Jesse's Nemesis (or: The Welcome Mat is NOT out!)

[ar_wahan]

We've had a neighbor cat come by several times a day for the last couple of months. There are a couple of things very weird about this. Unless you get very close to them, this visitor and Jesse are impossible to tell apart! (The irony here is that the welcome mat has the images of two black cats on it!)

Comments

[starseeking]

Actually I do. I often wondered why a cat would smell a spot and then start panting. It's called the "Flehmen Reaction." They're just taking a really deep smell of the scent into the jacobsomething organ.

Basically just information gathering.

[ar_wahan]

"jacobsomething organ."

I'll give you 1/2 a point, WB! :D

Maybe someone else will fill us in.

[starseeking]

Found this.

http://www.petplace.com/cats/why-do-cats-make-a-funny-face/page1.aspx

[ar_wahan]

Hmmm. Jenny suggested something I'd already considered, that the stranger cat wants to mate with Jesse (who is neutered). The article would support that. It would be interesting to learn that this cat hasn't been spayed.

[ar_wahan]

Starseeking had a link to an interesting article, if you want to take a look!

[jenny_evergreen]

It's actually probably mating behavior...

[ar_wahan]

I have thought that, too, and there still may be something to it. The love/hate aspect could be because she wants to mate and he, er, can't help. She also pants when glaring at Stella (female cat) through the door.

[jenny_evergreen]

http://cats.about.com/cs/pregnancybirth/a/mating_game.htm

Actually, in my limited experience, the mating process is usually a love/hate thing with female cats. She's probably frustrated because the Flehmen reaction is telling her there's a tom around, but she can't "find" him, since Jesse is neutered.