Despite spending thousands of years as companions to humans, cats are still pretty much a mystery to us. They are not as open with displays of emotion as dogs, meaning they are harder to understand. But many feline behaviors are common to all cats, so they obviously have some significance.

Understanding why your cat does the things he does is key to building a bond with your can, so in this article we’ll try to explain some of those strange behaviors to you.

One of the most noticeable cat behaviors is the head rub. A cat will rub his head against just about any solid object, including your legs. What they are actually doing is scent-marking, leaving behind a small trace of saliva to claim to object as their own.

You’ll often see cats do this to a stranger entering your home, and in this context, it’s almost a form of welcome. By marking someone, the cat is accepting them into his territory.

This may be why cats always seem to target people that try to avoid them. A person who deliberately stays away from cats will have no scent on them, and when they enter a home with a resident cat, they’ll quickly be targeted for “marking”.

In the wild, cats often seek out high ground to survey their surroundings. A pet cat mimics this by lying on the window sill and watching the world go by. When he sees another cat, a bird or other potential prey. You’ll notice that he starts making strange chirping sounds and twitching his whiskers. This is a natural behavior triggered by the cat’s hunting instincts.

Cats are actually quite playful animals and many enjoy a game. But games are often a practice for hunting, and you’ll see this in one of their favorites games - the “kill”. The cat will grab hold of an object with its mouth and front paws, then kick out with its back paws.

Big predatory cats like lions use very similar tactics to dispatch their prey.

Cats can be very vocal, and “talk” to us in meows, purrs, trills and chirps. Purring is a wonderful, peaceful sound that usually indicates that the cat is happy. But it has other meanings too. A cat that is in pain, for example, will usually purr. Be vigilant for this, if your cat is purring while he seems to be in discomfort it may be wise to take him to the yet. Cats can withstand a lot of pain, and don’t complain easily, so it could be something serious.

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