{"id":598,"date":"2019-09-30T20:57:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T20:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=598"},"modified":"2019-09-30T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T20:57:07","slug":"say-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=598","title":{"rendered":"Say what&#8230;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I recently watched a compilation of videos taken featuring &#8220;cats\nreacting to smells they don&#8217;t like.&#8221; A few of them featured cats pulling the\nsame or a very similar expression in response to the things they smelt. But\nhere&#8217;s the thing about that expression; it isn&#8217;t actually a specifically negative\nreaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The expression the cats are all\nexhibiting is known as &#8220;the Flehman Response&#8221; and is actually a face\ncats pull when they are processing an odour. Cats compile a lot of information\nfrom scent and have considerably more scent receptors than humans. The response\nis extremely common when they are trying to read information and is in effect\nthe cat both smelling and tasting the odour they\u2019re encountering so they can\nobtain more information from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Admittedly, when the reaction is witnessed, it\u2019s not especially obvious\nthat what\u2019s happening isn\u2019t unpleasant for the cat. But the truth is, it\u2019s neither\none nor the other and the cat is simply reacting to the situation that means\nthey can learn more about their surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have access to Facebook, this is the link to the video. See if\nyou can spot the responses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-facebook wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=2491160807772588\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"528\" height=\"175\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cat-facial-expressions.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cat-facial-expressions.jpg 528w, https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cat-facial-expressions-300x99.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><figcaption><em>More expressions to look out for with your cat&#8230;..<\/em><br>Image source:Arizona Humane Society<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently watched a compilation of videos taken featuring &#8220;cats reacting to smells they don&#8217;t like.&#8221; A few of them featured cats pulling the same or a very similar expression in response to the things they smelt. But here&#8217;s the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}