by Nicole Cook

Created on: February 13, 2009

Have you ever witnessed a chance meeting between two stray or feral cats that have never met before? The method of communication between the two is absolutely astounding. No words are said, often no sound is made but each cat relays a message to the other with seemingly minute changes in their body. Cats are born with an innate skill of decoding each other's extremely small movements into a language that seems so foreign to us humans. However if you take the time to watch your cat, or any cat for even a small period of time, you can begin to understand how these animals silently "speak" to one another, and how they modify their own language to communicate with us.

Let me take you through the process of the chance meeting I referred to earlier. Two cats spot one another just as they are about to cross paths. They have no idea if the meeting will be friendly, cold, or turn into a full-blown battle. Both cats immediately freeze. From a safe distance they begin to speak to one another. They convey the message that they are afraid, angry, defensive, aggressive, or friendly and curious. Making eye contact with one another can be taken as a challenge so cats will often avoid eye contact with one another upon meeting to convey the message that they are not an aggressor. Taking quick peeks at one another from a distance they will often look around as if ignoring each other, essentially pretending not to care about the others presence. This can go on for some time, as neither cat wants to make the first move and have it be perceived as a threat by the other cat.

Eventually one cat will begin to move, slowly at first swinging its head from side to side slowly. The tip of its tail begins to twitch showing the other cat that he is unsure but on guard. The other cat will stand its ground, not making a move as he waits to see how this meeting plays out. If the cat that is moving wants to convey a threatening message he may walk directly towards the still cat. Eyes forward, head lowered, shoulders hunched and his tail is slightly lowered but not swinging. Often this is a bluff on the part of the cat in motion. He has no plans to fight but must prove his dominance and fearlessness to the other cat. Most cats will go out of their way to exaggerate their bluff, with no plans to fight as cats will fight one another only as a last resort.

As the distance between the two cats begins to shrink, the still cat will have to react. Standing up tall, arching his back and fluffing out his

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