# Another "Why does my cat do this?" Thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 20, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767 "2010-12-20T00:43:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/21 "2010-12-22T22:02:32Z")
The nightly parade with the toy: It could be a prey thing. A friend’s cat liked to catch flies then show off to the other cats, walking about the house doing that mewling thing with the fly buzzing away in her mouth. I’ve known other cats parade about miaowing when they’ve caught something, and had an old tom cat who would act like this with food he’d stolen.
As a teenager I had a cat, Tabby, who would do the sudden rage thing. She had a couple of triggers though. One was piercing sounds, including music. She was a cat who loved to listen to music\* but I learned not to play my Steeleye Span records. She hated Maddy Prior’s voice and would fly at me yowling with mayhem on her mind. More than once I ended up curled up in a ball in the corner. She never actually did me any harm however. Not so with her other trigger: _any time she failed to recognise human body parts_. My Mum used to sit with her arm trailing by the side and to the back of her armchair. If Tabby came in and saw\* just the arm\* she would stalk and attack it, leaving serious scratches on more than one occasion.
\*Really loved music, normally it made her very loving and soppy. She adored being sung to especially. if she wouldn’t come in at night when she was called my Dad would stand on the front doorstep and sing _All things Bright and Beautiful to her_.
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### Author:  [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/22 "2010-12-23T00:00:42Z")
> [@malkavia](#):
>
> \*But only with the orange mouse. We misplaced it once and had to buy a duplicate orange mouse, which she now also will play with. But she does not care about any other colored/shaped toy.
Cats have very limited color vision. She is probably reacting to the shape or smell rather than the color orange.
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### Author:  [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/23 "2010-12-23T01:49:36Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#):
>
> Same thing! If Zen starts getting too attention whorish (he gets mean if you don’t give him the attention he wants) or if he’s getting “that stance and look in his eye” (I know _exactly_ what you’re talking about!), I’ll pick him up and put him in the bedroom for a time-out. When he comes out, he’s perfectly normal again, whatever “normal” is for Zen.
Olive does the same thing. She is a very gentle and sweet cat, but every so often she gets “the crazy look” in her eye and tries to attack anyone in her path, completely unprovoked. We usually just yell at her to snap out of it, and she does, after a bit.
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### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/24 "2010-12-23T04:15:10Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#):
>
> Olive does the same thing. She is a very gentle and sweet cat, but every so often she gets “the crazy look” in her eye and tries to attack anyone in her path, completely unprovoked. We usually just yell at her to snap out of it, and she does, after a bit.
Is that the one when their entire eyes is pupil? Like almost all black? Becket gets that. I know he’s unreachable when he’s like that.
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### Author:  [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/25 "2010-12-23T05:14:55Z")
The tiny terrors (4 months old now) have yet to grow into their full fledged meows - they squeak and chirp for the most part. Mayme has a mouse that is her bestest friend. I’ve had to restuff it with cotton balls and sew up its’ tummy, sew its’ nose back on, and it’s looking like it needs it back sewn up. She will carry that mouse around chirping, calling, almost meowing. If I call her, she’ll run up to me with it, drop it, wait for a scritch, attack it again, and trot off chirping, calling, and almost meowing. Dot, the runt of the two, has what looks like a long tail on a stick toy. She carries it around, tripping over it, squeaking like a mouse. If you call her, she’ll drop it wherever it is, take a few steps towards you, realize she’s missing something, turn around, startle herself when she sees the toy, and attacks it again. Yeah, she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Neither one of them like feet in socks. If I’m barefooted, they leave me alone. If I have socks on, they constantly attack my feet. My mom came over one day, commented on my being barefooted when it was so cold outside (“You’ll catch your death!”) - I told her what happens when I am socked and showed her the various cuts on my feet from the terrors. They seem to especially hate my pinkie toes.
Every night when I go to bed, I have to pull the blankets back pretty far and check under/around the pillows as they like to bury their ‘finds’ - toys and socks - in my bed. Not so much of a big deal - unless they go looking for them. I have had them jump on my head trying to get a toy they left under a pillow.
Why do they do this? Because they’re freakin’ bonkers. Because they spent their first two months of life with a kid who found much amusement in getting them stoned.
Luckily, Lucy the elder, is sane. She did learn how to open the back door, though.
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### Author:  [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/26 "2010-12-23T05:27:41Z")
> [@interface2x](#):
>
> Is that the one when their entire eyes is pupil? Like almost all black? Becket gets that. I know he’s unreachable when he’s like that.
Yeah, her eyes get all black and she looks possessed. It’s funny how her pupils dilate even though the light hasn’t changed. She usually springs at me, misses, and then goes zooming off to the kitchen. Weird.
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### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_Doubt)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/27 "2010-12-25T04:48:07Z")
> [@Troubles](#):
>
> One of my cats does this, except she does it with a toy mouse. She frequently starts meowing in this weird way, almost as if she’s in distress, and whenever I come to investigate, the toy mouse is invariably right by her.
My older cat Grease started the exact same thing recently, after we have gone to bed he starts this odd gravelly yowling at night. It turns out he wants someone to come out and throw one of his little foam soccer ball toys (echoing **Malkavia’s** cat behavior, except that his retrieving skills are mediocre.)
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### Author:  [@Adriennes\_mom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adriennes_mom)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/28 "2016-07-23T17:18:20Z")
> [@malkavia](#):
>
> Weirdly enough, my cat Gia does this with an orange rat toy as well!
