Hi! I'm new here and signed up, because I have a question. I had a cat, who came to us as a stray, on her last leg of starvation. We live practically in the woods, and I had seen many of her relatives in the previous years living in the wild (all black with green eyes, short paws, smallish).
So, we took her in and called her Nocha. We always had a cat, all calicos, and each had her own personality, but Nocha turned out very, very different. I assumed the oddities in her behavior were due to the fact that she had been a feral cat. And she did many odd things I never saw other cats do. For example, she always 'buried' the remains of her food -- and not because she did not like it. This was her way of 'doing dishes'. Of course, we did not have sand on our kitchen floor, but this did not prevent her from automatically going through the motions, first with the right paw, then the left, then right again, and so on (she was diligent).
She never had a permanent spot to hang out, but would change it, without fail, about every two weeks, which, of course is the life cycle for fleas. Also, she was very afraid of flies. I think this is because, in the woods, there is no household flies but only nasty flies that bite. When an insect approached her, she would start swaying her raised tail wildly, like a windshield wiper in heavy rain, and if the bugger persisted, she would take off running. There were other odd things she did, but the main question I have now is about how she behaved when I sniffed her.
The strange thing was that, in summer, Nocha smelled like fine perfume, faint from a distance, but very distinctly if you sniff the back of her head. In winter she would loose that scent, but come summer, she would start wallowing in dry dirt (which always freaked me out) and I noticed that this scent would resume about a week after her first 'dry dirt bath'. And of course she did not have fleas, though I know this is a normal behavior for the animals with fleas in the wild. I know that this smell is oxidized sulfur metabolite of some bacteria, forgot what it's called, it is used in perfumery as a base. Somewhat reminiscent of musk, but her scent was finer.
So, when I sniffed her, she would get offended (!). This manifested by her slapping me on the face (gently and claws closed of course), then she would jump off my lap, obviously displeased. The first time I did not put the two together, but the second time this intrigued me, and I grabbed her and did it again -- and she slapped me stronger and even mewed, very offended!
I took it that in cats' etiquette sniffing (other than under the tail, I suppose) is a big no-no. I confess that I have never sniffed other cats we had and so to this day I wonder, was it yet another strange thing Nocha did or is it something other cats also do?
I would like to know how your cat reacts when you sniff the back of her head.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
So, we took her in and called her Nocha. We always had a cat, all calicos, and each had her own personality, but Nocha turned out very, very different. I assumed the oddities in her behavior were due to the fact that she had been a feral cat. And she did many odd things I never saw other cats do. For example, she always 'buried' the remains of her food -- and not because she did not like it. This was her way of 'doing dishes'. Of course, we did not have sand on our kitchen floor, but this did not prevent her from automatically going through the motions, first with the right paw, then the left, then right again, and so on (she was diligent).
She never had a permanent spot to hang out, but would change it, without fail, about every two weeks, which, of course is the life cycle for fleas. Also, she was very afraid of flies. I think this is because, in the woods, there is no household flies but only nasty flies that bite. When an insect approached her, she would start swaying her raised tail wildly, like a windshield wiper in heavy rain, and if the bugger persisted, she would take off running. There were other odd things she did, but the main question I have now is about how she behaved when I sniffed her.
The strange thing was that, in summer, Nocha smelled like fine perfume, faint from a distance, but very distinctly if you sniff the back of her head. In winter she would loose that scent, but come summer, she would start wallowing in dry dirt (which always freaked me out) and I noticed that this scent would resume about a week after her first 'dry dirt bath'. And of course she did not have fleas, though I know this is a normal behavior for the animals with fleas in the wild. I know that this smell is oxidized sulfur metabolite of some bacteria, forgot what it's called, it is used in perfumery as a base. Somewhat reminiscent of musk, but her scent was finer.
So, when I sniffed her, she would get offended (!). This manifested by her slapping me on the face (gently and claws closed of course), then she would jump off my lap, obviously displeased. The first time I did not put the two together, but the second time this intrigued me, and I grabbed her and did it again -- and she slapped me stronger and even mewed, very offended!
I took it that in cats' etiquette sniffing (other than under the tail, I suppose) is a big no-no. I confess that I have never sniffed other cats we had and so to this day I wonder, was it yet another strange thing Nocha did or is it something other cats also do?
I would like to know how your cat reacts when you sniff the back of her head.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.
He buries the food as well, but he enjoys my sniffing a lot - but I guess he just enjoys being close to human body in whatever form. He smells like unsweetened vanilla cookie. The other cat smells like fresh grass. I don't know if they have been feral, both were actively seeking human help while on the street/freeway so I'm guessing they were abandoned rather than feral.
