“Cat Smiles”: 43 Photos Of Cats Showing Their Happiest Expressions

Apparently, there is a whole community on the internet with 62K members as of today, called CatSmiles, whose members do nothing but post photos of their cats when they make these cute and beautiful faces. And, according to netizens, they thereby show that they are absolutely happy. Is it true? Let's check it out now.

It turns out that cats have their own analogue of a smile - they simply blink slowly when they look at their owners. And scientists who have studied thousands of cat-human interactions are sure that this is a special reaction of pleasure.

"As someone who has both studied animal behaviour and is a cat owner, it's great to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way," Science Alert quotes psychologist Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in the UK, a cat lady herself.

"It's something that many cat owners had already suspected, so it's exciting to have found evidence for it." By the way, it's interesting that if you respond to your cat with a similar reaction - that is, narrow your eyes and start blinking slowly, then the kitty is quite likely to recognize this sign of friendliness and, most likely, respond in kind.

Humanity domesticated cats much later than dogs - in fact, about two and a half times later. So it's not surprising that cats continue to demonstrate specific features of independent behavior while being around us. However, experts are more than sure - if your cat makes that squishy face when you're near, this definitely indicates calmness and trust in you. So, in this selection of ours, you will find as many as a few dozens of happy cats.

Big and small, shaggy and short-haired, sloppily tousled and having just immaculately licked their entire fur coat, honored veterans of mouse hunting and still very tiny kittens - all of them in these photos are united by one thing. A strong friendship with their humans, and the concrete confidence that this person will never betray nor offend them.

The great French writer Victor Hugo once wrote: "God created the cat so that human would have a tiger that can be stroked." I think cats would strongly disagree with Hugo - at least, all my experience of communicating with felines clearly says that they are quite sure it was us who God created to satisfy their important catly needs.

And if one of these needs is to show off their happy little face to the whole world in this selection of ours - then so be it. So let's just enjoy these wonderful images and maybe add your own happy kitty pics in the comments as well!

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