Understanding Your Cat

By Ric Wiley

My cat always talks to me, he always tells me things and not always by meowing. Sometimes he uses his body. Cats have body language just as humans have and I think theirs is much easier to understand.

First and foremost, verbal communication. I just wish I could understand Tigger fully, I wish I could talk to him. I can and do talk to him but its like talking to someone foreign. You don't really know what they're saying but you can usually understand what they mean. Its the same with my cat, I can understand him, but I don't understand the meows.

I know when he wants food, I know when he's content, I know when he's angry and I know when he's on edge or nervous as if something big is in the yard like a dog. He tells me, and I can understand.

I can also tell how he is by his body language. I know to look for the little things, the little signals he is giving me. It is about loving your cat so you understand him (or her).

I can tell when he is frightened, his ears are usually flat against his head and his eyes are wide open. I can tell his pupils are fully dilated which makes his eyes look almost black. His back is arched and his fur is puffed up. This is all to make him look bigger than he is to whatever is scaring him and is common with all domestic cats. His tail is usually swishing from side to side as well and the fur is puffed out on his tail.

It is a different story when he is relaxed and happy. His pupils will be normal sized and his eyes may be fully open or half closed if he is feeling sleepy. His ears are normal, pointing up and slightly forward and his tail will be curved down with the tip of his tail pointing slightly up. He is usually laid on me at this stage and his motor will be running at full blast, that's what I call his purring, running his motor. I have read that this can be a sign of pain and cats will purr when they are in a lot of pain. My cat has once purred like this when he was hurt badly. I once couldn't coax him off the garage roof and when I got up there to see if he was OK he was purring yet he had a large piece of his skin torn back off one of his hind legs. He sure was glad to see me but boy must he have been in a lot of pain.

Don't worry I sorted him out and took him to my local veterinarians. Cost me a fortune and I was told to take the dressing off in two days and take him back for the sutures out in a week. Within 3 hours of getting him home he had managed to get the dressing off and eat the sutures. He didn't like them and wasn't having them. Still he was fine in a couple of days.

Ric Wiley is a gardener, established writer and Internet author. His latest site about High Density Gardening can be found at http://www.highdensitygardening.com/home.html