Your Cat's Senses and Signs

One of the things I want to do on this blog is to post interesting things I find that are relevant to cats. Here is the first one. I got it from the Lillian group I belong to. (write about that later) and was posted by Arlene.

Your Cat's Tail, Ear, and Eye Signals
Tails
When the tail is erect for its full length, it is used as a greeting to another cat or to a friendly human and is an invitation for contact rubbing. This can also be a request for food. The tail flicks of a seated cat often indicates irritation. Tail wagging can range from small irritated flicks which may express indecision-- wavering between two possible courses of action--or in its most pronounced form, it can be the prelude to a fight between two male cats and undoubtedly accompanied by growling. A tail that is held down with an elevated rump belongs to an aggressive cat that is standing sideways near another cat. A fluffed-up, arched tail is seen when a cat stands with its back arched (the "Halloween cat") and it is torn between being aggressive or defensive. A fluffed tail that is positioned straight out or down, is seen when the decision moves toward aggression. (All of these tail positions can be observed when two kittens engage in play fighting.) The tail that is wrapped against the cat's body may mean that the cat is contented or for a nervous cat, it is a defensive posture.

Ears
If the tail alone doesn't give you enough information about what the cat is thinking, take a look at the ears. Cats involved in a standoff will make threatening sounds, but to really understand what is happening, check the ear position. The defender's ears will lie down flat against the head for protection. The cat whose ears are lying flat, but with a twist, so that the tips of the back of the ear can be seen from the front, is the aggressor. Forward-pointing ears are used by confident, curious, cats to listen for sounds in front of them. A cat that is hunting prey (or playing) will also keep its ears forward to collect as much auditory information as possible in order to execute a successful pounce.

Eyes
In a standoff situation the defending cat's pupils will be dilated to provide the cat with wider peripheral vision, an advantage in anticipating an attack. The aggressor's pupils narrow to give him better depth perception, an advantage in judging where to attack. While dilated pupils can indicate fear, they are also indicative of the light conditions. In dim light the pupils expand to allow as much light to enter the eye as possible. Perhaps one of the most wonderful of feline body signals, but one that is most often missed by even the most observant of cat owners, is the slow eye blink. According to Roger Tabor, in his interesting and informative book, Cat Behavior, a Complete Guide to Understanding How Your Cat Works:

"Blinking is a very powerful communication as a reassurance signal and is commonly used between cats when they are sitting or lying in a hunched-up, sphinx-like position. I have used the blink to relax house cats, feral cats, and even tigers in the wild...it is important to put them at their ease by allowing them to read the signals that tell them you are not a threat." (It is also a great way to say "I love you" to your favorite feline companion.)

A continuous stare has the opposite effect on cats. It is threatening and unsettling and is used effectively by cats in maintaining territorial distance. This explains why a cat that enters a room of strangers, all of whom are cat lovers except for one, will choose to approach the non-cat lover, the only one who is not staring at him.

The Amazing Sense of Smell
The Cat's sense of smell, not vision, is its primary resource for identifying the individuals and objects in its environment. The cat's visual acuity is 10 times less then that of humans. However, they have 200 million odor-sensitive cells in their noses compared to only 5 million for humans. Cats live in a sensory world completely apart from ours. The sense of smell plays a very insignificant role in human relationships and in our response to our environment, while for cats, it is all-important and may result in some puzzling and disturbing behaviors. Consider the following:

The owner puts a scented litter in the litterbox-the cat refuses to use it because perfume is actually a repellent for cats.

The owner comes home after visiting a friend and petting her friendly, lap-sitting cat-she is greeted with hisses and growls from her cat.

A new piece of furniture is moved into the house. The unfamiliar scent is upsetting to the cat and impels it to mark it with its own signature scent. (This can be accomplished by rubbing on it, scratching it, or by spraying urine on it.)

Courtesy of Cats International