Cats like to be teased, @longgone, and often have a serious or evil look on their faces during it. A lot of times the worst thing you can do to a cat is not give it a chance to ignore you. My read of the cat in the pictures is that it’s still in the “WTF? It feels sorta familiar, but more from mom than the monkeys!”
This is factual, not argumentative:
I honestly don’t know that I have met a cat that would not defend itself. Dogs, yes.
At one point in my childhood we had around 30 cats and 14 German Shepherds. A childhood game was to see how many cats could sleep on me at once, and for how long. Catnest: sit with my back to the wall and my knees bent and see how many kitties could sleep in the nest at one time. Of course, I used both hands, alternately, to pet them one at a time, not to show favor and lose one.