Cat Behavior - Why Won't Your Cat Leave People Who Don't Like Cats Alone?

Why does your cat makes a beeline to your friend that absolutely hates cats instead of getting petted by other people in the room that like cats? No, your cat doesn't have radar which causes him to zero in on the person that doesn't want to see him. Your cat is behaving in natural cat fashion.

You've noticed that cats rub against furniture and push their heads inside empty spaces. If they enter an unfamiliar room, they brush up against the walls and look behind and under everything as if they are exploring the room. Isn't your cat just curious? Actually, there is another reason for this behavior.

Cats rub their heads against objects and people in order to deposit their saliva on them which marks the item or person with the cat's scent. By doing this, all other cats are put on notice that the people and objects in the house belong to him. So why doesn't the cat just lick everything instead of rubbing? Since cats spend so much time grooming, they have plenty of saliva on their fur. So, they only have to rub against you to transfer their saliva and scent.

So, when strangers come to your home, your cat will rub against them to mark them as his property. But why does the cat insist on jumping in the cat-hater's lap? Your visitors who like cats have already let the cat rub against them or even petted the cat. So, the cat has already transferred his scent to these people. That leaves the people who have been avoiding the cat. Since your cat is determined to mark all visitors with his scent, he will chase down those people that are avoiding him until he has had a chance to mark them. You might want to warn visitors that don't like cats ahead of time to let the cat greet them, or the cat will hunt them down later.