Does your cat wag its tail?

Yep Shami wags his tail, though it's more like he sticks it straight up and sways/curls it from side to side slowly when he's waiting for me or something interests him. Sometimes I wonder if his tail is too heavy for him .

Click to expand...

Yup, my new ragdoll kitty sits at my feet, wags her tail like a dog, and softly meows when she wants to be on my lap. When I reach down to pick her up, she turns sideways. Cracks me up!

When my cat was younger, he wagged his tail a lot, but not so much any more. He's 20 months now; maybe he feels like he's getting too old for such as that.

Yep, big time. Our vet thinks our cat is part Maine Coon so it's really noticeable when he wags that big fluffy tail. The funniest time that he wags it is when he's standing on my pillow looking out the window above our bed and his tail is just wapping me over and over while I'm trying to sleep. On second thought, maybe that isn't so funny.

Both of our girls are Ocicats, a breed described as being "doglike" or "having the soul of a dog in a cat's body", and both of them show it in different ways, for example both follow us around the house and both love to play fetch. Our older girl Saphira, a beautiful Lavender Spotted Oci, joined us at age two at Christmas in 2011, and has always been pretty normal, her tail erect with a curl at the tip most of the time, sign of a happy kitty. Viola is our little girl, a Chocolate Spotted Oci with two CFA champions as parents, adopted at eighteen months old in November 2012. From the start she has been extremely playful, and as she approaches three she still is. One thing we noticed very early is that as she prowls the house,  her tail is in almost constant motion. Not the frantic wagging of a dog or the whipping of an agitated or angry kitty, we describe it as "swishing". They are both so cute, and the best behaved kitties ever to own us. Both are just absolute joys, and did I mention those beautiful spotted coats? Our little spotted jungle cats!

Peanut is ALWAYS wagging her tail. It curls up and around naturally, like a curly pig tail. She wags it back and forth all day, all night, anytime she's not deeply asleep. I say she's like a shark that has to keep swimming or it will die. If that tail stops moving, there's something wrong with Peanut!

She varies the speed, but mostly it's a slow and relaxed wave. She has the softest fur imaginable, and she likes to whap you with her tail. It feels like you're being hit with a feather. :-)

I think this sounds just adorable. My cat is more of a your annoying me now tail flicker and when she is happy she is more of a loud like a truck purr machine.

Both my cats usually do what I call the question mark tail most of the time

allenkm said:

Both my cats usually do what I call the question mark tail most of the time

Click to expand...

Whenever my cats either have that tail, or they've got one back leg raised in the air while they're bathing I always announce they have a question, and ask them what it is. They always give me the same look - "don't you have anything BETTER to do? Sheesh..." :-)

does a cat wag its tail if its happy?

Only when chasing toy or stalking squirrels and birds at the window. He'll wag his tail against the wall... "whap... whap... whap...."

Only occasionally, and sadly it's when she's having or about to have an FHS episode. Then she just looks at it like she doesn't know why it's moving. It is not a happy wag.

My boy frost wags his tail lol he walks through the house wagging it back and forth and curls it in random ways too. The worst he does is if you pick him up and let him go on your shoulder he loves to wrap his tail around your face lol

My PJ wags his tail as well, while he's purring and rubbing himself all over me. He's the most affectionate cat I've ever had.

Yep, both of my cats do it. It's either when they're stalking each other or when their happy and want attention.

My cat wags her tail when she's playing. It appears to be an expression of pure contentment. Wags it back and forth like a dog would. Twitches also at other times of stimulation.

My kitten surely does.  Definitely when she is playing or something has caught her attention.  I looked online to see if this was normal behavior and it seemed the consensus was that cats only do this when aggravated.  I just did not feel like that was was the case with my kitten.  Her tail is 90% of the time either straight up or wagging.  Glad to know there are so many other tail waggers out there!

There are "experts" who pontificate on tail wagging and what it means. I think cats are fairly different in this respect.

My cat wags his tail whenever he is deliberating something. When I let him out, he cannot move straight ahead, so he deliberates whether to go left or right, and then he wags his tail. Once he takes a stand, his tail falls down. Having noticed that, I began to observe that he is often "lost in thought" when we go for walks - his tail wagging in the same manner..

There is a difference in wagging (swishing) the tail for play and what my boy, Boo does. He greets me at the door with his tail straight up in the air, the tip wagging, and his eyes wide along with is almost silent meow.

We know why the tail goes straight up. Mine does that any time she's in the same room as me.

I've also heard that tail swishing is usually a sign of aggravation. Perhaps most commonly, but as we now know, there are many cats who do that as an expression of happiness and contentment.