what does this symbol mean?

Pets and animals

What a pet’s body language and sounds mean, and the symbols and labels pet owners come across.

Pets and animals is the section for what a pet’s body language and sounds mean, and for the symbols and labels pet owners come across. It starts with cats. Cat body language has eleven pages, on the tail, the ears, the eyes, the sounds and the habits people ask about, among them making biscuits, purring, the slow blink and the cat loaf. Pages on dog body language, horse markings and pet symbols follow as later sections.

Cat body language 11 symbols

What a cat’s tail, ears, eyes, sounds and habits mean, from a tail held high to making biscuits.

Where the readings come from

Every reading on the cat pages is credited to the welfare charity, veterinary school or study that gives it: International Cat Care, Cats Protection, Blue Cross, the RSPCA, the ASPCA and the Cornell Feline Health Center, and papers such as the 2020 University of Sussex study of the slow blink in Scientific Reports, in which 21 cats from 14 households took part. Where sources disagree, the page gives both readings. A tail held low is one case: Blue Cross reads a tail held straight down as unease or fear, while the ASPCA lists a stiff tail, lowered or held straight down, among the postures of a cat on the offensive.

One signal, more than one meaning

Cats Protection says cats purr when content and also in stressful situations such as a visit to the vet, or when in pain, and its Behaviour Guide says the two kinds of purr sound extremely similar, so the rest of the cat’s body language, its behaviour and the situation tell them apart. The tail and ear pages have charts of drawn positions, each with the reading its sources give. The pages describe what a behaviour usually means and are not veterinary advice.

Sources

  1. The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication, Humphrey, Proops, Forman, Spooner and McComb, Scientific Reports 10:16503, 2020, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73426-0, Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio), Abstract; Introduction; Discussion
  2. What is your cat’s tail telling you?, Blue Cross advice, approved by its Behaviour and Training Development Manager, Blue Cross, Tail positions
  3. Aggression in Cats, Citing Hetts, Pet Behavior Protocols (AAHA Press, 1999), ASPCA, Understanding cat body language: offensive postures; predatory behaviour
  4. Cat Body Language, Cats Protection, Purring
  5. The Behaviour Guide, 2021 edition, Cats Protection, Development of feline behaviour, p. 16; Communication: Vocalisation, p. 28
  6. Why does my cat purr?, Cats Protection blog, Cats Protection

Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research