Winking

If anybody knows the meaning of a cat's wink please post here. Yesterday, Ichi sat on the dining table and winked at me 3 times. I winked back and he stared back with this shocking expression that I had to apologize!

One eye or both eyes? Both eyes, winked slowly while gazing at you, is supposed to mean "I love you." You're supposed to do it back. Every cat I've ever met loves that, and I when I was a kid it helped me befriend kitties on my paper route.

Duke (my kitty) and I can wink at each other for hours. Sometimes with both eyes, sometimes with only one. Usually he's in a very restful mode. If he's really relaxed, I can blink him to sleep... Each time he blinks back at me, his eyes stay a little more closed until they're mere slits. I've read it means they really trust you and are showing their appreciation.

Winking is one eye. Two eyes is blinking. I have no idea what winking means, coming from a cat, but Fawn does it frequently. I haven't responded, but I think I must try -- and see how she takes it. g

Blinking means "I mean you no harm", and is a great way to make a nervous/unknown kitty relax. When your own kitty does it, it usually means "I'm okay, you're okay!"

I love when Zoey and Saki do the slow blink with me It's so sweet and cute.

Yes, Bijou, Mika, John and I have spent quite some time just standing/sitting around blinking at one another. Both kitties love it when we do it with them. Sometimes Bijou will actually "talk" to us while he's doing it.

In my experience, winking has the same meaning as blinking, just with one eye coz the other one is too snoozy
She might have gotten confused coz you stared while winking possibly? Winking means that you are snoozy and relaxed, while staring means you re all huffed and puffed...talk about confusion to a cat

Meeker and Draco always smile when they do the slow-blink at me, and Meeker will slow-wink at me, but she's the only one. When I do it back they usually just fall asleep right after, and my guess is it's just us affirming our love and appreciation of each other.

Originally Posted by jcat

Blinking means "I mean you no harm", and is a great way to make a nervous/unknown kitty relax. When your own kitty does it, it usually means "I'm okay, you're okay!"

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Exactly! It's a great form of animal communication, and very widespread. Only predators have eyes placed facing forwards rather than to the sides of the head, for focusing on prey, whereas a prey animal needs to scan a much wider area in less detail for signs of movement.

An unblinking stare from a pair of forward facing eyes is a challenge to another predator, or 'I'm hunting you' to a prey animal. So slowly blinking can be used to communicate to many animals that you are no threat to them, you are neither challenging them for territory, nor are you intending to eat them.

The slow blink works particularly well when attempting to reassure and win over small prey animals or birds that are kept as pets, parrots especially love to blink back at you once they know that your intentions are benign. It shows they trust that you will not make them your lunch

When we first got Swanie last December, we noticed he was winking one eye a lot. Eventually, the vet discovered he has a blocked tear duct.

True, often a squinted eye together with a lot of blinking will tell you that the cat is in pain.