Male mounting?

I own two cats, and have had them for about a year now. My male is about one and a half years old, my female just past one. They play, scrap around, chase each other around the house, clean eachother every once in a while, and generally act as, I think, two cats act. I just saw (I seriously left the room, came to this computer, and registered to these forums to ask for help) the oddest thing I have ever seen my cats do (this includes licking eachothers butts).

My female was just napping on the couch, curled up on her side. My male cat jumped up on her and made like he was cleaning the back of her head. Then he bit her, kind of locked his jaw behind her ear. She, at this point, hadn't moved yet, and didn't care. Then my male cat straddled my female and, in a rhythmic motion, started pumping his back legs. Left, then right, almost like windshield wipers on a delay. He kept this up for a couple minutes, and as I tried to sneak away to grab my digital camera, he noticed me and both cats shot away.

They are spayed/neutered, and the last time I saw this was when I came upon two stray cats getting it on at basic training. Except, of course, here my male cat was standing over my female, instead of laying atop of.

What did I just witness? I feel really dirty for some reason.

It is dominance behavior if both are sexually altered. This is your boy's way of telling your girl he is king of the house.

I thought my female was top cat, the way they act all the rest of the time. It seriously threw me for a loop, though.

Many neutered males have still more of less of male sexual behavior. But very often they dont know exactly what to do or why they are doing this. Sometimes they remember only it was something with taking a bite to do...

Your male remember quite much...

It could also be dominance behavior yes, but as they very good friends and female top cat - my guess is it is in the main a rest of sexuality.

You dont need to worry or do anything, especially as the female dont bother. She is grown up and can defend herself if she does mind.

But if she kitten - I would recommend you to push him aside. Kindly but do it - as kittens cant defend themselves.

Both the male cats in my family do the same thing, even though they have no sexual experience and were neutered young. And just as one of the other folks here said, they don't seem to know why they do it! After a minute or so, the boy kitty will pause, look up in confusion -- "Now what did I have in mind here?" -- and skulk away as if he's embarrassed. :-)

About the bite on the girl kitty's neck: it's just part of the mating ritual that they're instinctively acting out. Don't let it worry you, unless your girl kitty seems upset about it.

Sometimes while cleaning the 8 year old spayed female, my 13 year old neutered male will suddenly bite her on the back of the neck and then mount her. He will hold her there a moment and look confused as if to say, "what do I do now?" At which point the female often will yowl at him in annoyance. Just because they can not procreate doesn't mean they have no sexual urges. But the fact that they are neutered is probably why male cats who mount suddenly forget what they're supposed to do.