A sign of submission; or a sign of Trust

That depends on the cat! With my 17 yr old it's a sign of trust, he only does it with close family, and a desire to have his tummy stroked. If my 4 yr old does it, then it's an invitation to play, but she plays rough, and her idea of fun is to attack the hand that goes to stroke her. With my dog, it's both submission and respect, she does it when she has been told off, and an unsubmissive invitation to play when my Neice's children visit. She is behaving as she would with other dogs, and as she sees her place as bottom of the pack, is showing respect for her leaders. Cats are only submissive with other cats, and I find it's usual for a female to be the dominant animal even when it's the youngest but they don't show submission to each other by rolling over onto their backs as dogs do. If a cat does that it's usually an invitation to play. I love the differences between cats and dogs, and just feel lucky that my cats want to spend their lives with me!

LMAO so true! Dogs also like to get pats on the tummies. So do some cats. I've never doubted that my cats are not submissive to me. Cats are fiercely independent because of their social structure in the wild. They have territories and rarely tolerate other cats in their territory except for mating purposes. Wild dogs (or at least their ancestors) have a much more social code based on hierarchy. A dog normally sees the human as it's superior or pack leader (unless they are not well trained). Dan