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How Cats Communicate With Us

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Cats Are Great Communicators

How A Cat Communicates With Its Owner

Cats generally have quieter and more subtle ways of communicating with their owners than dogs do. If you know your cat well you can usually tell how it is feeling just by looking into its eyes and observing its body language.

Here are some of the most common ways cats communicate with their "owners":

A cat will often purr when it is feeling happy or contented. Although many people believe that cats purr only when they are happy experienced cat owners know that this is not true. Cats also purr when they are stressed or going through a traumatic experience. Cats have even been known to purr when they are giving birth or nearing death. Purring is also a way for a cat to show their affection.

Rubbing

Cats often greet their "friends" by rubbing against their legs. They also do this in order to attract attention. For example, you may be eating at the dinner table and your cat starts rubbing against your legs. Your cat is telling you something like, "Hey I am here and I would like a bite of that." A cat may also do this when it is jealous of your attention given to another pet or even your child or spouse.

Cats Even Communicate With Their Eyes

Meowing

Cats can vocalize more than thirty different meowing sounds. This is referred to as their vocabulary. How well developed your cats vocabulary becomes is dependant upon how much they communicate with others. A cat will communicate with other cats, humans, and even dogs. Your cat will actually learn how you respond to it's meowing allowing it to develop in its ability to communicate with you.

Biting

While a cat will sometimes bite out of aggression it usually bites only in playfulness. So if your cat gently bites you while you are petting it or playing with it, it may be trying to tell you that it doesn't to be bothered or it may just be playing.

Body Language

Cats, just like humans, use body language to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Body language is things like how the cat walks, how it wags or shakes its tail, etc. The only way to fully understand your cat's body language is to spend a lot of time with it.

The Cat Whisperer:

The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat

Britain's leading veterinary journalist and cat expert shares her advice and experience with cat owners on both sides of the Atlantic, as she describes how to bond with a pet feline. Claire Bessant begins by explaining how cats function as cats, describing their likes, their dislikes, and their instinctive behavior. Armed with this knowledge, cat owners facing behavior problems can determine why a problem exists and decide how to solve it. A most fascinating topic that Claire Bessant explores in detail is her method of entering a cat's world through its senses-sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste, and that indefinable feline sixth sense.

The Cat Whisperer: The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat

by: Claire Bessant

Amazon Price: $1.83 (as of 05/30/2012)

Readers will also find information on cat vocal and body language, feline traits determined by genetics, ways of measuring feline intelligence, training techniques, and much more. The book's final 50-page chapter is an A-to-Z compendium of cat behavior problems and their solutions. This must-read volume for cat lovers includes an eight-page insert of beautiful full-color photos.

How to Talk to Your Cat

Perhaps no one is better equipped to help us understand our cats than Jean Craighead George, award-winning author of over 80 books about nature and animals. This delightful picture book for cat lovers of all ages makes it perfectly clear who has the power in a human-cat relationship: the cat. But you already knew that. What you may not have known is that cats meow as many as 19 different meows (all interpreted here), that cats never purr when they are alone, that no one knows what part of the cat a purr really comes from, and what cats' various tail positions mean.

How to Talk to Your Cat

by: Jean Craighead George

Amazon Price: $3.21 (as of 05/30/2012)
List Price: $6.99
Used Price: $1.35

Illustrator Paul Meisel's charming, cartoonish cats prance through the pages with photos of the author herself in a clever, endearing display of the human-feline relationship.

Even More Cool Cat Stuff!

Blog Posts About Cats and Cat Health

Here are some cat related blog posts from around the Internet brought to you by Google:

Pets Best Insurance Offers MyMedicalRecords.com Personal Health Record to ...: LOS ANGELES, CA, May 30, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OBB:MMRF) ("MMR") today announced that Pets Best Insurance ( www.petsbest.com ), a nationwide organization dedicated to insuring the health of America's millions of dogs and cats ...
Last Chance: Dog and Cat License Renewals: all have in common if they live in Summit? A valid pet license! Drop off your renewal notice at the health department located at City Hall. Registration renewal notices have been sent to all owners of licensed dogs and cats. The license year begins on ...
'Fat cat' doctors to hold 24-hour strike for routine operations and GP ...: But Health Secretary Andrew Lansley furiously condemned the action. ?I don't think that the public will remotely understand that the BMA and a proportion of doctors who are among the best paid in the NHS, who will continue to have a pension scheme that ...
Alley Cat Allies Urges Santa Ana To Stop Killing Cats in Typhus Eradication Effort: By Alley Cat Allies BETHESDA, Md., May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Alley Cat Allies, the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats, today urged public health workers in Santa Ana, Calif., ...

Visitor Comments

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24websurf Jun 17, 2009 @ 4:55 pm | delete

My rotten kid lived to be 20 1/2 years old and then left me due to cancer. I've never had a more constant companion and friend. Love this lens. 5*s

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praise May 25, 2009 @ 8:28 am | delete

Nice lens, I've had cats all my life and have 2 spoiled ones. They are wonderful pets.
Debra

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DSlone May 23, 2009 @ 5:03 pm | delete

Believe it or not cats can also communicate via telepathy

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MrMarmalade May 13, 2009 @ 6:29 pm | delete

Raised a pure black kitten from birth until she dies at 17 years of age.
Was called midnight and considered as my cat.
I went into hospital for ten weeks came home from three serious operations and midnight decided that as i had left her for ten weeks, she would ignore me for the same period. What agony from me. Oh well, it was just as well I did have very tender sites on chest and stomach.
Top five *****