Cat Body Language: What the Tail Is Telling You

Cats have a reputation for being unreadable, and it is largely undeserved. They communicate constantly and quite precisely. They simply do it with the tail, the ears, the eyes and the body rather than with sound, and most of us were never taught the vocabulary.

Learning it is worth more than it sounds. It makes a cat easier to live with, it prevents most bites and scratches, and it is one of the earliest ways to notice that a cat is unwell, because posture changes before appetite does.

The tail

The single most informative part of a cat.

• Straight up, held high. Confident and friendly. A cat that walks towards you with its tail up is greeting you
• Up with a hooked or curled tip. Friendly and pleased. Close to the feline equivalent of a warm hello
• Held horizontally, relaxed. Neutral and comfortable
• Low, or tucked under the body. Anxious, unsure or unwell. A cat that has started carrying its tail low when it used to hold it high is worth paying attention to
• Puffed up like a brush, often with an arched back. Frightened and trying to look larger. This is a scared cat rather than an aggressive one, though it will defend itself
• Thrashing or thumping side to side. Agitated. This is the opposite of the wagging dog, and it is the most commonly misread signal there is
• Quivering while upright, usually near you or a favourite object. Excited and pleased, often around food or greeting
• Just the tip twitching. Focused, mildly irritated, or hunting. Worth noticing when you are stroking a cat, because it often comes first

The one to commit to memory: a lashing tail means stop. In a dog, movement means enthusiasm. In a cat, it means the opposite.

The ears

• Forward and upright. Alert, interested, relaxed
• Swivelling independently. Listening and assessing. Neutral
• Flattened sideways, aeroplane ears. Frightened or irritated, and getting close to defending itself
• Flat back against the head. Serious. Aggression or real fear, and the moment to withdraw

Ears held persistently back or down when nothing is happening can also mean pain, particularly ear pain, and a cat with an ear infection often holds its head slightly tilted without any other obvious sign.

The eyes

• Slow blinking. Genuine contentment and trust. You can return it, and many cats will respond
• Soft, half-closed eyes. Relaxed and comfortable
• Wide open with dilated pupils. Aroused, frightened, or in pain. Read it alongside the ears and tail
• Constricted pupils with a hard stare. Tense and possibly aggressive
• A fixed, unblinking stare is a challenge between cats, which is why staring at a nervous cat makes it more nervous rather than reassuring it

Two things about eyes are medical rather than emotional and matter urgently: pupils of unequal size, and sudden dilation with poor vision. Both need seeing the same day, since the second can indicate dangerously high blood pressure.

The body

• Lying stretched out, belly exposed. Deeply relaxed. This is not usually an invitation to rub the stomach, which many cats dislike intensely
• Loaf position, sitting with paws tucked under. Content but ready to move
• Crouched and tense, weight forward. Fearful or in pain
• Arched back with fur raised. Frightened and defensive
• Rolling and showing the belly while facing you. A greeting between cats and often towards people
• Rubbing against you. Scent marking. The cat is claiming you, which is meant kindly
• Kneading with the front paws. Contentment, left over from kittenhood

The sequence before a bite

Almost nobody is bitten without warning. What happens is that the warnings arrive in order and are missed, usually during stroking that has gone on slightly too long.

1. The tail tip starts twitching
2. The skin along the back ripples, or the cat's body stiffens under your hand
3. The ears rotate back or flatten sideways
4. The head turns towards your hand
5. The cat goes very still, which is the last quiet warning
6. Then a swat, a grab, or a bite

Stop at step one and there is no step six. This is worth teaching children explicitly, because the natural response to a cat becoming tense is to hold on, and that is exactly wrong.

Where to stroke: the cheeks, under the chin, the base of the ears, along the back if the cat invites it. Where not to: the stomach, the legs and paws, and the base of the tail, all of which many cats find genuinely unpleasant.

Reading pain, which cats conceal deliberately

This is the part with the most practical value. Cats hide illness because in the wild an animal that looks weak becomes a target, and the instinct is intact. So they do not limp or cry. They change posture and routine.

• Sitting hunched, tucked up, unwilling to settle properly
• Hiding, especially somewhere new, under a bed or in a wardrobe
• A tense face: ears slightly flattened and rotated out, eyes narrowed, whiskers pushed forward. This is a real and recognisable expression once you have seen it
• Stopping grooming, so the coat becomes unkempt, particularly over the back end where reaching hurts
• Over-grooming one area, which points at pain underneath it
• No longer jumping up to a favourite high spot, or choosing lower places to sleep. Very often arthritis
• Missing the litter tray, sometimes simply because climbing in has become painful
• Sitting facing a wall, withdrawn from the room
• New irritability when handled, or a previously affectionate cat becoming unapproachable

Any of these in a cat that was not doing them before deserves a vet appointment. A cat that has simply become antisocial in middle age has usually become uncomfortable instead.

Cats in a group

Cats are not naturally communal, and conflict between them is mostly silent. It looks like blocking doorways, staring, one cat waiting at the bottom of the stairs, another spending its whole day on top of a wardrobe. Open fighting is rare and late.

The signs a household is not working are a cat that stops using the tray, sprays indoors, over-grooms, or stops coming into shared rooms. The fix is more resources in more places: separate feeding stations, extra litter trays, and vertical space so a cat can get above the traffic rather than through it.

What not to do

• Never punish a hiss or a growl. It is a warning, and a cat punished for warning learns to skip straight to the bite
• Do not corner or reach into a hiding place for a frightened cat. Let it come out
• Do not stare at a nervous cat. Blink slowly and look away instead
• Do not read a purr as proof of contentment. Cats also purr when frightened or in pain, which surprises most owners

The reason all this matters financially is that behaviour is the first thing to change and the last thing to be taken to a vet. A cat that has become withdrawn, stopped jumping and stopped grooming has usually been uncomfortable for months, and by the time the appetite goes, the condition underneath is well established and considerably more expensive to manage.

Consultations at any vet clinic in Nigeria are covered on Skeepy Pet HMO plans, which makes it reasonable to take in a cat whose only symptom is that it has stopped doing something it used to do.