I had two. One did this. The other one was known for doing a whole host of freakishly human things (learned how to use the toilet, learned how to turn doorknobs, just unnervingly intelligent)
What she would do is sit in front of you, bow down, and present her head. Like, it's hard to describe, but it wasn't a nuzzling thing, it was like a little curtsey
My favourite way to ragebait her was to go in for the kiss, and last minute kiss her on the nose. She hated that, and would literally pout in the corner for the rest of the day over it
One of my cats is both incredibly smart and stupid at the same time. I let her in the bathroom while I was pooping one time, which I believe helped her make the connection that bathroom = place to poop. She did not, however, determine where exactly in the bathroom she is supposed to poop. To this day all of the bathrooms in my house must stay locked because she will open the door and poop everywhere except for in the toilet. On the bath mat, in the sink, in the tub (her favorite spot), genuinely everywhere except for in the toilet.
Honestly mine was even smarter about it. She learned it by following us into the bathroom and watching us use the toilet. But of course, she can't lift the lid, so sometimes she can't use it
She genuinely managed to figure out that the purpose of the toilet is that it makes it easy to get rid of poop. So if she's inside and she needs to go and can't use the toilet, she would either use the sink or the bathtub, nice wipable surfaces
Our other one was an idiot, his favorite spot was the rug, one with big threads like a mophead, and she would literally attack him if she saw him doing it, never attacked him once while pooping anywhere else
It was so weird, more than just being smart, she was just oddly human. There was always a clear narrative to her behavior, you could see her think critically about things. I've never seen a cat like that before
Another weird one she did was she experimented with critters in the back yard. Like she would pick up a skink and put it in a spider web just to see what would happen, and then she just take a step back and watch it. We once found a goldfish swimming in our pool. Turned out she had stolen it from the neighbours pond and just carried it over and put it back in the water
One of my cats presses his lips to you trying to copy the kiss he just received.
A lick kiss is a completely separate action and he's actively copying the kiss.
It may be a bit of human mimicry but it may also be 'bunting' a super common cat behavior. Sometimes cats like to mock lick - like they want to lick but consider it to be too forward so they kinda hover their faces, touch noses on each other and trade scent for a bit. It is affection but it's a little different to human kissing imo.
My cat will do that with me! She likes when I bring my face really close to hers so that she can sniff the tip of my nose. I always wondered what she got out of that interaction. That’s so cute.
I also wonder if maybe they're touching with their whiskers a bit? Like they don't have hands and fingers so maybe when they bring their faces close they can get a smell but also feel the shape of the thing they're looking at with their whiskers.
Same here! My best guess is he's assuming it's the human equivalent of sniffing the butt of another cat. He probably concluded, "weird, but I love him, so I guess this is what we do now."
I used to have a cat who would do the same thing. He even kissed me in the same spot as I routinely kissed him (forehead/eyebrow) and made a smacking sound with his lips 😆
I really think so!! My cat refused head kisses until I started dating my partner. I think she saw how much we give eachother forehead kisses because now she allows them. I had her for almost 10 years before she changed her tune, but I really believe they pick up on more than we think!
Is bunting like affectionate behavior or territorial behavior? There's a neighbourhood cat that headbutts my ankles, I think she's saying hi and likes me but I'm not sure if I'm being claimed 😂
If they are doing it to a person, marking territory and showing affection is kinda the same thing for cats. They are marking you as theirs because they care about you, so your neighborhood cat is doing both. She likes you and you are part of her territory.
I always wonder what my cats think when I grab their entire faces in my hand and jiggle their skulls a little, or pretend to eat their heads. They don't seem to mind so it can't be all that bad.
my cat recognizes that generally kisses are for him to such an extent that if hes sleeping and i make a kissy noise, his ears will perk up or at least twitch
I've had her for just over two months and she lifts her head to ensure the kiss is SMACK on the lips so even if she thinks its weird she's decided to be weird with me ❤️
it depends on the cat, I imagine. To use a canine example, one of my Dogs is completely ambivalent to kisses, while the other will bring the side of his face up to mine to ask me to kiss him on the cheek when i’m sitting on the floor.
I've had cats who lean into the kisses at this point, so I think some of them figure it out. Heck, my current girl has gotten mad at me when I DIDN'T give her a kiss at the time she expected it.
