Taking a quick break from hockey trophies here. Anyway, up until yesterday, I had lived my life in blissful ignorance of the reason why cats, when frightened or startled, will flatten their ears, spit, and hiss. Like so:
Well, this behaviour is apparently a form of mimicry. When a cat hisses, it is saying, quite deliberately, "oh no, I'm not a poor little cat at all! I'm actually one of these guys:
...so I'm really much scarier than a cat, and you should leave me alone."
Ok, perhaps they're not mimicking the Armenian Viper specifically, but you get the idea.
Fez tip to Maru.
