National Kissing Day: Don’t kiss your cat on the lips

I don’t know if anyone wants to try and kiss their cat on the lips but if you are that person you might reconsider it as Cats Protection in the UK, a well-know cat charity, say that it is not recommended for reasons of hygiene. But they say it is okay to kiss your cat; it’s just a question of where.

National Kissing Day in the UK was on 22nd June. It was its 14th year. Hence this brief visit to the subject of kissing your cat.

There are two best ways to kiss your cat in my opinion. The first to do what humans call the cat kiss; touching noses. All you have to do is present your face to your cat’s face (provided you know that she accepts this) and see if she’ll touch her nose on yours. It’ll be brief and it’ll be a friendly cat greeting. Job done. We should be honoured to be given a cat kiss.

This lets your cat take the lead which is always sensible. It is not the best thing to force ourselves on our cats.

The other best way to kiss your cat is to do what most owners do when they have an uncontrollable urge to shower love on their cat; kiss her on the forehead. I’ll suggest the most common place for a person to kiss their cat is the cat’s forehead. Nearly all cats will accept this. Although cats in general don’t like a human head too close to theirs.

Let your cat take the lead on kissing!

Cats Protection say:

“It’s ok [to kiss your cat] as long as both owner and cat are medically healthy and the cat is well socialised and used to this level of contact from you…” (Nicky Trevorrow, Behaviour manager at Cats Protection).

Another place where cat owners like to kiss their cat is the stomach. This normally works fine but some cats won’t like this as it is a sensitive area. However, it is a very attractive place to plant a kiss if your cat is sprawled out belly up on a bed or in the backyard.

The guiding principle when wanting to kiss your cat is whether your cat finds it acceptable or even welcome. Kissing and cuddling a cat because you like to do it can be too much for the cat. The cat always leads and guides. That said cats get used to human ways and learn to like it.

P.S. Here is a conundrum: can you get toxomplasmosis from kissing a cat? Read the answer by clicking on this link.

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