Cats have all of the anatomical parts necessary to shoot noxious tail-end fumes out into the universe. So if you’ve ever been cuddling with your kitty and suspected the stench wafting through the air came from your best feline friend, your hunch could very well have been right.

As you’ve probably picked up by now, cats are typically stealth-bombers. Since they produce smaller amounts of gas, their toots are rarely audible. However, that gas is dense and super-concentrated, so they make up for in stinkiness what they lack in sound. But why do cats fart? Is it simply a matter of indigestion, as it so often is with us humans (oh, come on… we all do it!). There are in fact myriad reasons your cat could have gas.

Farting, of course, is a healthy byproduct of the digestion process in humans and many animals. It’s another way the body clears the pipes, so to speak. However, if your cat suddenly seems to be breaking wind nonstop, there is probably something contributing to the odious bodily function.