The nose is one of our strongest sense organs, along with our impressive night vision that we’ve already talked about. Besides our super abilities to distinguish many different odors correctly, it also serves as a non-verbal greeting device.
For example, when we’re on friendly terms with another one of our species and run into her by chance, it’s quite appropriate for us to touch or even rub our noses together a bit to express our mutually positive feelings in relation to this unexpected encounter. This could be accompanied by tail raising, a slight inclination of the head as a sign of affection, and even some one-to-one social grooming, which has to do with the tongue part that we’ll talk about next.
I should mention one last detail here though, and I’m sure you’ve noticed this custom of ours. We’ll often sniff out the back end of a known or unknown member of our species since that provides us with key information regarding their character, state of health, and general mood at the moment.
I’ve noticed that you humans don’t really take much advantage of any of these great nifty nose techniques that us cats are into. Oh well, that’s cool. But please don’t be giving us strange looks if we do it, okay? Just assume that we know what we’re doing and that we’re enjoying it!