My female cat sticks her tail straight up and vibrates it rapidly when she greets me

[Echolane]

I had the exquisite pleasure of being picked by a very wild and wary black feral cat to be her friend. Yes, it seems almost as though she regards me as HER pet rather than the other way around. She has the unusual habit of sticking her tail straight up in the air and vibrating it or shaking it very rapidly when she greets me. I would enjoy hearing from others who have seen this behavior and have insight into what it means.

Very briefly, I had been feeding an all black feral cat after she and then her kittens had been trapped and neutered. She got used to me feeding her and would sit on top of a nearby fence post waiting for me to show up with her food. I started talking nonsense to her while I was carrying her food to the spot where I fed her. She had taken to following me at some distance and one day she got close and circled my legs and brushed against me. It was a HUGE thrill and I set about trying to see if I could befriend her. It took about a year of inch by fraction of an inch progress but now we are what I call “best friends”. It feels like she loves me because she seems so happy to see me and be with me. As I said, I often characterize our relationship as if I am HER pet, not the other way around.

But to the point…she has a habit of sticking her tail straight up in the air and vibrating it rapidly when she first approaches me to be fed and petted. I call it her shaky tail. Then she makes a huge fuss over me, circling me and brushing against me and almost obsessively marking everything around us. What has always seemed most unusual is her shaky tail. It is very distinctive. I can’t find much about it in a Google search. The few references suggest it means anger. It is definitely not anger. If I have to guess what it means, I would say she is exhibiting an intense pleasure at being with me. I have never seen this behavior with other cats. Would love to hear from others who have seen this behavior.

My black cat disappeared for a stressful two days. This was several years ago and before she was really tame. Luckily, she is a real homebody now! But in the process of looking for her I talked with another who lives about a half mile away. She told me there used to be a small colony of black cats in the nearby hills. One mother cat had kittens on her property and she adopted one of them and it exhibited the same shaky tail behavior when greeting her. Perhaps my black feral has genetic ties to this colony and the behavior is genetic.

 

[Margot Lane]

My cat does this too! I wish I knew why but agreed it seems more about enthusiasm than anger. I have noticed on wild animal shows that male lions, snow leopards, etc. mark their territories w/ urine. Perhaps they are “marking” us! (Although I am glad it’s not THAT enthusiastic!).

 

[susanm9006]

One of mine does as well. She does all the signs of “marking”, fortunately without the actual urine spray.

 

[Danneq]

On of my parents' cats does this. Just means they're happy to see you!

 

[vince]

Probably one of the highest indicators that she's happy to see you!

 

[TardisDance]

My female cat does this too. I call it electric tail. Every once and a while my younger male cat does the same thing, but it only seems to happen when there are house guests and he greets them - he’s a social boy whereas my female cat usually hides from strangers.

 

[maggie101]

She is happy to be with you! In the beginning, my cat coco would shake her tail when eating with my cats because she was scared. Now she's OK. So some cats show thier feelings that way. My cat peaches shakes her tail back and forth fast like a dog when she's hungry. If mad she will get in the corner and pout or hiss. If she knows she's done something wrong she walks fast with her tail strait back

 

[Tik cat's mum]

Both of my boy's do this, I call it excited tail. It does look alot like spraying which is what I thought my boy was doing when I first saw it. But they never spray just shake their tail really fast. It's a sign that they are happy to see you.

 

[Maria Bayote]

My Graham does this as well, particularly when my husband talks and plays with her.

 

[Jcatbird]

I have enough ferals who came inside to become social to notice a lot of their body language. Around here we call that, ”happy tail!” The quivering adds excited to the happy tail signal.
Beautiful black kitty! Very lucky kitty to be where so much happiness exists for her!

 

[Echolane]

Judging from the responses it certainly seems like an extra happy response. I have always been pretty sure it was because all her behaviors following it are very animated and joyful. But none of my other cats have ever exhibited this behavior so it was completely novel to me. ALso I've read that the tail looks similar when spraying and spraying is territorial and she is *very* obsessive about rubbing her face against everything surrounding us, so I’ve actually wondered if it is related. But the more I think about that stray thought, thr sillier it seems because she faces me. BTW, I tell her she should be more careful with all her rubbing or she will rub off some of her hair! (Yes, I still talk to her.)

 

[pearl99]

I had a male cat, Milo, that did that! It's a sign of lots of excitment. She's so happy to see you.
I wondered about the being related to spraying too, but he never ever sprayed. So, happiness it is.

 

[vince]

Only one of mine did the "happy tail," and that not very often. None of them have ever sprayed.

 

[arr]

One of my cats does it too, mostly when she’s excited about eating or playing.

 

[maggie101]

I had the exquisite pleasure of being picked by a very wild and wary black feral cat to be her friend. Yes, it seems almost as though she regards me as HER pet rather than the other way around. She has the unusual habit of sticking her tail straight up in the air and vibrating it or shaking it very rapidly when she greets me. I would enjoy hearing from others who have seen this behavior and have insight into what it means.

