It is said that you are either a cat person or a dog person. Most people tend to fit into the category of cat people. However, most cat people don’t understand their cats’ behaviors and often relinquish their pet to an animal shelter for problem behaviors such as jumping on the counters and tables, urinating and defecating outside the litter box and scratch the furniture.
First we must understand that cats are solitary animals. Unlike dogs, the ancestors of domestic cats such as cougars, tigers and panthers, do not live in a group. The only exception is the lion, but you will find that your domestic cat will have more of a tendency to take after the more solitary cats. This means that your cat will not have as much motivation to please you as a pack leader.
The first thing to understanding your cat, is learning to read your cat’s body language.
Your cat is always trying to communicate to you through its gestures and body language, so to know your cat more, you need to know more about the cat’s body language. The sweeping of the tail or rubbing of the cheeks, pricking of the ears or purring under breath – each has a significance of its own. Your cat will often rub its cheeks against you or against the cheeks of another cat. Through this it actually tries to pick up or leave scent markers so that it can again create a future physical contact.