# Do your cats have eye expressions?



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Can you tell what they're thinking, feeling through their eyes as well as the rest of a cat's typical body language?


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

I sometimes like to think I can, but I'm not sure how accurate my assumptions are or if I'm attributing too many human characteristics to cat behavior. 

Apollo often has really wide eyes, like he's constantly surprised by his surroundings. He seems like he finds the world constantly fascinating and startling. Like he's thinking, "Omg! What is that? What was that noise? What is all this stuff?!" His most common expression is this:








or this:









On the rare occasions he's being calm, he has this squinty look. He always looks very self-assured when he does this. I consider it his, "You will do exactly what I want now," or "Don't bother me, I'm busy" look.

















Athena has a few different expressions.

This is what we call her "Wise and Serious Cat" face:









Her "Omg there are crazy exciting things going on!" face:









Her "please feed or pet me because I am so cute," face:









Her "Nom! This is my prey!" face (she makes this same face whenever she is attacking her toys):









Her "I am busy, I need to focus, don't bother me," face (she will just sit like this for up to 15 minutes if she finds something fascinating):









We also joke that she's kind of snooty and considers everyone else in this household to be a bit silly, because she often looks somewhat annoyed. I call these her, "You are all absurd," or "I am surrounded by idiots," faces.


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Midnight, the wild cat, always seems to have the same, sort of squinting, piercing stare, no matter what his state. I have to judge him more by body language. He is much more docile/relaxed now than he was a year ago as the mutual trust develops between us. When he is up on the high cabinet in the garage - headbutts are in order!


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

gorge carlin made the statement along the lines of that cats look at everything as if they are testing new eyes. Yeti eyes go from I'm cute and know it. I'm getting away with something, to don't look at me I didn't do it.


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

Goldtanker said:


> Midnight, the wild cat, always seems to have the same, sort of squinting, piercing stare, no matter what his state.


A la John Wayne, I imagine... 

Saltenyo, that "I know better than anyone else on here" expression your cat has in the photo you chose as your avatar, coupled with your big knowledge in raw diets is what made me think of you as "superior" when I first arrived here and hadn't seen your photo.


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

Straysmommy said:


> A la John Wayne, I imagine...
> 
> Saltenyo, that "I know better than anyone else on here" expression your cat has in the photo you chose as your avatar, coupled with your big knowledge in raw diets is what made me think of you as "superior" when I first arrived here and hadn't seen your photo.


Haha, that's funny. XD I should change my avatar to a picture of Athena with her crossed eyes...then everyone will just think I'm a bit nutty!


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

LOL Yes! But you did look back then in your avatar like you were wrinkling your nose at my first awkward attempts at raw diet feeding LOL


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## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

Many of Nito's eye expressions convey an attitude of "too cool for you". His different colored eyes sometimes reflect light in a very crazy way and make him look slightly insane :lol:


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## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

In the last photo he's saying: "You wish you had one of these, don't you? Now go turn green with envy of me, because I enjoy the scenery every day."


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

I cant understand everything my gal expresses, but I certainly know different looks with her eyes, as well as most of her body language and quite a lot of her sounds.


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## Salemcat2 (Dec 28, 2010)

OMG saitenyo......those pics with those descriptions were so funny I laughed out loud so hard and often that it woke Dagny up from his nap!!! I REALLY have tears running down my face from laughing so hard! Thank you so much. That was a work of brilliance!!


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## Salemcat2 (Dec 28, 2010)

My Dagny's expressions are usually the look of superiority, as expressed in my avatar pic.


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## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

Tina certainly makes faces to get what she wants.

She is also cross eyed!


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