CATS | PET OWNERSHIP | EDUCATION
What Happens When You Smile at Your Cat
Hint: Cats are nothing like dogs…but more connected to humans than you may think
When I mentioned this article idea to a cat-loving friend, she joked, “Are you going to publish a blank page?” We both snickered. While we are fond of our cats, we know how stand-offish, independent, and, well, asocial they can be.
I recently looked into what happens when people smile at their dogs after realizing my dogs respond to smiles with tail wagging and other gestures of happiness. Fascinated at the discovery, I wanted to find out what objective evidence from research proved. I was delighted to learn that, yes, dogs DO recognize smiles, and they DO respond to human emotions at a fairly sophisticated level.
As both a dog owner and a cat owner, I wondered some of the same things about our feline family member:
Do cats recognize smiles? To what degree do cats read and respond to human facial cues and emotions?
Again, I consulted scientific studies. And what I found was possibly more interesting than the dog research.
