Cats and the Weird Things They Do

[merrak]

For the past few weeks my cat has taken up residence inside a mostly empty closet in an unused bedroom in my house. He will stand in the corner, back to the door, staring at the floor. The backside of an air return duct sticks out a bit from one of the walls. So far the most logical explanation I have is that the air return duct is, in fact, a gateway to another dimension - and the cat has made a friend.

Or, maybe they just like messing with our heads. What will these little creatures think of next??

[poxic]

So far the most logical explanation I have is that the air return duct is, in fact, a gateway to another dimension causing small nearby thread ends to dance around in a most fascinating, near-lifelike manner.

Fixed.

Cats are not incomprehensible, though it is fun to imagine them so. They are predators who happen to enjoy a bit of cuddling now and then (well, some of them). They will hunt random things purely because hunting is hella fun. Whether their prey is lint, tin foil, or your feet under the blanket, it's all just twitchy funtime leapchomp to them.

[Ghostbear]

Cats are not incomprehensible, though it is fun to imagine them so. They are predators who happen to enjoy a bit of cuddling now and then (well, some of them). They will hunt random things purely because hunting is hella fun. Whether their prey is lint, tin foil, or your feet under the blanket, it's all just twitchy funtime leapchomp to them.

This, though I would add that they also tend to just love attention, whether it's good or bad. I love how silly cats can be, even if it's one that has settled down on the anti-cuddling side. My younger one constantly tries to steal my blankets away from me.

[PatrickRsGhost]

Cats hate water, right? They hate getting wet, right?

Try telling that to our tuxedo cat, Jack. She (yes, Jack is a female...we thought she was a male when she was still a kitten) will get in the kitchen sink and sit in one of the basins. She insists on having a "water game", where we turn on the faucet to a trickle, and she will just sit under the stream. She'll then move around, lick at the stream (we have bowls of water sitting around for the cats), then take a paw and "dabble" at the stream. She just sits/stands there, lets the water trickle all over her.

We tend to call Jack "Roo" or "Roopert" or "Little Jacky Roo-Roo". Ever since she was a kitten, she would make these little "roop-roop" sounds. We call it her "SONAR sounds". Really, she does sound a bit like a SONAR on a submarine.

When we had our old black German Shepherd/Lab Magic, she (Jack) would play with Magic's tail. Magic, being old, just laid there. I think she only snapped at Jack once, but not in the menacing, "I'm going to eat you" way; more like how an adult dog snaps at a puppy when the puppy gets out of line. With our new dog, Bud, Jack seems to play with him. It's so funny to watch him bounce at her, then she comes up to him, ready to whack him, and he side-steps away from her. A few whacks to the snout, and it's bounce-bounce-bounce back towards her.

[Ghostbear]

My younger cat does the same thing with the faucet! And Hippo mentioned his kitty doing it too.

I think when we were told cats hate water we were lied to.

[SecondTalon]

Cats hate water, right? They hate getting wet, right?

Not all cats. When I was a wee lad of.. I dunno, 8-16? Anyway, we had a cat that would go on walks with myself or my mother, just like the dogs. And when we'd get to the lake and the dogs would all go tearing off into it for a swim, so would the cat.

Go figure. Cat loved swimming.


Most cats do hate being immersed in water. But cats really hate being sprayed in the face with a spray bottle. And for good reason. Go spray yourself in the face with a spray bottle. Shit's unpleasant.

[Menacing Spike]

Cat stories!

You see, we had a bit of a wall poking out for the main wall in the living room, forming a vertical protuberance. It was wallpapered. Was, because our cat had a peculiar habit: sometimes, he would sprint, jump on a footstool, bounce into a sofa's back (it was articulated and could spring, propelling the cat upwards) into the bit of wall. He would then violently claw into the wallpaper, and rip a giant trail of destruction as he descended toward the ground. Cat weights maybe 6-7 kilos.

Now he's too old for that, but the ravage of his claws attest to his past ferocity. Also a scar in my hand, but that's another story.

Also despite property damage it looked fucking awesome.

