Okay, let’s talk about this weird cat thing. You know, when they get right up in your face and sniff your breath? My cat, Jasper, started doing this a while back, and honestly, at first, I just thought, “What in the world are you doing, you furry weirdo?” It was kinda funny, kinda strange.
So, I started paying more attention. It wasn’t random. It happened a lot after I ate something. Especially tuna, man, he’d be right there, nose practically touching mine, taking these big sniffs. Naturally, I figured, okay, he smells the food. Simple enough, right? Cat logic: human ate fish, maybe there’s more fish?
But then I noticed he did it at other times too. Like, first thing in the morning when I hadn’t eaten anything yet. Or sometimes when I was just talking to him, he’d lean in for a sniff. That got me thinking it wasn’t just about leftover food smells.
Trying to figure it out
I started messing around a bit, you know, experimenting. What if I ate something really bland, like plain rice? He’d still do it, maybe less intensely, but the sniffing inspection still happened. What if I brushed my teeth right before? Yep, still sniffed, probably smelled the minty stuff then.
It felt like he was gathering information. Cats are super into smells, that’s like their main way of understanding the world. Way more than us, anyway. They’ve got that extra smell thingy in their mouth, the Jacobson’s organ, or whatever it’s called. They use it to really analyze scents.
- Checking me out: I started thinking maybe it’s like his way of checking in, like reading my daily status update. Smell is identity for them, right? So maybe he’s confirming it’s me, or seeing where I’ve been (or what I ate).
- Social thing?: Sometimes he does it when he’s being affectionate, like before rubbing his face on me. So it could be part of their social ritual, like a weird cat handshake or hello.
- Just curious: Let’s be real, cats are nosy. Maybe sometimes he’s just plain curious about the weird air coming out of my mouth.
My take on it now
After watching Jasper do this for ages, I stopped finding it that weird. It’s just part of his routine. I reckon it’s a mix of things. He definitely smells what I ate, no doubt about that. But it’s also like a quick check-in, a way to gather info about me – am I okay? Is that still my boring human? It feels like communication, in their own unique, sniffy way.
So, yeah, that’s my experience with the whole cat-breath-sniffing saga. It went from “ew, weird” to “huh, interesting” to just another day living with a cat. They use smell for everything, so why not for checking out their giant food-dispensing human too? Makes sense, in a cat way.
