Cats say, ‘Don’t touch me if I do not allow you.’” A version of this article appears in print on , Section C , Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: What Is Your Pet Thinking?

A cat on a rug in the Lower East Side of New York City on Feb. 21, 2024. In ‘The Interpretation of Cats,’ Claude Béata helps explain the inscrutable behavior of our feline companions.