If you’re hoping to strengthen the bond with your feline friend, focus on the way you look—at your cat, that is.
A group of psychologists and animal behavior scientists in the UK have been researching how cats communicate with their humans. Specifically, they’ve been examining the slow blink, which cats use to signal their contentment.
Cats in their study were more prone to exhibit this behavior once their human parents blinked slowly at them first. In a related experiment, cats tended to approach a researcher’s hand more often if the person had already slow blinked at the cat.
Try it at home. When you narrow your eyes and then close them for a bit, your cat’s likely to do the same. It’s one way to begin a cat conversation.