Well, at least smart scientists have found a more effective way to communicate with your cat

Good news, cat lovers and catless cats. Although several aspects of women’s lives remain a mystery, scientists are getting closer to answering another important question: How to communicate well with your cat.

Cats are known to blink slowly, but sadly, very little work has been done to examine how cats will react to people who blink slowly. However, the paper published by Scientific Reports may help answer this question.

How the study was conducted

The researchers conducted two sets of experiments with cats and their owners. The first tested whether cats would respond with a light blink. The second tested whether cats could approach a stranger after they started a slow flashing sequence.

In the first, which involved 14 owners and 21 cats, owners were asked to slowly blink their eyes at their cats after their cat made direct eye contact or maintained a neutral posture. In a second study, involving 24 cats, the researcher gave the cat a small wink or kept talking moderately.

What the researchers found

The researchers found in the first experiment that cats were more likely to respond to their owners by blinking slowly in their blink sequence. In the second experiment, when the cats were presented with a stranger (the researcher), the cats were more likely to approach the researcher after a slow blink exchange than when the researcher had a neutral speech.

“We show that slow blinking interactions seem to be a positive experience for cats, and may be an indicator of positive emotions,” the researchers wrote. “These results can be used to assess the welfare of cats in a variety of settings, including animal practices and shelters and to improve interpersonal communication within the human household.”

While the future of our country may not be clear yet, we can at least take solace in the fact that we will be able to communicate better with our cats. Maybe, in time, with more studies we will understand what they think, and who knows? They may have wise advice for surviving difficult times.