Why In The Heck Are They Doing That?

I have 3 cats and I notice sometimes that they will sniff my dogs ears or sniff a spot on the furniture, etc for a few seconds and then they open their mouths and do sort of a long drawn out "open mouth breathing" session... they aren't panting and they will take turns sniffing a particular area and then one at a time when finished sniffing, will open their mouths and walk away.. WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING AND WHY?

as with humans, taste and smell are very closeley related, and with cats and dogs they have an unbelievable (14 times the smell senses we have) way to differ all the chemicals in the particular smell
when cats do that mad/cute face when sniffing they are just processing the smell

I think that actually has a name. Starts with an F maybe?

ok "f" explain?

It's called the flehmen response. My cats do it all the time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response

The flehmen response, also called the flehmen position, flehmen reaction, flehming, or flehmening, is a particular type of curling of the lips in ungulates, felids, and many other mammals, which facilitates the transfer of odorant chemicals into the vomeronasal organ. In the flehmen reaction, animals draw back their lips in a manner that makes them appear to be "grimacing". The pose, which is adopted when examining scents left by other animals

wot i said lol!