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The feline sniff-and-sneer reaction is the
Flehmen response to "taste-smell"
something. A cat has an excellent sense of smell
and can detect food which is stale or contains
medication. Though the sneer looks like disgust
(humans wrinkle their noses when disgusted), it is
simply the way the cat's mouth is set to pass
scent molecules over the Jacobsen's Organ. After
flehming, the will take the appropriate response.
Cats show fear and lust in response to the
appropriate sights, sounds and smells, but love
requires a degree of abstraction which cats
probably do not possess. Lust is the mating urge,
love is the emotional baggage which surrounds and
tempers that urge in most humans. Humans have a
wider range of emotions and the emotions which we
share with cats are more refined in the human
species.
Frustration
Frustration is what happens when a basic
emotion cannot be, or is not, fully expressed. It
is generally viewed as an emotion in itself rather
than a displacement of the initiating emotion.
The build-up of physiological effects demands
some sort of outlet. In territorial animals and
birds there may be displacement activities such as
shrieking, stamping, tearing vegetation (humans
may cry in frustration) etc. These give
alternative outlets for pent up energy.
Frustration is what we feel when we cannot fully
express ourselves or when the situation makes full
expression impossible, impractical or unsafe.
For a cat living in a human world there are
many frustrations which it resolves as best it
can. Many are resolved through modifying other
behavior through the learning or conditioning
process. Cats are highly adaptable but they retain
many wild instincts which need to be expressed
e.g. hunting, territoriality.
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