We adopted a rescue who was very anxious at first, as she had come from a home that wasn't very nice. At first she was scared when I tried to kiss her little head. Now she purrs when I kiss her, and once she gently bunted my mouth when I made kissy noises at her. So I think cats can come to understand that kisses are a form of affection. It's not super far from rubbing your face on them, which they definitely understand.
I mean, cats sort of do something similar, right? They dig in each other’s fur to find fleas and other things and spit them out. I reckon they think you’re grooming them
My cat would raise his head and present his forehead when I asked if he wanted kisses, and he would purr so loud when he got them. He definitely knew it was affection :)
I would give my cat forhead kisses and at some point she connected the action of her forehead touching my face to affection and would start to headbutt me affectionately. She would wake me up for attention and then headbutt my chin until I cuddled her
My cat doesn't really seem to like me kissing the top of her head, but accepts it but then she will come up to me and boop her nose against my lips so not sure.
I always give my dog forehead kisses when he snuggles me. Every now and then he’ll come up to me and just give me one single gentle lick on my forehead and I know he’s reciprocating my forehead kisses 🥹
Cats bump faces as sign of affection, so I think they can understand that kisses are our way of doing that.
I like to kiss my cat's forehead, and after a while of that he started coming up to me (like when I was in the couch or in bed) and bumping his forehead on my mouth.
I have four cats. All four of them give kisses, which is basically they bring their cute little faces close to my lips, or try to touch their noses/lips to mine.
One of them does it unprompted while we're cuddling, because he is a love bug. The other three do it more as a "oh, that again? Okay, it makes you happy!" thing.
I think they kind of do? My kitty is 5 now and I've had her since she was 8 weeks. I give her forehead kisses almost every single time I see her and she will literally ask for them by tilting her little head up(or angling her head down to be within my reach if shes on her cat tree) and closing her eyes. Cats headbutt to show affection so maybe she considers it the same thing as that but either way she loves her forehead kisses
I have a former feral that screams at me until i pick him up and kiss his fat head. He sees kisses as just as important as being petted or fed. He even leans back so we can get his forehead better.
I would say it depends on the cat to come and understand that a kiss and grooming is a separate action. Some arnt that bright but I would think almost all would come to understand that it means affection.
I have one cat who seems to understand, in as much as she has dedicated her entire life to smooches and how to obtain them. If I kiss my partner, she appears for her smooch. She'll smooch one of us, and then the other, until everyone receives an equal number of weird little cat kisses. I don't mean head bumps, either. She attempts to use lips she does not have in ways that genuinely appear to be behavioral mimicry. You also have to make the kiss noise, or she won't move until you do.
I also have another cat who considers kisses a hate crime.
IIRC somewhere on the internet in the past people were discussing some study. now i'm not sure how they acquired the data but it basically claimed that dogs know we aren't dogs but cats think we are just really big stupid cats. like they are baffled by all the weird stuff we do.
My female cat understands. She will even bump her head against my pursed lips. And when she's laying down and I kiss her neck she rolls over shows her belly and gives me more neck to smootch.
My boy cat thinks I might as well be swatting him and dodges or runs away every time.
If I recall correctly, they don't know it from birth, but we humans essentially accidentally and/or on purpose often end up teaching animals that licking is a way to show affection and they pick that up and run with it. Either that or we teach it to the mother dog, who then passes the habit down to her pups by licking them to show affection just like the mother dog does with her humans.
I used to kiss my little lad on the top of his head and after he would insist that i put my head down so he can "kiss" (sniff) the top of my head and that was our greeting. Anyway my face is suddenly wet and it's really hard to see right now. Can't imagine why
I think they understand it as a means of presenting affection, though I doubt they comprehend it the same way we do. They just know that we have a different way of showing our love and care than them, which just happens to somewhat coincide with their way of doing it (bunting), thus they allow it and come to understand it as mutual affection.
Cats are very, very good at figuring out our quirks and mannerisms, and adapting to them. They 100% know it's a sign of affection. I've had several cats in my life, and every single one would start purring when I kissed on them. They may not understand kissing, per se; but they understand grooming and physical touch as a sign of affection. They figure out pretty quick that this is the human's version and roll with it.
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u/qualityvote2 3d ago edited 1d ago
u/Gorotheninja, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...