Happy Pets

Indeed, you can tell a lot by looking at a cat’s tail and ears: if its tail is vertical and its ears are pricked, the cat is feeling confident, and if the tip of its erect tail is kinked, it’s offering you a tentative greeting. When a cat turns its back on you and quivers its tail, it’s sending an unreserved, ‘Please acknowledge me’ plea that may well hark back to a kittenhood invitation to its mother to clean its nether regions. If a cat is becoming annoyed, however, it often indicates its frustration by swishing its tail from side to side and drawing back its ears, and if it becomes really irate, it will lash its tail as fast as it can and flatten its ears completely. (more…)

The female has a loud and piercing mating call, often used to effect at two o’clock in the morning under your bedroom window. It is especially excruciating in the Siamese, which often has a rather raucous voice anyway. Like the scent of the female in season, it can carry far — no matter how deep under the bedclothes you may go. Not to be second- bested, males make an equally loud noise that used to be thought an equivalent mating call, but evidence now suggests that groups of cats may actually gather together to ’sing to the moon’ in a caterwauling concert that has nothing immediately to do with sexual competition. They usually gather on territory not claimed by any particular cat, so, if your cat is allowed out, they probably won’t be in your backyard but plaguing someone else. The male’s courtship voice is, by contrast, a soft and seductive cooing sound. (more…)