What does it mean when a cat licks its owner?

Cat licking mainly implies the following meanings: helping the owner clean their body, helping the owner disinfect wounds, leaving their own scent, expressing love, seeking forgiveness, asking the owner to feed them, or indicating discomfort. Cats usually lick the parts of their favorite objects that they can't reach with their own tongue, such as the top of the head and inside the ears. If a cat frequently licks you, it means it wants to deepen its relationship with you, expressing its closeness, friendliness, and trust, and may also be helping you clean.

1. Helping the owner clean their body

Cats are very clean-loving, and they learn to clean themselves with their tongues from their mothers at a young age. Therefore, when a cat licks you, it might be trying to help you clean your body and comb your hair, expressing its proximity, friendliness, and trust.

1. Helping the owner disinfect wounds

Cats' saliva has disinfecting and antibacterial properties, so they usually lick their wounds when injured. If a cat discovers that you are injured, it will gently lick your wound to help you disinfect it.

1. Leaving their own scent

Cats have a strong sense of territory and will mark their scent on objects or places they want to claim as their own. When a cat licks you, it is also a way to declare ownership, wanting to leave its scent on you to tell other animals that you belong to it.

1. Expressing love

Licking by cats is actually one of the ways to express love. They only do this to their closest companions. If a cat always licks you, it means it considers you a relative, showing that it really loves you.

1. Seeking forgiveness

If a cat has done something wrong and finds its owner angry, it will quickly lick the owner's hands and feet, hoping to gain your forgiveness.

1. Asking the owner to feed them

Cats are very greedy, and when they see you eating or feel hungry, they will come to you, lick you, and paw at you, looking at the cat bowl, indicating that they want you to feed them.

1. Indicating discomfort

Since cats can't speak, they express their emotions through body language. If a cat licks you along with other abnormal behaviors, such as loss of appetite, low energy, vomiting, etc., it might be indicating that its body is uncomfortable, hoping to attract your attention in this way.