As far as I can tell from my seven, there is no pecking order. Cats are not pack animals, per se. They can co-exist, have favorites among other cats to hang out with, play together, sleep together, even bully each other, but as far as having one alpha …

And range with animals isn’t a fortified boundary. Cats move through and into other cat’s ranges all the time. Marking is a way to tell other cats that you have passed by, either to warn them off or as a kind of welcome. Marking another cat itself can act as a reminder the next time you meet that you approve of them, or as a seal of approval meant for any cat that knows both cats.

And the ‘act like a dog’ phrase always irks me. Unless your cat is barking and weeing on the carpet unless you walk him, he’s not acting like a dog. I’m tired of it being used as a synonym for a active or affectionate cat.
Oldcat´s last [type] ..Flashback – Introductions

This brings me to the “face smash” or heat butting” behavior in cats. Why would a cat want to rub its territory marking glands on you so furiously?

If we assume this is a variation of a natural behaviour then we have to wonder why a cat would want to mark territory with another cats scent.

Well, if cats belonged to a pack then things would go more smoothly if packs could mark territory as a group instead of each member marking on his own and hoping somehow, that the members of another pack somehow know all the other scents of all the neighboring packs.

In fact, it would be this ability, to mark as a group, that would allow packs to form at all. Otherwise, everyone would be fighting everyone and no groups could form or at the very least,it would be hard to exist without expending more energy than the advantage of being in a pack in the first place.

For packs to be able to function the most efficiently they must be able to communicate to each other.

I had a malamute/collie mix who had strong views on house security. Every time I let him override my own judgment, he turned out to be right. And I told him so.