While we're on cats, we had something he liked very much, perhaps your cat would like it too.
Get a giant cardboard box.
Cut out a little cat door, perhaps with a flap?
Option 1, the black box: cut out random, tiny openings in irregular patterns. Scratch outside, leave your fingers in sight. Now it's become a game of reflexes! The cat will wait, wait, and then go all WAARGHABLARH and a lightning fast paw will try to skewer your fingers. He might also shred things a bit if he misses, then he'll calm down and it's the next round. Try poking the cat from openings he's not looking at.
Option 2, the cat launcher: Open the top of the box. Fling your hand over it as if it was a big bird. Avoid the hypercarnivorous feliform springing from the unseen depths.
Our cat loved that box (and we did too), and often ran into it whenever we came around, asking for play. Only issue is he got a bit overexited and tended to extend his claws too much.

We also had to change the box a few time (they get too shredded and torn up after a while).

One more while we are a it: our cat absolutely hates other cats. Once he was forced to live with one that shared the sentiment for a few days: they kept fighting. We kept locking up our cat after separating them, because he is xboxhuge, and thus seemed to be the agressor.
A few days later, we happen upon the two cats hissing and growling at each other.
Our cat looks at us for a moment, then turns around and waggles his ass. The other cat jumps him, and is locked up. Our cat spent the rest of the afternoon purring.

[merrak]

So far the most logical explanation I have is that the air return duct is, in fact, a gateway to another dimension causing small nearby thread ends to dance around in a most fascinating, near-lifelike manner.

Fixed.

While that certainly makes much more sense... it is a lot less fun.

[merrak]

Cat stories!
...
One more while we are a it: our cat absolutely hates other cats. Once he was forced to live with one that shared the sentiment for a few days: they kept fighting. We kept locking up our cat after separating them, because he is xboxhuge, and thus seemed to be the agressor.
A few days later, we happen upon the two cats hissing and growling at each other.
Our cat looks at us for a moment, then turns around and waggles his ass. The other cat jumps him, and is locked up. Our cat spent the rest of the afternoon purring.

The box sounds like an awesome idea! I have about 50 cardboard boxes left over from when I moved into the house, too.

When we bought our house we found out it came with a cat. He's strictly an outdoor cat because my indoor cat does not get along with other cats at all. The outdoor white cat will sit on the windowsill and stare into the house all day... 7 days a week, ~24 hours a day. Before the indoor cat became fascinated with the closet, he would stare back.

I didn't see him in the window this morning when I left for work. I walked outside and found him curled up sleeping below the window. I guess he can't stare all day.

[pseudoidiot]

For the past few years one of our cats has taken to "adopting" my wife's hair ties (for putting her hair in a pony tail). She will:

1. Drop them in her food dish -- perhaps she's feeding it.
2. Drop them in the water dish -- maybe giving it water, but maybe drowning it.
3. Snuggle up with one or more hair ties.
4. Just play with them.

[Shivahn]

For the past few years one of our cats has taken to "adopting" my wife's hair ties (for putting her hair in a pony tail). She will:

1. Drop them in her food dish -- perhaps she's feeding it.
2. Drop them in the water dish -- maybe giving it water, but maybe drowning it.
3. Snuggle up with one or more hair ties.
4. Just play with them.

One of our cats absolutely loves hair ties. She will paw at them aggressively, and then when it get hooked on her paw, jump in the air like she's surprised and twitch, throwing it across the room. She'll then chase it and repeat. Sometimes she'll just bat it and chase it, instead of flipping out and throwing it, though it still goes really far.

I am not sure why she does all that. She will drop whatever she's doing when she sees one to go bat at it. I think she recognizes that it can get stuck to her paw and go far really fast, and thus knows it's fun to play with.

Another cat of ours goes in between my neighbor's and our house (since we're sort of lending him to her to keep the rodents out). He came back in yesterday and I woke up like five times with him in between my legs, or curled into my back, or somewhere else that made it so I couldn't move. He doesn't seem to care that every time I wake up I move and he has to go running off.

