Sometimes it can be hard to figure out how to tell if your cat actually loves you. Facial expressions of cats are somewhat tricky to read. “Does my cat like me?”, “Does my cat really love me?”, and “Does my cat secretly think I’m a moron?” are just a few of the questions that cat owners may ask themselves from time to time.
Fortunately for those of us that absolutely adore our cats and actually care about what they think of us, there are a few positive signs that will go in our favor. There are a few simple ways to tell if our cats really do love us.
A few of the signs that indicate that your cat actually loves you include head butts, kneading, blinking their eyes at you, showing you their belly, and holding a vocal conversation with you such as meowing.
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The Slow-Blinking Stare
Have you ever been busy around the house doing your thing when all of a sudden you look down and see a set of eyes staring up at you? It may startle you at first, but then you realize in an instant that it’s just your cat, nonchalantly staring at you with a laser-like focus that even a monk would be proud of.
If your cat is both staring at you and blinking at you like they are in slow motion, that is what’s called slow-blinking. Slow-blinking is just one of the many ways that your cat uses to communicate with you.
And what your beloved feline companion is trying to tell you is that they love you, are grateful for you, and that you are interesting to them.
If you’d like to communicate back to your cat that the feelings are mutual, slow-blink to them in response, but do not stare at them intently without blinking. Your cat may feel threatened if you stare too deeply into their eyes.
My cats use this communication tool several times a day. (I swear I’m not trying to brag)(Ok, maybe I am just a little.) This is a surefire way to know that your cats absolutely love you.
They Show You Their Belly
Another thing cats will do to tell you they love you is to show you their belly. My cat, Junior, does this all the time. It’s quite cute when cats do this. It kind of makes you want to reach out and pet their belly, but stop for a second before you do.
Does your cat actually like getting their belly petted? If they don’t normally like getting belling rubs from you any other time, chances are that they won’t like it very much if you rub their belly in this instance.
Just because your cat is showing off their belly to you doesn’t mean they want a belly rub. In fact, most cats really don’t enjoy it when their humans get friendly with the belly.
Your cat is simply showing off their belly to remind you that they love and appreciate you.
They Headbutt You Softly
A common way that a cat will communicate their love for you is by giving you soft head butts. If you have a cat that does this, then you’re in for a real treat.
I absolutely love it when my cat, Tiggy, does this to me. Usually, I’ll be sitting in a chair in my living room and at first, he’ll be on the floor looking up at me doing the old fashioned slow-blink we talked about earlier.
Once I acknowledge him, he will then jump up on my lap and start giving me cute little head bumps. He’ll do this for about 10 minutes before something else catches his attention. When my cat shows his love for me like this, I feel really blessed to have such a loving feline companion like him.
They Knead You Like Dough
Another thing cats will do when they want to show the human species some love is they will knead you like they are kneading dough. This usually happens either on you somewhere or on a blanket or pillow that happens to be sitting right next to you.
My cats are constantly kneading me. They also have a favorite blanket that seems to be their go-to kneading blanket. It is a Minnesota Vikings blanket so maybe they just love it because of that. It’s weird but quite cute.
They Try To Conversate With You
Cats will also try to talk to you to show you they love you. The meowing you will hear will not sound like a painful meow. Instead, it will sound like they are trying to tell you something.
You can respond to this behavior by simply talking to them in a soft voice. Some cats will keep meowing back and forth with you.
My cats are constantly talking to me. And it just melts my heart when they do. A few times when I’ve said “hi” to my cats, it almost sounded like they were responding back with a “hello”.
They Follow You Around Everywhere
Another really cute way a cat will show their love for you is by following you around everywhere. Some people may misconstrue this as their cat being nosy. That may very well be a part of it, but a majority of the time that a cat will follow you around, it’s because they love you and are just curious.
My cats will usually follow me around in the morning, shortly after I’ve gotten up for the day. They will also follow me around when I’m in the process of cleaning their litter boxes.
My cats have even followed me around as I walked around my living room in circles. And yes, I did this obnoxious type of walking simply to see if they did, in fact, follow me around. It was quite a show, and I regret not getting the whole event recorded on a video camera.
Final Thoughts
Cats have so many ways they show you just how much they love you. Embrace them. Love them. Be grateful there’s a living thing that loves you unconditionally and never ever take the time you have with them for granted.