Animal Manerisms/Gestures

sleeps
purrs,
yowls,
arches his back,
pounces,
rubs against legs,
chases things,
watches television,
carries some things in his mouth (a favorite toy)
I have one cat that eats by picking his food up with his paw and putting it in his mouth.

Hope these help a bit.

Interesting topic, Mr. Jinx! Thanks for starting it.

If I'm writing about birds (which I often do) I'll sometimes use these words instead of fly or flew:

winged
fluttered
flapped
soared
glided

Hope you weren't just looking for cat gestures.

cats:

slink
hark hairballs
snorkle for crumbs
scampers
scarper
screeches around corners
slams into stationary objects (who moved the couch?)
skitter
launch
leap

we ur cats. we do wut we want.

Mr. Jinx said:

I try to use them to make my protagonist (cat - warlock's familiar) distinct from the humans around him.

Click to expand...

For most animals, especially horses but also cats and dogs, one of the things that makes them distinct from humans are their ear gestures (since most of us humans have stationary ears). I write mostly horse stuff (see username; duh!), and so many horse emotions can be portrayed through their ears.

ears pinned
ears pricked
one ear forward, one ear back
swiveling ears
floppy eared (relaxed)

For horses, I also use:

stamped
swished (tail)
snorted
pawed
skittered
spooked
shied
nickered
nudged (with nose)
sighed
whinnied
squealed
screamed
eyes wide
eye whites showing
standing with one leg cocked
shifting weight from one back leg to the other
tossing head
raising tail/head alertly
clacking teeth
baring teeth
drooping lower lip
trotting
cantering
galloping
loping
walking
jumping
bucking
curling upper lip
snuffling

Don't forget your kitty's ears!

Hiss & stalk! I find the word indifferent to relate to cats.

Jimbos:

Not so much "disinterested" w/ cats, you just aren't as interesting as something else in their environment. You just need to try harder