a moment of science.....cats

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Cats send all sorts of nonverbal signals, both to each other and to us humans. One of those signals is a blink.

If you own a cat and haven't ever noticed it blinking at you, keep an eye out. It usually happens just as the cat enters a room where you are sitting. It will notice you from a small distance, stop, blink both eyes once or several times, and then approach. Once you are on the lookout for it, the blink is quite noticeable. It's slower than a human blink and looks, well, intentional.

What is your cat trying to tell you? A blinking cat is a happy cat. Blinking in cats is a signal that they recognize the presence of another cat in their vicinity but they are not going to fight it. A blink sends the message: "You are my friend. I am not angry. I am not threatened, or threatening."

This kind of message is very important in the wild, where cats battle for territory. Run across a neighboring cat and you'd better make your intentions clear, or you may find yourself in a fight. The blink serves to say: all's well here.

If you don't feel silly doing it, try blinking at your cat, perhaps while stroking it. Sometimes our facial gestures can trigger a response in them. The two of you can have a mutual friendship moment, sending "I'm okay -- you're okay" messages back and forth.

So, why do cats blink at us, when we aren't cats and don't understand such feline messages? Well -- do you ever speak to your cat?

[stuntcat]

1. Im into the blinking :D

I blink at mine when they're close to me and looking at me, I've always thought it told them I was comfortable and happy with them. There's always something wild in a cat so things like that mean a lot to them.

I do it when they're sitting with me and stuff, like when I'm being lovey with them, but I'll try doing it across the room too. One of my cats is a nervous wreck and acts like he thinks I could turn on him at any moment :( so maybe it would make a difference with him.

[TZ]

2. Sooo

If my cat is staring at me without blinking from accross the rooom, thats not a good thing, eh?

[applegrove]

3. What a cute picture. Are those your cats?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. no, I pulled them from strangezoo.com , but, I did make the eyes blink.....

and I do have 2 kitties, a yorkie, an african grey parrot and 13 chickens.

here is one of my kitties and my yorkie

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. i wink at her too.

[cloudbase]

6. My wife calls it

"happy eyes."

[BarenakedLady]

7. I'm winking at Maya right now.

she's on my lap.

[EnviroBat]

8. I distinctly remember my cat blinking at me,

just before he pulled a 9 and shot me right in the ass.

[Arugula Latte]

9. I blink at my cats all the time. My family calls it "squinties"

I swear, we have whole conversations involving eye squinting. I just looooooooove it. It warms my cockles. And I didn't even know I had cockles. :)

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. My cat's breath smells like cat food.