Nothing is Inevitable.

What kind of wine do you want?

Holly Payne Caravella riding Never Outfoxed

Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event 2016

Cross Country - Head of the Lake

The  Flehmen Response

       (or “stinky face”)

Cats (and many other mammals like horses and sheep) perform the flehmen responce when they smell something that they want to know more about, and so they open their mouths to expose the vomeronasal organ on the roof of the mouth, (also called the  Jacobson’s organ) which lets them “taste” the smell.  It can make the animal look like it’s “grimacing”, “smirking” or “laughing”.

It’s usually reserved for scents that carry information that might be important to them, like pheromones used in reproduction and detecting when females are receptive, or the presence of competing or potentially dangerous animals -  but any scent that carries strong chemical smells can set it off… dog butt, feet, stuff like that.

Images from

1) Festa’s Life with Cats on YouTube