By T.J. Banks — award-winning author of eight books, the latest being Moonlight & Grace.
Remember Alice in Wonderland’s conversation with the Cheshire Cat about purring and tail-wagging? Well, with all due respect, that vanishing feline got it wrong. A cat’s purr or a dog’s tail-wagging doesn’t always mean it’s happy. Each of these things can have more than one meaning. You just have to study them in context. Let’s start with our feline purr-masters. Yes, they purr when they’re happy – when they’re sunning themselves, when their humans are stroking them, and all’s right with the world. But sometimes cats will purr if they’re feeling anxious. They’ll roam “the house, alternating between purring and meowing,” observes Warlani Sung, DVM. “This may be a coping mechanism to help reduce their anxiety.” They will also do this kind of purring when they are at the veterinary clinic and/or have just gotten home from there.
Cats will purr in friendly greeting. If your felines seek you out purring and holding their tails upright, they’re seeking attention. If they’re purring while they’re crouching down and their ears are angled slightly to the side, they are probably not feeling well “and may be asking for care,” Sung says. Some cats may “even purr before they die. The purring sound may potentially be a comforting sound to them.”
Now, let’s look dogs and their tail-wagging ways. “If a dog’s tail wag is thought of as their way of talking,” according to petmd.com, “then the positions of their tails can be thought of as words.” This can be tricky, depending on the type of dog. With some breeds, the tail’s is naturally upright; and there are, of course, certain other breeds that are tail-less.
A slightly upright tail moving at moderate speed means a happy dog. A wag that gets increasingly faster – aka helicopter tail – tells you that you’ve got a super-excited pup. If the dog’s standing alert, tail held straight and wagging slightly, he’s curious. You can’t make assumptions about what animals do any more than you can about what people do. It really is all about context.