, so he has to swallow them.
Your cat drinks by forming a spoon with his tongue. He takes several laps and then swallows the water.
The tongue is also used for cooling by evaporation. He’ll groom himself to allow the saliva to evaporate from his hair coat.
Considering how much grooming a cat does, isn’t it amazing how sweet-smelling his coat remains? That’s because there’s a deodorizing component to his saliva. His tongue isn’t just used for grooming in order to remove hair and look good, it’s also a survival necessity. After he has eaten his prey, he grooms to remove all traces. This is important because he doesn’t want to alert any other potential prey in the area that a predator is nearby. Removing the traces of prey through grooming is also done to make sure the cat himself doesn’t end up the victim of a bigger predator.
TAIL
The tail is an extension of the spine and it actually makes up about one-third of it. Your cat uses his tail for balance. It acts as a counterbalance, allowing him to shift his center of gravity as he jumps on a fence or makes high-speed directional changes.
The tail is also an important communication device that can help a cat reduce the number of potential physical confrontations he might have with an opponent. It can be seen from far away and its position can be read by an approaching cat.
It is also an excellent mood indicator. If you pay closer attention to the position of your cat’s tail, you’ll probably get bitten or scratched less. A vertical tail held erect and slightly curled usually indicates friendliness. A tail held in a horizontal, half-lowered position while the cat is walking may indicate that he’s relaxed. If the tail is very lowered, however, it can indicate aggression.
You may have the image of the wagging tail of a happy dog. Although that’s not always accurate when relating to dogs, many people also assume a cat’s wagging tail means the same thing. That assumption will almost always result in getting scratched. A lashing tale indicates agitation. The more intense the lashing, the greater the agitation.
If you have a multicat household in which the cats are very close and friendly, you may have noticed them sleeping together in such a way that one cat has his tail wrapped around the other. This affectionate position also indicates total trust. The cat who wrapped his tail around the other one is saying that he doesn’t feel there’s any threat whatsoever. That feeling can be confirmed by the cat’s actual body posture. He may be stretched out (very vulnerable) or facing away from the other cat. This is total trust.
VOCALIZATION
Humans are the ones who spend so much time talking, but your cat vocalizes as well and he has quite a vocabulary. He meows, trills, purrs, chirps, chatters, murmurs, hisses, spits, and growls, and those are just a few vocalizations in his repertoire. Some sounds are reserved strictly for cat-to-cat conversations, while others are directed at us, and some, such as chattering, seem to be just a displacement behavior for frustration or excitement.
The purr is a very misunderstood form of communication. Many people assume the cat is happy and content whenever they hear that sweet little motorboat sound. While the cat does purr when he’s relaxed, happy, and content, he also uses the purr in other situations that have nothing to do with being happy. A cat may purr as a self-soothing mechanism when sick or injured. Many cats have been known to purr when terminally ill or when they are close to death. A cat may purr when cornered by an attacker in an effort to soothe the opponent. A queen will purr in order to help her young kittens locate teats for nursing. Newborn kittens are deaf but they can feel the vibrations of her purr.
Cats utter several murmur sounds, which are produced with a closed mouth. There are numerous vowel sounds that originate with an open mouth (such as the all-important “meow”). There are also strained-intensity sounds where the mouth is open.
If you listen carefully, you can start to recognize and interpret your cat’s vocabulary. A closed-mouth murmur may be used as a greeting, or it may be the sound your cat makes right before he purrs when he curls up in your lap.
When your cat is looking out the window and spots a bird, you may hear a fast chattering sound coming from him. This indicates excitement and also some frustration because he can’t get to his intended target.
You may have a cat who loves to trill when you walk into the room. This is a happy sound that’s a little more musical than a chirp.
The standard meow may be used as a greeting or a request. A variation on that is the mew, which one cat might use when trying to locate another cat in the household.
If your cat has a tendency to vomit up hairballs, you may hear him moan right beforehand.
Then there’s the hiss. This is something you’ve probably heard from time to time, maybe only when your cat is on the examination table at the veterinarian clinic, but if you have a cat who shows fear aggression in many situations, the hiss may be something you hear on a regular basis. This is a snakelike sound produced when the cat arches his tongue and forces a blast of air out of his mouth. It’s a defensive aggression vocalization. Some cats also add a spit right before or after a hiss. The spit is a popping sound that’s produced more often when the cat is startled.
The growl is a low sound produced with an open mouth that is used in either defensive or offensive aggression. This is the ultimate warning signal to back off.
Pay attention to the sounds your cat makes on a regular basis and you’ll probably find he’s using the same patterns. In no time you’ll be able to interpret just what he’s trying to tell you.
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR CAT IS SAYING
Observe the sounds your cat makes as well as his body positioning and what he does with his ears, tail, whiskers, and eyes, and you may be able to develop a better relationship with him. He might not feel as frustrated because you’ll be picking up on what he thinks are very clear signals. Your cat is an amazing communicator, and with a little more awareness on your part, you can discover more about him, even after all these years. You can also teach your children how to read signals so they can avoid approaching the cat when he doesn’t want to be approached. Just remember that when trying to read your cat’s body language, you must take into consideration his immediate environmental circumstances. For example, his pupil size may have changed suddenly due to sighting a bird outside the window and not because of a change in mood. Behaviors don’t occur in a vacuum, so part of the interpretation process involves the environment the cat is in.
Interpreting Body Language
- Body posture and position
- Size and shape of pupils
- Ear position
- Whisker position
- Vocalization
- Degree of piloerection, if any
- Immediate environmental circumstances