Relatedly, our other cat who doesn't like him was sleeping with me last night. He likes to get under the covers and nuzzle, or get between my arm and body, or sit on me. Anyway, apparently that was too close with the other cat there, so I woke up to him sleeping on my throat.

I... guess that was the only part of me far enough away from the other cat? He wasn't trying to hurt me or anything, he literally just curled up and went to sleep. On my throat. Demon.

[dhokarena56]

I can't wait until I'm in the last couple years of undergrad and can own a pair of cats. I will name them Leopold and Stephen.

[PatrickRsGhost]

When I was in my early to mid teens, we had a Siamese Tabby Point named "Blue". I've heard of cats acting crazy; Blue was fucking psychotic.

He would run around the house, talking to himself. When he'd get up a full head of steam, he would charge from one side of the house to the other, usually wind up running into the kitchen. The kitchen had linoleum, and offset from the kitchen was the laundry room. The normal sound in our house was:

*Skitter-skitter-skitter*
*Sliiiiiiide*
*Metallic THUD*
*Mrrowwl?*

Rinse, repeat.

Blue had a habit of hiding under objects, and attack one's feet and ankles if they decided to walk by. His favorite place to hide was under the dining room table.

The dining room and living room in that house were connected as one large room. To get to the kitchen, you had to basically pass through both rooms, or walk between the rooms, depending from which way you came. One would go into the kitchen, say for a glass of tea, then try to go back into the living room to sit down and watch TV, only to be hampered by Blue darting out from under the table and taking a whack at their feet or ankles. Especially if said person was foolish enough to be barefoot. And woe to he who decides to wear shorts that expose the knees. Blue was known to stand up on his hind legs, and swat knees. He was big enough to reach your knees.

The way Blue came to us was probably one of the weirdest acquisitions we've had. My dad had to go to the doctor, and he saw the cat sitting outside the building the doctor's office was in. He thought the cat lived nearby, so paid it no mind. Dad went in, got treated, and got some asthma meds. Stepped out, didn't see the cat. Thought the cat must have gone on home. Goes to the car, and finds the cat curled up in the driver's side seat! Dad had left the window rolled down; it was in the middle of October, and unseasonably warm. Dad tried to get the cat to leave, but the cat just looked at him and went back to sleep. Dad picked up the cat, put it in the passenger seat, and brought him home. Came in the door with the medications in one hand, and the cat in the other. "Look, everyone! The doctor now prescribes cats!"

A year or so after we got Blue, we took in my great-granddad's dog, Pete, because he was getting to be too much for my great-granddad to handle. Pete had been around cats. He actually had a couple of cats that hung around him down at the farm. Imagine his (and Blue's) surprise when we brought him (Pete) home, and the first thing Blue does? Runs up and whacks Pete HARD on the nose. The dog was 5 times the cat's size, and yet he would cower in the corner if the cat came up to him, and would actually whimper and whine if the cat just looked at him.

Sadly, we had to have Blue euthanized when we found he had FIV, or Feline Aids.

[Ashlah]

Aw, Blue sounds like he was a wonderful cat.

We recently adopted a part Siamese kitten, and she does a lot of similar things as Blue. Meows constantly, seemingly at nothing, and runs through the house. Our other poor cat gets so confused by her sometimes. She tears things up like a dog would. My mom got her a little house thing made of cotton-y material, and it ended up shredded around the living room within a few days. But her best trick: she fetches! Completely self-taught. She brought a toy to me one day, and I absent-mindedly threw it across the room. And she brought it back. And again. And again. Letting out an adorable meow every time she takes off after it. She loves it! But, like a typical cat, will only play if it was her idea.

[Kithplana]

Every night...

once everyone is settled and snug in their beds, just beginning to drift off...

suddenly THERE COMES A NOISE--

MROW MROW MROW MROW MROW

--A NOISE OF DEATH--

*thunk* MROOOOW MROOOOOW

My cat, some kind of longhaired dimwit, becomes an unmatched hunter and a vicious killer at night. Nothing on the floor is safe! When she hasn't slain a hapless catnip mouse, she's gone even bigger and brutally murdered a sheet of paper or box of tampons. And, loyally, she always brings her prey to you (half-asleep in your bed), announcing herself all the way... unless of course she forgets what she's doing with it halfway. (In which case you have to call her name to get her to shut up.)

