In more detail, the question is whether and how much cats notice cat breeds in other cats. Including, perhaps, not strictly breed but factors such as ferality, or a handicap. This is something I wondered about recently, however, may also become a practical concern for someone who keeps a cat and thinks of adopting another.
Differences between cat breeds may be more or less pronounced; of course some are quite hard to overlook (size; fur; folded ears; bobtail; etc.) even for relatively inexperienced humans. Do cats register these or perhaps additional differences?
While it may be difficult to tell what cats notice, I expect some reactions may be observable. For example, cats may act friendlier to other cats of roughly the same size or general appearance; cats may exhibit mating preferences; some olfactory preferences might be manifest; etc. It may even be that particular breeds get on well while others do not.
I am interested both in research done in this area (if any) and in individual experience.
This may or may not be analogous to dogs' perceptions of breed; I do not know.
