How to Tell if Your Cat is Happy

Source: © Shutterstock

Cat owners love their cats. As a result, it makes sense for them to want their cats to be happy. Unfortunately, humans don’t have a natural understanding of feline communication, meaning that it can be hard to tell what a particular cat is thinking at a particular moment. Still, this barrier can be overcome by those who are willing to put in the effort. Here are some tips for telling if a cat is happy or not:

Friendliness

Friendliness tends to be a sign that a cat is in a good mood. However, interested individuals shouldn’t assume that unfriendly cats are necessarily unhappy cats. Some cats are just more standoffish than others, which is perfectly normal. As such, interested individuals should always consider the cat’s default when gauging whether they are feeling happy or not.

Good Appetite

Generally speaking, a good appetite suggests that a cat is in a good mood. However, interested individuals should watch out for cats that are eating more than they should for a couple of reasons. One, over-eating leads to obesity, which increases the cat’s chances of getting a wide range of serious medical issues. Two, cats have been known to over-eat as a way of coping with stress and other sources of unhappiness in much the same manner as humans, meaning that this could be a sign that something is wrong. Besides this, interested individuals should also watch out for sudden drops in a cat’s appetite because that can indicate a health problem as well.

Good Health

A cat’s mental state cannot be separated from their physical state because one is connected to the other in an inextricable manner. As such, if cat owners want to make their cat happy, they need to make their cat healthy. This can be done by seeing the veterinarian for check-ups on a regular basis, which is important for picking up on potential health problems as soon as possible. Earlier detection tends to make for a couple of major benefits. One, earlier detection tends to increase the chances of a successful intervention, which can save cats a lot of suffering in the long run. Two, earlier detection tends to make intervention easier, which works to much the same end. Combined, this makes regular check-ups critical, particularly since cats can’t voice their complaints in the same way that humans can.

Kneading

Kneading is considered to be one of the signs of a happy cat. Apparently, it is a behavior carried over from their time as kittens, which was used to coax milk from their mother. Cats sometimes knead for the purpose of showing pleasure. However, cats can also knead as a way of comforting themselves, meaning that interested individuals should pay close attention to the context in which they exhibit said behavior. If kneading is connected to something that can make the cat happy, it could be a good sign. In contrast, if a cat is kneading for either strange reasons or even incongruous reasons, interested individuals might want to look further into the situation to see if something is wrong.

Purring

Purring can be a positive sign. In fact, it is one of the most famous indications of a happy cat. However, interested individuals shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that purring always means good things. After all, cats are also known to purr for the purpose of comforting themselves, meaning that it can have the exact opposite meaning of its conventional interpretation. Due to this, interested individuals need to watch out for their cats purring at strange moments, which could be a sign that something is wrong rather than something is right.

Playfulness

Play is something of a luxury behavior. Essentially, this means that cats won’t engage in it unless their needs are being met, which in turn, tends to mean that playful cats are both happy and healthy. Be warned that it is natural for cats to slow down in this regard as they get older, meaning that interested individuals shouldn’t mistake signs of aging for signs of sickness. Even so, older cats won’t lose 100 percent of their playfulness, so it should still be possible to coax them into play from time to time.

Relaxed Posture

Stressed-out cats tend not to be relaxed cats. Due to this, if a cat is in a relaxed posture, this suggests that they are in a happy mood. Some potential indications range from half-closed eyes to having their feet tucked beneath them. On top of this, if the cat shows little sign of being startled by either sudden noises or sudden movement, that could suggest that they are feeling relaxed as well.

Rubbing

Rubbing is one of the ways that cats can mark their territory. After all, they have a lot of scent glands around their head, with locations including their mouth, their chin, and their cheeks. Thanks to this, if a cat spends a lot of time rubbing their cat owner, chances are good that they have good feelings towards the latter.

The Right Amount of Sleep

Getting the right amount of sleep is a positive sign when it comes to feline happiness. Unfortunately, both too much sleep and too little sleep should be considered warning signs for interested individuals. In the first case, this is because too much sleep could mean that the cat is using sleep as a way of handling either boredom, loneliness, or some other negative emotion. Meanwhile, the second case could mean that the cat has either some kind of physical issue or some kind of emotional issue that is interrupting their sleep. Be warned that there isn’t a set number of hours that cats should be sleeping for because this is something that should vary based on age as well as on activity. As a result, interested individuals should once again consider their default when gauging whether they are getting the right amount of sleep or not.