--- title: Cat Licks Owner But Gets Cranky When Favor Is Returned description: If the cat licks you, it's only fair to lick back, right? Funny video shows otherwise. canonical: https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-11T17:21:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:02.560Z og:title: Cat Is Fine Licking Owner But Gets Awfully Cranky When the Favor Is Returned og:description: If the cat licks you, it's only fair to lick back, right? og:url: https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cat Is Fine Licking Owner But Gets Awfully Cranky When the Favor Is Returned twitter:description: If the cat licks you, it's only fair to lick back, right? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Cat Is Fine Licking Its Owner But Does Not Appreciate it When the Favor Is Returned by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 11, 2019 5:21 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 11, 2019 5:21 PM UTC Ernest Hemingway once said that, “A [cat](https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/) has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” That statement rings true in a video that is going viral, where a man attempts to treat his cat the way he himself is treated, and the [cat](https://time.com/5644250/algonquin-cat-fashion-show-2019/) makes its feelings very clear. In the video, [tweeted by @ColtonCarlyle](https://twitter.com/coltoncarlyle/status/1193737894973849602), his cat gives Carlyle’s nose a good licking. Carlyle than decides to reciprocate, but when he attempts to lick back, the second [the cat](https://time.com/4714823/cats-very-social-study/) sees the giant mouth and tongue headed its way, she starts backing away and yowling, displaying that “emotional honesty” that Hemingway had noticed. The cat made it abundantly obvious that she was not okay with reciprocity in this situation. That may be due to the fact that, [according to Animal Planet](http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/healthy-pets/what-does-it-mean-when-your-cat-licks-you/), when a cat licks it’s a means of staking a claim. While the cat may be happy to claim ownership of a human, it may not be interested in a human owning them. > [](https://twitter.com/coltoncarlyle/status/1193737894973849602) Carlyle [later tweeted](https://twitter.com/ColtonCarlyle/status/1193876090600742913) that his cat knew the risks, writing, “I tend to lick her back when she becomes annoying lol she knows and will run away and stop bothering me for a couple hours”. So while as they say all may be fair in love and war, all is not fair when it comes to licking your [cat](https://time.com/5525138/fluffy-the-frozen-cat/). At least if the cat has anything to say about it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/"},"headline":"Cat Is Fine Licking Its Owner But Does Not Appreciate it When the Favor Is Returned","datePublished":"2019-11-11T17:21:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:02.560Z","description":"If the cat licks you, it's only fair to lick back, right?","url":"https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral","cats"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5723692/cat-licks-owner/","name":"Cat Is Fine Licking Its Owner But Does Not Appreciate it When the Favor Is Returned"}}]}] ```