Dogs typically love belly rubs and will roll on their backs to get more. With cats, it's a different story: Most are visibly uncomfortable when someone touches their belly, and the same applies to their feet and tail.

When a cat is petted in these areas, its body language often changes. "They might do a quick head turn, looking at your hand, or they might start moving away from you or wiggling around a lot, basically trying to get away from the petting," Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist and senior research scientist at Purdue University, told Live Science in an email. "If these early warning signs are ignored, they might escalate to biting, hissing or scratching."