Every. Night. It would be cuter if I wasn't trying to sleep.

[Deva]

Set up an artificial plant for Christmas. Decorated it with ornaments and placed an angel doll at the top. No issues with any humans present (except some bent branches). Without humans? Beheaded the angel. On two occasions. Switched to a stouter angel afterwards. Never attacked the other ornaments. Merely knocked them off.

[Plasmic-Turtle]

Cats hate water, right? They hate getting wet, right?

Try telling that to our tuxedo cat, Jack. She (yes, Jack is a female...we thought she was a male when she was still a kitten) will get in the kitchen sink and sit in one of the basins. She insists on having a "water game", where we turn on the faucet to a trickle, and she will just sit under the stream. She'll then move around, lick at the stream (we have bowls of water sitting around for the cats), then take a paw and "dabble" at the stream. She just sits/stands there, lets the water trickle all over her.

Is she a tabby by any chance? I've heard that tabby-cats are often quite fond of water, and we certainly had some probs with my cat when she was a kitten... she'd insist on 'digging' in her water bowl each time we filled it in the same kind of manner cats used to cover up their poop, thereby kicking splashes of water all over the floor in front of the bowl.

She also has a serious food obsession, and instead of heading outside to play or chase birds, spends the majority of her life knocking things off shelves, bashing doors, running under our feet etc. to draw attention to her food bowl. Which generally DOES have biscuits in it, only she doesn't seem to like them much (they're diet biscuits). I wish she could just be happy :-/

[yurell]

I wish she could just be happy :-/

Get a dog, they're always happy ^_^

[PatrickRsGhost]

Aw, Blue sounds like he was a wonderful cat.

We recently adopted a part Siamese kitten, and she does a lot of similar things as Blue. Meows constantly, seemingly at nothing, and runs through the house. Our other poor cat gets so confused by her sometimes. She tears things up like a dog would. My mom got her a little house thing made of cotton-y material, and it ended up shredded around the living room within a few days. But her best trick: she fetches! Completely self-taught. She brought a toy to me one day, and I absent-mindedly threw it across the room. And she brought it back. And again. And again. Letting out an adorable meow every time she takes off after it. She loves it! But, like a typical cat, will only play if it was her idea.

Blue acted like a dog in many ways. One thing he would do is stand up on his hind legs and put his paws on your waist, if you happened to be standing up, looking for attention, just like a dog would. He would do the same thing on your thigh if you happened to be sitting down.

He also fetched. His favorite toy was those little plastic rings you tear off of milk jugs. He preferred the ones that stayed whole when you tore them off; never the easy-peel ones. The way he fetched was really funny. You tossed a ring towards him, and he would just sit there, then stand up on his hind legs, watching the ring come down towards him. Then he would catch it in mid-air. He reminded us greatly of then-outfielder David Justice of the Atlanta Braves. Justice's nickname was "Peanut", so whenever Blue did that, we called him "Peanut" or said he was "doing the Peanut".

He was also patient like a dog. He would make his rounds of kneading everybody. If you happened to be reading a book or the newspaper, he would just sit quietly, and wait. Once you put the book or paper down, said, "Hey, Blue", he would jump up into your lap and commence the kneading.

He also gave back walks. We always theorized he was a masseuse in a previous life. If you happened to be lying on your stomach, like I would tend to be when I'm trying to remake my bed (bed was in the corner; fitted sheet always came undone in that damn corner), he would walk up onto your back, and begin kneading. OH $DEITY did it feel good, especially after a hard day at school and work.

Set up an artificial plant for Christmas. Decorated it with ornaments and placed an angel doll at the top. No issues with any humans present (except some bent branches). Without humans? Beheaded the angel. On two occasions. Switched to a stouter angel afterwards. Never attacked the other ornaments. Merely knocked them off.

