THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF CATS

A scientist of cat behavior explores the various ways domestic cats communicate.

Brown, author of The Cat: A Natural and Cultural History, began studying cat behavior in the late 1980s while gaining her doctorate and working as a research assistant at the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Southampton in the UK. As she notes, domestic cats descended from “shy, solitary North African wildcats” and now can be found throughout the world, including in more than 45 million households in the U.S. The author approaches her study of domestic cats from a scientific perspective, offering her firsthand observations and analysis of recent research studies in a writing style that is easily comprehendible and captivating. According to Brown, one of the cat’s primary communication tactics is marking territory through spraying and scratching. But don’t automatically yell at your cat to stop it. “Tension and conflict within the home,” she writes, “may bring on more scratching than normal as the cat feels the urge to increase their marking behavior.” Brown examines alternatives to the invasive and painful procedure of declawing, and she discusses the true purpose of meowing, noting that the rate of meowing tends to increase the longer feral cats are in the company of humans, as well as how cats use their tails and ears to express emotions. The author shares the benefits, beyond hygiene, that cats receive from grooming each other and investigates the “secret ingredient” of catnip and other plants that provide a special allure for cats. Brown also ponders the question of whether cats have personalities and discusses the “Five-Factor Scale of Domestic Cat Personality,” known as the “Feline Five,” to analyze cat temperament. As the research that Brown presents indicates, cats have made impressive strides in adapting and learning to communicate with humans.

With her lighthearted yet authoritative approach, Brown helps us better understand our feline companions.