Do you know when your cat’s at her happiest? Does she ever display a sense of joy? A purring cat certainly appears content and joyful. Our cats act happy when they’re eating. Oh yes, and as I’m preparing their food—the two of them swarm around me, hugging my ankles gleefully in anticipation of their meal. They love, love, love it when I come in with a fresh container of grass for them to nibble. But nothing makes them more outwardly happy than when we sprinkle a little catnip around.
They roll in it, sniff it, eat it, and then Sophie walks 
away like nothing has happened, but Lily becomes happy-happy. She turns into a floppy ragdoll, lays on her back across the cat tree and looks at everything from upside down. She reminds me of images I’ve seen of the flower children back in the day when they were, supposedly, high on pot. Same thing. I guess I could be arrested for drugging our cats. But if you count human years, they are of age. In fact, I think they’re old enough to be grandmothers.
I think our cats are happy when they see us come home. I watch Sophie wait at the door each time Dennis goes outside for any reason. If he doesn’t come back soon enough, she cries for him. Not so much if he drives off in the car. But if she knows he’s out in the yard someplace, she watches and waits rather anxiously for him to return.
I often see Lily at the living room window when I come home from my walk. And she’s almost always on my desk looking out when I pull my car into the driveway after being gone for a while. Now it’s hard to tell whether she’s happy to see me or mad that I left. But I do believe she’s pleased to have me home.
What causes your cats to dance, frolic, or otherwise express what appears to be happiness?
