I was curious about the precise amount of time I spend pondering the inner lives of my cats, so I did what most people do when in doubt: I consulted Google. According to my search history, in the two years since becoming a cat owner, I’ve Googled variations of “cat love me – how do I tell?” and “is my cat happy” 17 times. I’ve also inadvertently subscribed to cat-related updates from Quora, the knowledge website, which sends me a daily digest. (Example: Can Cats Be Angry or Disappointed With Their Owner?)
[Cats track their owners’ movements, research finds
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How do I express my affection for my cats? Let me count the ways. The crisp snap of three-year-old Larry’s jaw as he observes me with detached curiosity is my favorite sound in the world. I adore the tenor and rhythm of my six-month-old kitten Kedi’s meows as he follows me around the house. (High-pitched, indignant squeaks mean he’s hungry; lower-pitched chirps suggest he wants to play.) I love the weight of Larry on my feet at night and the scratchy caress of Kedi’s tongue on my eyelid in the morning.
But how do I truly understand what these little creatures think and feel? I suspect that online listicles written in whimsical fonts are unlikely to provide the latest scientific research – and are probably just telling me what they think I want to hear. To genuinely delve into the feline soul and understand cat happiness, I need to go to the source.
You don’t need to understand the intricacies of feline behavior to appreciate a cat … Sirin Kale and her cat Larry. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
Despite the fact that cats are the most popular pets in UK households after dogs, our understanding of them remains relatively limited. This, according to Dr. Carlo Siracusa of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, “is partly due to practical challenges.”
Dogs are straightforward to study; they readily adapt to laboratory environments. However, cats are intensely territorial animals. “A cat’s behavior is so profoundly influenced by its surroundings that if you move it to a laboratory,” Siracusa explains, “what you observe will not accurately represent its normal behavior and hence, its true happiness.”
Another reason for the under-researched nature of cats is societal bias. “There’s a stigma,” says Siracusa. Throughout much of history, cats have been unfairly vilified. In the Middle Ages, they were associated with witchcraft, often facing torture and being burned. “They have been stigmatized as evil because they are considered amoral,” notes philosopher and writer John Gray, author of Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life. “In a sense, cats are – they simply follow their instincts and natural inclinations to achieve their own happiness.”
Our knowledge of domestic cats’ inner lives and their capacity for happiness largely comes from scientists conducting studies in the cats’ home environments. Unsurprisingly, many of these researchers are cat owners themselves. “Of course, I am a cat lover,” says Dr. Saho Takagi of Kyoto University. “When I began raising cats, I was captivated by their enigmatic nature. What are these cats thinking? How do they perceive the world? These questions fuel my research into cat happiness and behavior.” Takagi is pictured holding a cat in her profile photo on ResearchGate, a professional network for scientists.
‘Cats are elegant. They approach us. They bump their heads. Then they have some contact with us and walk away.’ Photograph: Nick David/Getty Images (Posed by a model)
Dr. Takagi co-authored a study, published recently, which discovered that cats mentally track their owners’ locations by the sound of their voice, even when they are out of sight. In the study, cats were played audio recordings of their owners calling their names. They showed the most surprise when the source of their owner’s voice appeared to move unexpectedly. “These findings indicate that cats are quite attached to their owners,” she concludes. “They are likely observing their owner’s every move attentively, anticipating what will happen next and ensuring their own happiness and security.”
A frequent criticism directed at cats is that they are opportunistic creatures, merely using humans for comfortable sleeping places and a consistent food supply. However, “cats do form attachments to people,” Siracusa clarifies. “They also bond with other animals.” He explains that cats often express affection through proximity, if not direct physical interaction, “by being in the same space as you or near you physically.” More outwardly affectionate cats might sleep on or close to their owners or other feline companions. “Cats raised together are more likely to develop strong bonds,” he notes. “However, generally, cats do not enjoy being picked up, hugged, and kissed. Most cats dislike this type of handling, which can impact their happiness.”
