Hello I'm Simon, welcome to Simon's Cat Logic, we'll be finding out from a cat
expert why cats behave the way they do, today we're going to look at 'Body Language'
Well I've created this big fat lovable cat who of course can't talk so
if I want to show an emotional how he's feeling I have to do it through body
language and cats are fantastic at body language and so it make some fantastic for
animation so you can look at a picture of a cat or an animation of a cat and
understand exactly what that cat's feeling without using any words, so to draw
an angry cat I'd start with two angry looking eyes and then it's ears would be back
give him some little ruffled fur, because he's really not really not happy at all
sitting on his haunches a bit, waggling his tail, he's not very happy at all
well Simon's Cat is such a simple design, he's basically like a big fat bean
really, he hasn't really got any whiskers or anything, so there's not a lot to work with
by just doing a few little simple body language things like having a little
tilted ear or a slightly puffed up tail but I can get over a lot of motion in
the drawing with Simon's Cat there's no talking it's all about body language
cat body language is an area that's absolutely fascinating
however cats are really subtle as a species much more so than social species
like ourselves and dogs and therefore it means they can be quite difficult to
really read as to how they're feeling what's important is to look at facial
expression and body language particularly in the context so we can
understand what's going on, so if we look at Nigel here he's looking rather relaxed
[Why do cats show their bellies?]
what it means when a cat shows their belly, it is actually a greeting behaviour
this is because they're showing the most vulnerable part of their tummy and
it's a sign of trust one of the things that many people mistake when their cat
rolls over and shows their tummy is that they think it's an invitation to have it
touched, now unfortunately most cats don't
actually like their tummies being touched and they may find they get
grabbed or bitten by the cat
[Tell Tails]
cats can use their tails to express a variety of different emotions
for example if the tip of the tail is slowly moving and
flicking like this it can mean they're agitated or something's irritated them
if the tail is moving from slowly side to side and particularly if it's at mid height
this can indicate this feeling indecisive if a cat is having its tail
up high like this, but also curved at the tip it can be a greeting behaviour you'll
see this both from cats towards other cats but also cats will greet people
like this two cats can also express themselves using their ears position
cats that are feeling nice and relaxed will have her ears facing towards in a
relaxed posture if we look at Nigel his ears are quite alert and he's listening
in to his surroundings and like I say he's definitely very aware of what's going on
when cats are actually scared they will move their ears both to the side and
sometimes back if they put their ears completely flat back on their head this
is not only indication that they feel extremely threatened but also that they
are trying to protect their ears from injury
[Look into my eyes]
There are lots of different ways in which cats can use their eyes to show different
types of emotions from slow blinking to having dilated pupils and also whether
their eyes are half closed or actually in the squinty position
slow blinking where a cat slowly opens and close their eyes so a slow blink like this and it's a
sign that they're feeling relaxed and calm in the person's presence they also
do it towards other cats what's really exciting is if you slow blink a cat or
so slowly opening and closing your eyes and seeing if they do it back cats which
are feeling stressed or insecure or nervous will often have dilated pupils
this is to gain as much information about their environment as possible however
cats may also have dilated pupils if they are excited or they're in hunting
mode for example if you notice your cat has dilated pupils it's important to
take its body language as well as a context into account to figure out how
your cat is feeling if the cat is resting or feeling relaxed they often
have their eyes half closed however this are very subtly different to if the cat
is in pain where they'll have more of a sort of squinty eye posture if you're
concerned that your cat may well be in pain we'd recommend taking them to the
vet for a health check, so by taking into account facial expression, body posture
and the context we can really start to understand cat behavior and have a much
more positive relationship with our cat, well I think a lot of the charm of
Simon's cat comes from all the realistic sort of body language and the little
nuances and mannerisms that the cat does that I've kind of learnt from having
lots of cats all my life but occasionally I tend to push push it a little bit and
have him do things like 'meow' point to his mouth when he's hungry and pick up a
baseball bat and I think that really brings out the humour of Simon's cat
because that's what cats would do if they could I think