Cat Idiosyncracies

I'm looking forward to hearing of the idiosyncrasies of your feline companions. I always laugh so at my 3 legged cat Poik,she has this thing where,if they are almost out of catfood,she will chuck one of their empty food plates off the counter. Seeing our whole house is tiled,where ever it lands,it makes a huge THWACK sound So once in a while,we have to replace her plastic plate. We have bowls for catfood,they have their own "diner" in our kitchen,a small counter off to the side. There i keep their feeding trays,cat portraits in frames, cat ornaments,the canisters that contain their food etc.A kitty Diner.But Poik only eats off a flat plate,so we always make sure she has a cute colourful flat plastic plate to eat off. Thing is,whenever she finds it empty,she chucks it onto the floor,and her last one cracked,so luckily i had another one. She breaks this one,she will have to eat out of a bowl (horrors) for a day or so till i can get to the cheapshop to get her her own plate again.

Our calico cat Witch will just sometimes decide our fox Terrier needs cleaning,and when she finds Buggles anywhere on a bed,she will sort of Spread herself over Buggles and proceed to lick,wash and clean her,sometimes for more than an hour at a time. Buggles does not seem to mind

Looking forward to hear of your cat crazies

Obviously, as General Tab E. Katt, I cannot pass this one up!

Right now my roommate (very well known member here on ATS) and I have 12 rescues. I moved here with 7 (although one was old and passed last year), she had 3, and we rescued three more as tiny kittens.

I have two 12 year old Manx cats with cerebellar hypoplasia, which is a virus they catch in the womb, and it retards the development of their cerebellum, so they are clumsy and their head wobbles uncontrollably when they are trying to look at something ("intention tremors"). The male, named Thomas, is a large 20 pound watermelon with a head and legs. He takes care of every kitten I have brought in, since he was a few years old. He cleans them, teaches them, cuddles with them, and there is always a cat, even the older ones, who will fight to sleep with old grandpa.

Females do not take care of adults or older kittens that are not theirs. Males, for some odd reason, are rather motherly and contrary to popular belief, are very loving and caring towards the young.

I bring up Thomas because I had a Manx female that got pregnant (my bad, not paying attention to their age before spaying will almost ensure your 6 month old will get knocked up). He was the first one out, as my daughter and I wondered why she was screaming. This kitten shot out of her like he was shot out of a cannon, and she ran away as it slid onto my bare foot....my 13 year old yelling, "EEWWWW, it touched your FOOT!". Still encased in the birth sac, I only had seconds to break it and get this kitten to breathe or he would die.

I tore the sac with my tee shirt around the mouth and nose, and kept blowing on it until the little thing sucked in a deep breath. Then I found the mother in my closet and returned him to her so she could finish cleaning him up.

This cat, now 12 years old, follows me everywhere, loves everybody, even strangers, has never known rejection or cruelty, and is always around me constantly. He hated my husband and kept getting between us the whole time we were married. Cats know.

He's sitting on my left leg currently, as always, purring and on watch. His cerebellar hypoplasia, horrible as a kitten, is now compensated for in his brain, and he only has the head bobble when he sees something he doesn't understand. He thinks I'm his mother, and well....I think so too.

You can take him in the car and he purrs. He doesn't need a cage at the vets, just carry his big self in and plop him on the counter, he'll purr and visit with the staff. Incredibly special, loving cat. I pray he has many years to go with me. I have so many cats and each a unique rescue story, but he is my big ol' baby, the cat that has made a home in the recesses of my heart.

We had a huge picture window in my house growing up.my big tomcat love watching the world go by, on day mom had the brilliant idea to lay 6 antique tea pots across it. While she sat there he jumped up, never taking his eyes off mom.one by one he pushed them to their crashing end! Mom was so shocked she couldn't react!he was a great cat, I still miss him 20 years ago.....

a reply to: Raxoxane

I 100% approve of this thread.

When my mother scolds our cat, she acts totally sad and goes into a corner until my mother gets her and consoles her. Cute kitty.

Also have some other stories, but I'm out of time 8)

originally posted by: Pixman
a reply to: Raxoxane

I 100% approve of this thread.

When my mother scolds our cat, she acts totally sad and goes into a corner until my mother gets her and consoles her. Cute kitty.

Also have some other stories, but I'm out of time 8)

I have noticed that too. Their eyes blink like they're fixing to cloud up and cry, and they sulk away. Cats are easily embarrassed, and their feelings are also easily hurt. They don't always show it, but if you know them, they are like children.

If I leave for more than a day, old Thomas will turn his back on me and flatten his ears. It's obvious he's very hurt that I went away overnight. LOL. It takes him about 1/2 hour to get over it.

One of my two cats, Miss Paris, is not one to stay in anyone's lap for more than 2 minutes or so. She has things to do I guess.

What she insist on, especially in the morning is to have you use your toes to rub her head. That just makes her day. Other than that she follows me around the house and complains if I am staying up too late or if I spend too much time out of my bedroom.

Our beauty, who is currently curled up in her hammock and snoring her a@se off, will scream whenever we open the fridge, just so she can get a slice of ham. She also nevers sits on anyone's lap except my OH and always wants to know what we are eating ( as in screams her head off till we hold our plate under her nose for inspection ). She is spoilt rotten

Thanks so much for your delightful replies

I will be back tomorrow,been feeling really sickly this past week with my chronic sinusitis acting up and feel quite quite sickly today and depressed after hearing of a local farm attack and murder.

We had one who would "play tail" as my mom used to call it. He would sit on the headboard of the bed in my parents' room and dangle his tail off above her head at night. She would block it from swaying side to side so it thumped up against her finger mid-swing. He would lightly tap her finger with his tail and then smack the heck out of it as hard as he could with a good tail lashing. This was her cue to move her finger. He would continue to lash his tail for a bit and then slow it down and barely twitch it. This was her cue to put her finger back and block it again.

This was a nightly ritual they would play for 10 or 15 minutes.

My parents went away for the weekend, and my sister slept in their bed. She did not "play tail." Belly (cat's name, big fixed tabby tom with a hangy gut) got offended and dumped a book on her face. Gave her a black eye!

The same cat would also play fetch with 2-liter bottle tops thrown up the stair case. Hold conversations with you. And he could smell ham from anywhere in the house and come running with a special call that sounded for all the word like "HAM! HAM!"

The very first cat I remember having was a long haired gray cat we named Bony. She was indoor/outdoor. When she wanted back in, she would "knock." She used to do this by leaping up to hang on the screen part of the screen door with her front paws. Her back paws would dangle over the metal lower portion and she would kick it. It made a lot of noise -- kind of like someone trying to break in. It was effective as long as you expected it. It scared the crap out of sitters who were not warned the cat would do that.

Later on, we had another gray female, this one short-haired, named Baby. Baby learned that she really, really liked to chase balls of yarn. The first time she discovered how much fun this was, it happened at night and we woke up to every ball of yarn in the house unrolled in and out and all over through all the chair legs. After a long afternoon re-wrapping all the balls of yarn, mom put then in a box with a lid. No problem! Cat removed the lid and we had more unrolled balls of yarn the next morning. This arms race continued for some time with mom trying more and more different ways to keep the cat out of the yarn at night. Finally mom started keeping her balls of yarn in the garage overnight.

a reply to: ketsuko

That was funny,what a characterful cat

Our cat Delores has a thing for toilet rolls.You know sometimes one has a toilet roll in other places except the toilet,i like to keep one nearby my bed,because whenever i lay me down to sleep,my nose Will need to be blown.That type of thing. She can take a full new toilet roll and completely Destroy it