‘As a general rule, cats do not like to be picked up, hugged and kissed.’ Photograph: eclipse_images/Getty Images
The misconception that cats are indifferent to their owners often arises from people who are disappointed that cats don’t behave like humans, or at least dogs. “Cats are not humans,” Siracusa sighs, “and they are not dogs. Humans hug and kiss. Dogs get very excited and jump around. Cats don’t behave like that. They are far more refined. They approach us. They gently head-butt us. They engage in brief contact and then move away, demonstrating affection in their own feline way which contributes to their overall happiness.”
This behavior is rooted in their ancestry from the African wildcat, a solitary animal. “Cats are not social in the same way as dogs,” states clinical veterinarian Karen Hiestand of the University of Sussex. “They don’t require companionship in the same manner.” Although, in multi-cat households, cats may choose to display affection through allogrooming – licking each other. Watching Larry and Kedi groom each other is often the highlight of my day, a clear sign of their feline happiness and bonding.
Cats may choose to exhibit affection by allogrooming, or licking, each other. Photograph: deepblue4you/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Cats can experience low moods, Hiestand says. Just avoid labeling it as “depression.” “There are complexities in applying human mental health terminology to non-human species,” she explains. “I have my personal view: if something looks and acts like a horse, then it’s a horse.” The challenge in recognizing low moods in cats, Hiestand notes, “is that feline behavior is incredibly subtle. We often miss signs of unhappiness in cats because a cat that is unhappy tends to be still and inactive. We might assume that an unhappy cat would be hissing and aggressive. However, that’s a last resort for them. There’s a spectrum of unhappiness that precedes such overt displays. We simply fail to notice it.” Changes in behavior can signal cat distress: when Siracusa began working from home due to the pandemic, his cat, Elsa, became disoriented and stressed by the sudden shift in his routine. (Watch for changes in their litter box habits or appetite.) Interestingly, when Siracusa gave Elsa probiotics, her mood seemed to improve. “Behavioral issues are connected to the immune system, and the immune system is influenced by gut health,” he states, highlighting the complex factors affecting feline happiness.
‘We don’t notice when cats are miserable because a miserable cat sits still and doesn’t do much.’ Photograph: Kseniya Ovchinnikova/Getty Images
Cats also possess long-term memory: I’ve witnessed this firsthand. When Larry burned his paw on my induction hob last year, he avoided walking on the kitchen counters for months. If I lifted him and placed him on the countertop, he would immediately jump down, associating the area with the painful memory. “Memories linked to emotions,” Siracusa explains, “and especially those tied to negative feelings, are crucial for survival. Cats learn from experiences and retain information that helps them avoid danger or gain an advantage, contributing to their long-term safety and happiness.”
Cats also retain more ordinary memories. Takagi has conducted experiments where cats were fed from multiple food bowls over time. Researchers identified the cats’ preferred foods and served them in specific bowls (allowing cats to create memories of what food was served in which bowl and when). Later, they switched the bowls. They discovered that cats could remember if they had previously checked a particular bowl when searching for a specific treat and the context of that prior experience. “This demonstrated that it was a single event that could be recalled and used later,” Takagi says. “This type of memory is known as episodic memory, and it is comparable to human episodic memory, suggesting a complex cognitive ability related to feline happiness and wellbeing.”
They even dream. “In practice,” Hiestand notes, “certain anesthetic agents used during cat surgeries are hallucinogenic. I often wonder, what is the cat hallucinating? Giant mice? Sometimes, you can see their paws moving as if they are running in their sleep.” She believes these dreams are not unlike human dreams: “Processing the day’s events and storing information in their memory,” Hiestand suggests. “There’s no reason to believe their brains function fundamentally differently from ours in this regard, especially concerning processing emotions and experiences that contribute to their overall sense of happiness.”
The lives our cats lead when we’re not around is a mystery. Photograph: bryantscannell/Getty Images
However, cats cannot project into the future because their frontal lobes are not as developed as in humans. “Cats cannot make long-term plans,” Siracusa states. “Some people believe that when they leave home and their cat defecates on the couch, it’s a deliberate act to cause a negative experience upon their return. But cats lack the capacity for such premeditated behavior and complex emotional planning.” This means Kedi isn’t intentionally trying to annoy me when he knocks over my laundry rack; he can’t grasp that I might react negatively to finding clean laundry scattered across the floor, highlighting the differences in human and feline emotional processing and motivations for behavior.