Thanks to Blue, we haven't put up any Christmas decorations in nearly 20 years. We had a 4-foot artificial Christmas tree. Every day, without fail, I would come home from school, and have to put the tree back up. One night right after we had put it back up, Blue knocked it back down. The tree and all the ornaments went into the box, and up in the closet. It was around December 20.

He also helped to unwrap presents. He revealed to me that I was getting a leather working kit. My parents tried to deny it, but I knew that was one thing I was getting. Never got fully into it; the materials were very expensive. May have to get back into it soon. It was fun.

Around Christmas the following year, my mom asked if I wanted to put up the tree. I said, "Only if you want to put it back up every single day, because I'm not doing that this year." She got the hint. The tree ended up I think being donated to a local nursing home or Goodwill.

Cats hate water, right? They hate getting wet, right?

Try telling that to our tuxedo cat, Jack. She (yes, Jack is a female...we thought she was a male when she was still a kitten) will get in the kitchen sink and sit in one of the basins. She insists on having a "water game", where we turn on the faucet to a trickle, and she will just sit under the stream. She'll then move around, lick at the stream (we have bowls of water sitting around for the cats), then take a paw and "dabble" at the stream. She just sits/stands there, lets the water trickle all over her.

Is she a tabby by any chance? I've heard that tabby-cats are often quite fond of water, and we certainly had some probs with my cat when she was a kitten... she'd insist on 'digging' in her water bowl each time we filled it in the same kind of manner cats used to cover up their poop, thereby kicking splashes of water all over the floor in front of the bowl.

I think she is a tabby, but more of a black tabby. When the sunlight hits her black fur just right (only sunlight can do this; no indoor lighting in our house is bright enough), you can see black tabby markings. She's a tuxedo - mostly one color with white markings, making them look like they're wearing a suit or a tux. T.S. Eliot called them "Jellicle Cats".

Our calico Maggie digs in the water. My mom got tired of water getting all over the carpet in her bedroom (where Maggie's water bowl is; she basically stays in that room all day and most of the night), so she put the water bowl in one of those aluminum disposable roasting pans. Now Maggie (or any other cat that gets the notion) can just dabble to their heart's content, without getting any on the carpet.

She also has a serious food obsession, and instead of heading outside to play or chase birds, spends the majority of her life knocking things off shelves, bashing doors, running under our feet etc. to draw attention to her food bowl. Which generally DOES have biscuits in it, only she doesn't seem to like them much (they're diet biscuits). I wish she could just be happy :-/

My grandmother's tortoiseshell, Shelly, whom I'd inherited when I moved into her house after she died, would let you know she didn't like her food by knocking her bowl to the floor. She insisted on eating up on the dresser, so I would feed her up there. If she didn't like it, she would send her bowl flying to the floor, food and all. My parents took her in, and had to have her euthanized. She was getting pretty old.

[PictureSarah]

My tuxedo cat, Scylla, loves to play in the water as well. She will walk around the rim of the tub while we shower or take a bath. Sometimes, when I'm bathing, she has fallen in. She doesn't get too upset, though, she just walks up onto my chest and tries to stay out of the water. Every morning after I shower, she runs to the tub to play with the dripping faucet. Her sister, Charybdis, who is pure black and fluffy, hates water with a passion, but she does occasionally like to sleep in the bathroom sink.

[Djehutynakht]

I remember that when my family would go on vacation for a few days, we would leave our cat out with a few days worth of food and water. He'd be able to get along fine... but he would get peeved whenever he ran out of wet food. He had a wet/dry food mix normally (he'd get wet food once/twice a day and there would be dry food out for the rest of the day) and he would really despise it when the wet food we left out before leaving for vacation ran out. My father was usually the one who fed him, and our cat adored him. When we got home our normally indifferent cat (he was originally a stray) would be incredibly incredibly affectionate towards him, mewing and following him enthusiastically.

The first night after we'd return, he'd sleep on my fathers head.

