26 Sweet Smiling Cat Pics Celebrating the International Day of Happiness

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Mar 19, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

You might not have known that an International Day of Happiness exists, but with this collection of smiling cattos you will be hard pressed to forget it ever again.

Much like us hoomans, heck, far more so than us hoomans, our cat children are not known for expressing their happiness all too often. Sure sometimes they will come up to you with a gentle purr or make some biscuits on your chest, but these are simply learned behaviors that they know appease us hoomans and lead to them getting more food and treats. But to see a cat sitting and smiling, just for the sake of it. Well, that is truly a special occurrence and one that we wish would happen more often. Both in the lives of our cute cat children and in our own.

So to celebrate this year's International Day of Happiness we made this list of smiling cattos to shine light into the hearts of each and every one of you cat loving hoomnans. Now go forth, scroll and smile to your heart's content.

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Cats are known for being creatures who are unafraid to show discontentment. Meaning that whenever they are not completely satisfied with a situation they will be the first to tell you just how wrong you have handled it. But that also means that if you are ever to come across a kitten who look as satisfied and smiley as the one above, then you know that there is not a single thing that you could possibly do to make this cat’s life better in this moment. Leaving you the delightful opportunity to sit back, take it in and maybe even smile a little yourself.
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A cat who is actually happy to see their pawrent is rarer than a person who knows it is International Smile Day today. And in both cases it is a shame that they are not more common. For after all, we do give our cat children everything, whether it be toys, treats, cuddles or cat trees and more often than not, they could not care any less about us. While similarly it should be common knowledge that there is a day once per year that celebrates happiness and we ought to take the opportunity to celebrate such a happy occurrence with both paws and revel in the good that we have in our lives.
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