A cat's sense of smell is far more developed than ours. Cats use their olfaction to perceive and familiarize themselves with their environment. At the same time, they use their sense of smell to find food. During mating, cats can detect the scent emitted by a potential mate from hundreds of meters away and follow this scent to establish contact. Therefore, smell and olfaction play a multifaceted role in a cat's life.

　　Cats love to rub their bodies against their owners, leaving their scent on them to distinguish their territory. When encountering an unfamiliar cat, the first thing they do is sniff the tip of its nose and its tail. If "words don't match," they will "fight with fists and feet" and bite each other. The winner remains calm, with raised hair and an arched back. The cat that appears to lose will lie on its back and concede defeat.

　　A cat’s sense of smell is achieved through olfactory nerves distributed on the mucous membrane at the back of the nasal cavity and the cribriform plate area. The olfactory mucosa area is 20 to 40 square centimeters—twice that of humans—and contains over 200 million olfactory cells, able to detect musk diluted to one part in eight million. When odors enter the nasal cavity with inhaled air, they stimulate the olfactory cells to generate excitation impulses, which transmit along the olfactory nerve to the brain, causing the sense of smell.

　　Cats are born with highly developed olfactory senses. Kittens exhibit a strong avoidance tendency toward unpleasant smells. Proper olfactory development at this stage is crucial as it enables young kittens to locate the mother's nipples. By the third day after birth, each kitten will establish a preferred nipple, primarily using scent to find and follow the previous pathway to a specific nipple. After visual development (at three weeks of age), olfaction becomes less important.

　　For adult cats, smell is an important identification marker between cats—first face-to-face, then face-to-anus. The epithelial tissue around the anus contains sebaceous substances unique to every carnivore (only carnivores have anal glands), similar to a human fingerprint. Smell is also used to explore new environments. Certain odors cause rapid cat reactions. Some companies put odor agents in trash to prevent cats from eating garbage, but the effect is poor. (Source：PetsZone)