For sometime I have been tryin to figure out what my cat is actually sayin to me. By chance I was lookin through the books on sale at the Amazon site when I saw just what I wanted - What is My Cat Thinking? : The essential Guide to Understanding Pet Behaviour by Gwen Baily. It is FANTASTIC. All the way through it has pictures of cats doin the things I have been tryin to understand for years. When my cat comes towards me when I come home or when he's woken up, his tail is vertical and the tip is just slightly bent over, well he's just sayin "hey you'r home, great to see you" and will rub himself against me. They also do that to each other. They purr for ages and paw the ground when bein stroked it's like sayinj "I like it here, Oh yes some more please".
Gwene also explain the shutting of the eyes or blinkin or winkin, they all mean somethin different. I can thorougly reccommend this book. The pictures are photographs of cats, even close up so you can see the expressions on their faces and the reason for that particular look. Yeh, buy this book, you will also have a laugh when you see the reasons for some of the expressions.