'Maxie' Maine Coon always greets his human with a big head butt scent exchange

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Maxie is one of those social media Maine Coon celebrities. His preferred platform is Instagram. What I like about this tabby MC (Maine Coon) is that he always greets his human companion with a very distinctive head butt.

'Maxie' Maine Coon always greets his human with a big head butt scent exchange
'Maxie' Maine Coon always greets his human with a big head butt scent exchange. Screenshot.

So what's going on? In the cat world, this is scent exchange. He is depositing his scent from his scent glands under the skin in his head onto his 'owner', the guy who makes the videos. While Maxie deposits his scent onto his human, he simultaneously picks up the scent (body odour) of his human as it is deposited on his head.


So human and MC merge their scent and become one. They are together. It reinforces the relationship. They become a 'unit' in the world of cats as cats use body scent as a way of identifying others, cats, dogs or people. I think cats use the smell of another as a way of confirming that they are what they think they are. Smell is as important as sight to ID a person for domestic cats.

And they enjoy smelling their human and any other 'conspecifics' (friends of the same species). Cats see us a cats so we are conspecifics as are real cats.


Here is the video. It has been seen a lot. It is 'embedded' so I can't guarantee that it will be here for the indefinite future. You can see why it is popular. It is very tender and charming. Maxie always responds by coming when his caregiver indicates that he wants him to come over. Why? Because Maxie loves exchanging scent and being with him. 



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Here is a video I made many years ago of a mightily strong scent exchange head butt from an F1 Savannah cat, the biggest cat breed when at F1-F2 level. Although the Savannah cat is not recognised by the CFA. And F5 Savannahs are no larger than typical domestic cats whereas the MC is, on average, the largest domestic cat breed.

The lady is Kathryn Stucki who was the breeder from A1 Savannahs at the time. 


Please excuse the occasional typo due to preparing these articles at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I don't have a proof reader.

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