It doesn’t seem to be a male/female thing to me - and my father can vouch for this. A neighborhood female postured herself in just this way, and typical of a dog person he ruffled her stomach. He ended up with reconstruction surgery on his hand and wrist, which he endless and self-righteously, as a dog person, reminds me of forever and ever.

When cats are displaying that way, they don’t mean the same thing that dogs do. This is not a submissive dog gesture. You don’t want to accept the invitation. I’ve found that slipping my hand around the back of their head and cupping it as they lay upside down seems to be exactly what they’re happy to accept.

Half of our family cats, all of whom are the nicest you could hope for, will go for the blood, and half will tolerate the stomach treatment, from me anyway, but I suspect not from just anybody. I’m VERY careful when I accept the invitation to watch for the slightest sign of claws.

It’s a fascinating behavior to me. Thanks for bringing it up.

Suffice to say, the rest of the affair is equally sordid. One can know too much about the sex life of the domestic feline.