French language Q&A Forum

I am surprised that is listed without a black label warning...........................

Chatte is "pussy" in English with the same in your face sexual connotation attached to both. In polite conversation with a proper Frenchman your female cat is always a but when using a pronoun. Educated (et éduqués, i.e. properly brought up, another matter entirely) middle-class Frenchman never use , unless for some reason they wish to be vulgar. 

To wit: when I visit a French friend (male or female) and ask where her female cat is, I say , and she answers has gone the way on PUSSY in English, which admittedly may refer to any cat, a distinction without present consequence IMO. "Pussy" and are best left in the locker room, my friends. I never use either and get along just fine in locker rooms and drawing rooms. While I'm at it, there is not word in English for a female cat - you're female cat is, well, just a female cat. Mine is whining just now over imagined wrongs, so I'll get off whilst I'm ahead. Ciao!