So, what truly goes on in those feline minds? “That’s a complex question,” Siracusa admits. “I believe much of their thought process is centered around ensuring safety. Avoiding predators. Engaging in rewarding activities, like catching a tasty mouse. Given they live in a human-dominated world, their thoughts likely involve us as well. Perhaps pondering the irritating noise of the new tumble dryer we bought. But fundamentally, their thoughts revolve around safety and happiness.” He pauses, then chuckles: “But perhaps those are merely my own human thoughts, projected onto what I imagine a cat’s inner thoughts to be, as we often try to understand feline happiness through a human lens.”
Over the week I spend researching and writing this article, my preoccupation with the happiness and well-being of my feline companions intensifies, reflecting a common concern among cat owners. I meticulously observe their expressive faces, keenly watching for any subtle emotion in their translucent amber eyes, seeking to understand their feline happiness. I even send videos of them to cat behaviorist Anita Kelsey, author of Let’s Talk About Cats. “He’s excited to see you,” she responds to a video of Kedi greeting me in the morning. “He knows his food is coming soon. This burst of energy shortly after waking is typical behavior, driven by anticipation and positive associations.”
A cat lying on its back, having its belly tickled. Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images
Yet, observation alone feels insufficient. While I can see their immediate actions – grooming, chasing insects, adorably sleeping on their backs with bellies exposed – their lives when I’m absent remain a mystery, leaving me to wonder about their feline happiness in solitude. Do they miss me, or are they indifferent? The solution, naturally, is to observe them remotely. Canary, a home security company, provides me with motion-activated indoor security cameras. What do they reveal about my cats’ happiness and behavior when unsupervised? They push pens off my desk. They tear chunks out of my expensive ergonomic office chair. They drink from unattended water glasses. They exist contentedly, unconcerned, undisturbed by my physical absence, suggesting a form of feline happiness independent of human interaction.
Most cats don’t yearn for their absent owners any more than they’ll retrieve a thrown ball on command or adopt a vegan diet. They are cats. They act according to their own desires, consistently. “Cats offer a window into a non-human perspective,” Gray observes. “They are authentically themselves and remain so. They adapt to human environments, but they don’t embrace human ways of being, maintaining their feline essence and approach to happiness.”
In essence, we should abandon the practice of projecting human traits onto these enigmatic creatures. “Cats are cats, and humans are humans, and we cannot become cats,” Gray emphasizes. “Instead, the relevant question is: what can we learn from them that benefits us? I believe there’s much to learn. By observing a being so different yet living alongside us, we can shed some of the detrimental habits associated with being human. Such as dwelling on future anxieties rather than appreciating the present moment, or failing to find contentment in our current lives. And, of course, prioritizing ample sleep, a key component of feline happiness.”
Catnapping … cats understand the importance of getting enough sleep. Photograph: Kseniya Ovchinnikova/Getty Images
Speaking with Gray, it strikes me that the ancient Egyptians had a profound understanding. They revered cats, with their deity Mut, the mother goddess, frequently depicted as feline. “This is because of their self-reliance and commanding presence,” Gray suggests. “They pursue their desires and live according to their own terms, a path to happiness we can learn from.” Perhaps a more evolved human-cat relationship would echo these ancient perspectives. Ultimately, you don’t need to fully comprehend a cat’s nature to appreciate and cherish it for its unique being and the subtle happiness it brings into our lives.
My week-long exploration into the feline psyche concludes with me disconnecting my cameras and restoring Larry and Kedi to their unobserved routines. Before doing so, I review the recorded footage one last time. I observe a small kitten, reaching a paw towards the ever-watchful lens of a technological intruder. And I see myself, behind the camera, striving for the effortless contentment that seems to come so naturally to our feline companions, a quiet form of feline happiness we can admire and perhaps even emulate.
