A place to talk about and post pictures of cats
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22435541
"My" (it's a stray that just hangs around) cat lets me mark him with my cheeks just fine. The only thing that seems to upset him is walking by without acknowledging his presence because when I do that, he screams and bites my ankles.
(I miss my lil ghost cat. He would let me rub my face on his tummy. Cats are great for trauma.)
If I did that to my cat I would become the victim of trauma.
Mine does that too! I can blow raspberries on his tummy. Not doing that tho :D
Mine loved when I did it back to her, she would cuddle me hard but only with me. I miss that little shit
Mine does too. She purrs very loud and gently reaches to like hold my face. She’s the best
Mine run away unless they have an itch, or they just want to interrupt my work. No affection, our relationship is purely transactional (and only one direction).
They have glands there.
Human must smell like cat (it's their territory), cat musn't smell like human. Ieuw.
They're not showing affection, they're marking you.
It's both. Domestic cats are social creatures. They possess at least rudimentary Theory of the Mind, so, understand that we are other beings, not objects. They identify their family unit through sharing and intermingling scent.
Cats are very scent-based, especially up close, where their eyesight is poor. This is observable when a cat displays aggression towards a "friend" who has the smell of the vet or a bath. From far away they look right but up close, they smell wrong - it's like a feline uncanny valley.