Very briefly, I had been feeding an all black feral cat after she and then her kittens had been trapped and neutered. She got used to me feeding her and would sit on top of a nearby fence post waiting for me to show up with her food. I started talking nonsense to her while I was carrying her food to the spot where I fed her. She had taken to following me at some distance and one day she got close and circled my legs and brushed against me. It was a HUGE thrill and I set about trying to see if I could befriend her. It took about a year of inch by fraction of an inch progress but now we are what I call “best friends”. It feels like she loves me because she seems so happy to see me and be with me. As I said, I often characterize our relationship as if I am HER pet, not the other way around.

But to the point…she has a habit of sticking her tail straight up in the air and vibrating it rapidly when she first approaches me to be fed and petted. I call it her shaky tail. Then she makes a huge fuss over me, circling me and brushing against me and almost obsessively marking everything around us. What has always seemed most unusual is her shaky tail. It is very distinctive. I can’t find much about it in a Google search. The few references suggest it means anger. It is definitely not anger. If I have to guess what it means, I would say she is exhibiting an intense pleasure at being with me. I have never seen this behavior with other cats. Would love to hear from others who have seen this behavior.

My black cat disappeared for a stressful two days. This was several years ago and before she was really tame. Luckily, she is a real homebody now! But in the process of looking for her I talked with another who lives about a half mile away. She told me there used to be a small colony of black cats in the nearby hills. One mother cat had kittens on her property and she adopted one of them and it exhibited the same shaky tail behavior when greeting her. Perhaps my black feral has genetic ties to this colony and the behavior is genetic.View attachment 409598

It could also be that she was the dominant cat. Peaches is queen even over me. Her tail is always strait up

 

[Echolane]

It could also be that she was the dominant cat. Peaches is queen even over me. Her tail is always strait up.

I don’t think of her as dominant cat. She is “just right”. Neither dominant nor submissive. She was not part of a colony, just a solo feral cat, so I never observed her in a colony situation. She did have a boyfriend, also a solo feral cat. He was obviously the father of her kittens, as two kittens were tuxedos like him, the other being all black like the mother. The whole family would spend time in my back yard while the kittens were growing up and I marveled at the sight of the father lying down in the midst of the family gathering.

She remains very wary. She has not lost her feral instincts by any stretch and will quickly disappear if visitors appear. And she is hyper aware or alert concerning her environment. But she seems bold about trying things and when faced with something new. She is not belligerent or nasty ever. Early on she would swat at me if I overstepped her comfort zone. It took a long time for her to accept my face close to her, for example, and she would swat at me to let me know. Now she tolerates me kissing her, holding my face against hers, etc. She is actually a very sweet cat. I’m very very impressed with her temperament. And I don’t have the sense that her shaky tail or happy tail is a dominance signal.

 

[maggie101]

It could also be that she was the dominant cat. Peaches is queen even over me. Her tail is always strait up.

I don’t think of her as dominant cat. She is “just right”. Neither dominant nor submissive. She was not part of a colony, just a solo feral cat, so I never observed her in a colony situation. She did have a boyfriend, also a solo feral cat. He was obviously the father of her kittens, as two kittens were tuxedos like him, the other being all black like the mother. The whole family would spend time in my back yard while the kittens were growing up and I marveled at the sight of the father lying down in the midst of the family gathering.

She remains very wary. She has not lost her feral instincts by any stretch and will quickly disappear if visitors appear. And she is hyper aware or alert concerning her environment. But she seems bold about trying things and when faced with something new. She is not belligerent or nasty ever. Early on she would swat at me if I overstepped her comfort zone. It took a long time for her to accept my face close to her, for example, and she would swat at me to let me know. Now she tolerates me kissing her, holding my face against hers, etc. She is actually a very sweet cat. I’m very very impressed with her temperament. And I don’t have the sense that her shaky tail or happy tail is a dominance signal.

I call her that because she only plays when she wants to play. She will snatch food from my cats bowls then growl if I try to stop her.even when their fixing to take a treat she will snatche it and run away. She bit one of my cats hard one time because my other cat wanted to play with her. She sleeps on my feet and growls if I squirm or one of my cats tries to get on. Her old age has helped

 

[Echolane]

Peaches is very pretty but she does sound, as you say, dominant. Romy is nothing like that. she is very sweet natured. I’ve had her at the vet twice for her annual check up and I always tell the vets to be especially kind and sweet with her because she is feral and I don’t want any bad experiences to imprint on her with respect to humans. They have both commented on what a nice cat she is. She doesn’t try to bite or scratch them at all. She has drawn blood on me a couple times in the early days when my face was too close for her comfort and she let me know with a swat of her paw. But it wasn’t nasty, so I accepted it. I’m totally in love with her and wish I could integrate her into my cat family of two indoor only cats, but after a six month effort it didn’t work for her at all And one day I just opened the door for her to walk out and she did. Sometimes I shut the door of my bedroom and open the door to my deck where I have a catio and where I feed her and she readily walks in and jumps on the bed and makes herself at home. But I have to shut my two cats out of the bedroom and that’s just no good. I live where a lot of cats go missing, presumably to local predators, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, etc. so I worry a lot about her, but she must be pretty good at keeping herself alive for which I am very thankful.

 

[maggie101]

Be sure to get her micro chipped. Even though my cats are inside only they are all chipped just in case. Something scares them or they see something to chase after they might run away or jump up a tree for safety she is beautiful!