[poxic]

Cats are logical. Not enough of the tastiest food? Suck up to the food-giver as hard as is tolerable, for long enough to ensure that enough of the tastiest food is provided again, as per the traditional contract.

Totally logical. More of us humans would get better raises and/or promotions if we followed this simple rule, I think.

PS: post below is truth.

[Djehutynakht]

Or simply take it.

Cats are like humans. Some are good, some are bad, some are crazy, some aren't.

[Ghostbear]

I dunno about that, I've never met a bad cat. Grumpy, disagreeable or otherwise very difficult, yes, but never bad. Perhaps a feral cat (no experience with those for me to weigh in), but I've never met a domesticated cat, including strays, that wasn't affectionate once it warmed up to you.

[felltir]

PictureSarah, your cats names are AWESOME.

That is all.

[Menacing Spike]

I dunno about that, I've never met a bad cat. Grumpy, disagreeable or otherwise very difficult, yes, but never bad. Perhaps a feral cat (no experience with those for me to weigh in), but I've never met a domesticated cat, including strays, that wasn't affectionate once it warmed up to you.

That's because "bad cats" are usually put down. Mine used to be batshit insane, stalking and attacking us, and my parents seriously considered this.

Now he's more of a mobile plushie, so thankfully the problem is gone.

[PatrickRsGhost]

We have two handicapped cats.

Crystal is a white cat with blue eyes. Whenever a white cat is born with blue eyes, There's a 99% chance they'll be stone deaf. Although, I think she has Siamese blue eyes, which are different than regular blue eyes. Siamese blue is a bit deeper, darker shade of blue, but she still can't hear.

Her strange habit is she will go into either my dad's bathroom (parents sleep in separate bedrooms), or else in the laundry room, and start yowling. We believe she does this because the sound echoes off the tiled floors and hard surfaces (tub, shower stall door, toilet, cabinetry; washer and dryer) and she can feel the vibrations.

She will also start up her "yowlage" (that's what my mom calls it) at about 4 or 5 in the morning. She will go into the living room and begin yowling, hoping someone will come to her and pet her.

One funny thing we've discovered you can do with a deaf cat is when they're curled up asleep, you can walk up to them, stick your face in theirs, and wait. With Crystal, she'll wake up, make a "PPRRRRTTT!" sound, and if you hold a finger out, she'll lick and then nibble it. Funniest thing I had done with her was one night, she was standing in my mom's bedroom doorway, crouched down like she was about to pounce one of the other cats. I had come out of the hall bathroom, which is right across from my mom's bedroom. Not wearing any shoes at the time, I took the advantage. I bent down, and poked her from both sides. She jumped 3 feet in the air, did a back flip, and landed, facing me. The look on her face and the puffiness of her tail was PRICELESS. Mom had to hold onto her computer desk to keep from falling out of her chair, laughing.

Tim, our black cat, can't speak. He tries to, in the middle of the night, but it's a very eerie sound. It's a very scratchy, throaty "Raawr-raawr?" Sounds like something from a horror movie, if you ask me.

It's really funny but sad when I go to give him and Coaly, my tortoiseshell (they stay in my room) food. When I open the food jug and scoop out the food, he looks up at me and moves his mouth like he's meowing, but no sound comes out. He does purr, though. It's quiet, but it's there.

I also have to agree about PictureSarah's cats' names. I've always believed that mythological names were the best names for pets. We always tend to give human names here.

[Jessica]

I find it odd how my cats seem to have this very strange dominance interplay. Sometimes the small Siamese cat (named spider) is the dominant one, wandering around swatting at my other cat. Sometimes the fat grey and white cat (named Jewels) is the superior one, chasing spider around the house and making his life miserable. In fact, last night, the interplay changed in the middle of one of their "games", where Jewels chased spider out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, where spider seemed to turn around and chase jewels out again.

I love my cats. Both the attention-whore Jewels, and the skittish and neurotic Spider.

