Cats' body language is often more subtle or more complicated than dogs. It's no surprise that the average person gets it wrong. It takes time and close observation to learn an individual cat's signals.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I think cats adapt their communication over time too. My 17 year old has started whining and crying whenever he senses that I'm going to make him get off of my lap, which is something he never did when he was younger. Makes a real show of getting mad. He seems to get over it real fast if I offer him catnip as compensation, though...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I see my cat doing the same! At 16, she started pawing me incessantly while I was sleeping. Over 3 weeks I lost a lot of sleep and tried many ways to appease her. Finally I was so fed up I grabbed and held her so close she couldn’t paw me any more. She instantly relaxed and purred. The whole time the pawing was a request for me to cuddle her in my arms.

Three years later, the pawing has continued and expanded. She uses it to make me lift the blanket for her or reposition myself in ways more comfortable for her. In the past year, she’s decided I must face her while I sleep, so if I ever roll over on my side she will paw the back of my head until I face her again. She is so needy and getting worse all the time, but at 19 years old, I’ll give her whatever she wants for whatever time we have left together.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Definitely! One of ours has gotten more vocal as she has worked out she can "ask" for different things.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Well this article was talking about all the subtle variations in a dogs tail wag and how they all mean different things…but they didn’t specify what “above the midline/below the midline” or “favoring the left/right” meant, but they did say some of them are pre-aggression signs. This article sucked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

We've had them domesticated for about half as long as we've domesticated dogs, so it makes sense that we're not as adept at interspecies communication. Dogs follow your finger when you point at something. My cats just stare at my finger / hand.