to mask her owner’s scent

[GoodTaste]

What does "to mask her owner’s scent" mean? Mask as a verb is defined by Cambridge Dictionary as "to prevent something from being seen or noticed" and I can't see the purpose of the cat preventing her owner's scent being sensed (by other animals). Do you?

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Kitty see, kitty do: cat imitates human, in first scientific demonstration of behavior

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Tennie also notes that both imitations—touching a box with a paw and rubbing a face against a box—are actions a cat might do anyway. And Ebisu may have simply rubbed her face against the box to mask her owner’s scent, he says. “I’m not convinced we’re seeing true imitation.”


Source: Science Sep. 25, 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...human-first-scientific-demonstration-behavior

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You're interpretation is correct.

I don't know why a cat would want to mask its owner's scent, either.

 

[PeterCW]

Some scent marking behaviours do appear to involve masking any previous scent and replacing it with the animal's own. Both dogs and cats do this to scent marks left by others. For this reason Tennie believes that it is not possible to determine if the cat was genuinely imitating its owner.