[PatrickRsGhost]

When my mom and I went down to Pensacola, FL a couple of weeks ago, we stayed at the boarding house my biological dad lived in, until he got sick. The landlady's cat, Suki, took to my mom and I very quickly. The landlady said she had never seen her cat behave like that; she usually stayed close to her. Sometimes cats know who cat people are, and when they're missing their own. I slept on a sleeper-sofa, in a "suite" that was really no more than a part of the living room closed off by a thick curtain. Suki would sometimes come in there and sleep in a chair that was right next to the sofa. Once or twice she'd get up in my lap or curl on my side. I ended up giving her a new name, or at least addending her name: Suki-Mao. Somehow, it fits.

[merrak]

When we bought our house we found out it came with a cat. He's strictly an outdoor cat because my indoor cat does not get along with other cats at all. The outdoor white cat will sit on the windowsill and stare into the house all day... 7 days a week, ~24 hours a day. Before the indoor cat became fascinated with the closet, he would stare back.

I didn't see him in the window this morning when I left for work. I walked outside and found him curled up sleeping below the window. I guess he can't stare all day.

He never gives up

[Djehutynakht]

He never gives up

I was looking at it for a moment, not really knowing why in the world you were posting this picture of an empty room.

Then I looked down and read the quote.

Then I looked back up.

And I got it!

[merrak]

I was looking at it for a moment, not really knowing why in the world you were posting this picture of an empty room.

Then I looked down and read the quote.

Then I looked back up.

And I got it!

I probably should have given a hint about what to look for
The bent blades on the edges are from the inside cat trying to get around the blinds and attack the window.

[pseudoidiot]

Yeah, we keep pretty much all of blinds raised by a few inches so we don't end up with a bunch of bent blinds.

[Gopher of Pern]

My cat, Drago, is a typical teenager - never listens, out all the time, only coming home for dinner, but really needy when they want to be. He also picks the weirdest spots to lie down - recently, it's been on our hessian shopping bags after we've come home from shopping, he'll just plonk himself down on them. Last weekend I left the bags on the table, went out again, and came home to them on the floor with Drago lying on them.

My wife's cat, Coco, unfortunately has gone blind, she has cataracts. Which is very unusual for a cat less than 1 year old. She generally stays inside, or just outside the house. She can't meow, only makes these cute 'meep' sounds. She's generally a bit more affectionate than Drago, and will often climb up on the laptop when I'm on it. The blindness doesn't seem to affect her too much, unless she gets startled and bolts, she sometimes goes colliding with something she shouldn't!

[emceng]

One of my cats gets the midnight crazies some times. He'll run around the house at full speed, running up and down the stairs or in circles. He does this during the day some times, but more often at night.

He also ignores items in his way. His tail will rip my cell phone cord out of the wall and fling it across the room. I've found my cell charger six feet away from the plug it was plugged into.

[Shivahn]

One of my cats gets the midnight crazies some times. He'll run around the house at full speed, running up and down the stairs or in circles. He does this during the day some times, but more often at night.

I have a cat that gets crazy when it's low-level light time. I swear that's the only time I've seen it happen. He attacks feet and bites and claws them viciously (he's normally extremely sweet and otherwise I don't think he's ever swiped at anyone). He runs around and tries to claw through socks. And of course, since there isn't much light, his irises are huge and he looks somewhat alien and creepy.

He hasn't really done that in a while though.

[merrak]

One of my cats gets the midnight crazies some times. He'll run around the house at full speed, running up and down the stairs or in circles. He does this during the day some times, but more often at night.

I have a cat that gets crazy when it's low-level light time. I swear that's the only time I've seen it happen. He attacks feet and bites and claws them viciously (he's normally extremely sweet and otherwise I don't think he's ever swiped at anyone). He runs around and tries to claw through socks. And of course, since there isn't much light, his irises are huge and he looks somewhat alien and creepy.

He hasn't really done that in a while though.

First law of cats: Level of crazy is proportional to the radius of the iris.

[Scyrus]

I have a female feral cat. She, along with two sisters were born in the woods, found extremely young by their dead mother.
The three female feral cats were took in and fed and taken care of. However, maybe she didn't adapt or was bullied by the other two sisters, but one died soon, perhaps of starvation as the others didn't let her feed or maybe she was sick (and perhaps her mother died of sickness too).

