cat behaviour

[sunshinecalm]

my male tabby cat is always moving his tail.He swishes it from side to side and up and down.What does this indicate?
thank you

[kathyjo]

My cat Elvis used to lie still, the only thing moving was his tail side to side and when you got to close to him, he would (go to) bite you : ) Side to side was his way of showing anger or annoyance. Elvis passed on this past November but I will always have reminders of him on various parts of my body....lol

[hayley2007]

Yeah, cats do many different things with their tails. I have 2 sister kittens and 1 only moves it around erratically when she is play fighting with her sister. The other rarely moves it at all. However, I do notice they are happy and ready to play when it points straight up.

[chikp]

"reading" a cat's tail can tell you a lot about them!  one of my cats is an all black, long haired guy.  he keeps his tail pointed straight up almost all the time.  one of my favorite things in the world is when he walks across the floor in front of the coffee table, if I am on the opposite side I can't see his body at all, only about 4 inches of fuzz bobbing along. hilarious!  

[Savas]

When I was a kid my brother tried to convince me if you grabbed a cat's tail and held it still it would temporarily paralyze them.

It didn't, but I irritated the heck out of a lot of cats trying it. :)

[sunshinecalm]

thank you Soror,

This does make sense.he has such a strong character.

[Soror]

From side to side will either indicate the desire to play, or anger.  You know your cat better than I do, so you can probably tell which is which.  Raising the tail or jerking it upward is a greeting and a sign of curiosity, however if the end twitches very sharply, it's usually a sign of 'you idiot'.

I get that one a lot.