The other two cat sisters were separated and went to separate homes, one of which was mine. She is a tabby cat named Zira and is very territorial. Only when she wanted food or a warm blanket did she socialize, apart from that she usually clawed and bit us and ran away. My brother, not realizing cats do not understand punishment/consequence as we humans do, would some times slap the top of her head when she attacked him.It took a lot of cuddling and letting her sleep with me in blankets or couches for her to trust us. However, to this day she does not consent that anyone touches any part of her body that isnt the top of her head, her chin, and her neck. Zira is totally purr or bite.

Now she is a full grown, fat tabby, only aggressive when provoked, although still doesn't realize her claws scratch my mother when she yawns while leaning against her legs, which results in my mother calling her some funny name, which Zira truly does not care about and just sits there with her cute kitten smile. Zira is fond of suckling on our clothes while we are wearing them, and becomes extremely docile and purrs a lot when she does so. She also stats meowing at you if you call out her name too often without any purpose, as in answering. Whenever she lands on the floor when coming out of a bed or chair, she always involuntarily makes a noise like "prrooo".

She does get into a lot of catfights and usually returns with blood, hers or not, and her ears are as if a rat nibbled at them, full of tiny scratches and bitten off triangles. She despises water and big vaccuum cleaners, but not the counter vaccuum which is used for picking up bread crums from the floor, in the summer I use the small vaccuum and a brush to collect her falling fur, to which she doesnot usually protest.


Story time:
There was this time when my brother was on his bed playing playstation, and I was on mine, watching him and hoping for his character to fall into the water, and suddenly Zira comes racing from the living room, hops into his bed and flies out the window, for no known particular reason. Later, she did the same thing, but this time she didn't realize the window was shut and so she collided with the glass and fell behind my brother's bed, but she got out quickly unhurt, apparently. A few days later my brother was playing while I was reading a book, and there she came darting back. This time, the window was actually open but my brother rolled it shut really fast and there she crashed again, and again came out from beneath the bed instantly and sat next to us, like nothing happened.

Also, one day she was in the wall of our backyard staring at something. I approached her slowly, put my head right next to her and looked in the direction she was staring at, where there was another cat who hadn't yet noticed either of us. I said "What are you doing?", and to my surprise, Zira turned her head to me, looked at my eyes and went "Shhh!", and then proceeded to slyly lower her head to keep staring at the cat stealthily.

She never was that kind that follows little light dots. She does like to hide below tabbles and hug our legs when we pass by and then proceed to run away. Now she just pretty much sleeps/naps all the time, and only plays a little if we pick her up.

[poxic]

Heh. A friend had a cat for almost all of his 23 years (!). When they finally had him put down because of the daily suffering, she had had him for just over half of her life, I think. They were very close.

One day, she relates, two crows outside their apartment window were fighting with a squirrel. The crows had found the squirrel in their nest. The scene ended when the squirrel leapt into midair to get away from the crows. The crows each grabbed a leg and they tore the poor beastie apart. It was rather bloody and violent.

Her cat had been watching this entire event from the balcony. After the squirrel's denouement*, the cat casually stood up, stretched, and -- verrrry nonchalantly and in no hurry at all -- sauntered back indoors. As he passed my friend, he stopped, looked her in the eye, raised his eyebrows for a moment, then continued on his way to the water bowl or whatnot.

* as it were

[PictureSarah]

When I'm playing with the laser pointer with Scylla and Charybdis, and Charybdis chases the laser into the laundry room adjoining the kitchen, Scylla will position herself just outside of the laundry room door, so that when Charybdis comes back out, Scylla ambushes her.

Charybdis and Scylla both like to carry around a toy mouse, yowling in that special "We have prey for you!" way, and bring it to the bed when we are sitting and reading before sleep, and drop it between us.

Scylla hates it when I'm reading or on a laptop in bed, and always wants to be curled up on my throat during such times.