> \*But only with the orange mouse. We misplaced it once and had to buy a duplicate orange mouse, which she now also will play with. But she does not care about any other colored/shaped toy.
Yoda, our orange tabby, will play fetch with purple and white spotted mice. Only purple. In my ignorance I made the mistake of bringing home both purple/white and green/white mice, identical in all but color. He WILL NOT play with the green one, even if it has been marinated in catnip! Needless to say, I went back to the store and bought EVERY. DARN. PURPLE. MOUSE. they had. 😺
Our kitties know what they like!
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### Author:  [@Adriennes\_mom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adriennes_mom)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/29 "2016-07-23T17:55:59Z")
> [@Adriennes\_mom](#):
>
> Yoda, our orange tabby, will play fetch with purple and white spotted mice. Only purple. In my ignorance I made the mistake of bringing home both purple/white and green/white mice, identical in all but color. He WILL NOT play with the green one, even if it has been marinated in catnip! Needless to say, I went back to the store and bought EVERY. DARN. PURPLE. MOUSE. they had.
Within the last week, Princess Leia (Yoda’s sister, a gorgeous Tortie!) has started carrying a purple/white mouse around, crying. She usually does this at night, although sometimes she’ll do it during the day. {The cry is very similar to the cry she makes if she gets locked in the basement or in the addition to our house. (She likes to keep me company, so when i go into the basement to do laundry, she is close behind. If she is exploring when I am done, she doesn’t realize I am gone until the light is turned off. And she doesn’t like the pitch black dark…our basement is DARK once the light goes off! Poor baby…as soon as she lets me know she’s trapped, I of course rush to let her out. She gets so scared! 🙀 )} It sounds like a distress call, so, of course, it gets me up and going to make sure she’s ok. And , as usual, all is ok.
Yoda and Leia are rescues-they were living at the edge of a feral colony, living off the scraps left by adults and any insects they could catch. They were only four-five months old when they came to us, so small and scrawny! They must have been handled as kittens, as they were social from the start-Yoda was friendly from the beginning, ,Leia considerably less so, though she could tolerate one person at a time in her vicinity when she was first brought home.Yoda has always been a goofy boy, very social, very friendly and trusting. Leia was harder to catch, as she is a wily one. Yoda doesn’t like being held but will tolerate it. Leia REALLY hates being held and will fight like a spitfire to get loose, though she’ll occasionally get up on our laps ( as long as it’s on HER terms, of course.). Funny how litter mates can be so different!
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/30 "2016-07-23T17:57:20Z")
> [@interface2x](#):
>
> My older brother’s late cat Weeble used to do this exact thing, as well. He had an orange rat toy and after everyone went to bed, he would walk around with it in his mouth crying. Does anyone else have a cat that does this? Any idea as to why they do it? He doesn’t seem to be looking for comfort or even attention. He runs away if I try to pick him up. If I call to him, he won’t come. It’s not a terrible behavior, just odd.
The late Miss Austen used to do this with a little crochet toy. I used to think it was some kind of confused maternal instinct, but boy cats do it too.
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/31 "2016-07-23T18:25:23Z")
The girl I’ve mentioned from time to time on the SDMB: her mother was a pianist. The girl’s brother brought a cat over; the cat spent the rest of her life there.
They didn’t have a metronome–so far as I know-- but, with the mother playing the piano and the daughter playing the flute (she was in the high-school band and a local symphony), if they used one it would likely have attracted a cat’s attention. Any cat-owning Dopers have a cat who investigated a metronome? 🙂
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### Author:  [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/32 "2016-08-02T00:12:04Z")
Here’s my morning ritual. Wake up, use the bathroom, go downstairs, make coffee, while waiting for it to brew I pick up all the clean socks that are strewn about the ground floor level of the house.
My cat Stewie will taken clean (not dirty!) socks during the night like it’s his job and spread them about the house. At first he’d take them from piles of clean, folded laundry I forgot to put away, but once I made sure to put them in drawers, he somehow learned to open drawers just a crack to reach his paw in a hook a couple pairs of socks.
Doesn’t bother me anymore. It’s his nightly ritual.
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### Author:  [@appleaday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleaday)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/33 "2016-08-02T22:14:27Z")
I have a similar morning ritual; instead of picking up socks, I close doors,cupboards, and drawers the cats have opened during the night. They just can’t abide a closed cupboard.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/34 "2016-08-03T14:36:35Z")
Ours scratches herself constantly. She is an indoor cat, so no fleas are involved. I’ve taken her to the vet and she’s had a couple of shots but the scratching continues. I’m at a loss for why she’s doing it.
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### Author:  [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/35 "2016-08-03T15:29:00Z")
> [@MissTake](#):
>
> The tiny terrors (4 months old now) have yet to grow into their full fledged meows - they squeak and chirp for the most part. Mayme has a mouse that is her bestest friend. I’ve had to restuff it with cotton balls and sew up its’ tummy, sew its’ nose back on, and it’s looking like it needs it back sewn up. She will carry that mouse around chirping, calling, almost meowing. If I call her, she’ll run up to me with it, drop it, wait for a scritch, attack it again, and trot off chirping, calling, and almost meowing. Dot, the runt of the two, has what looks like a long tail on a stick toy. She carries it around, tripping over it, squeaking like a mouse. If you call her, she’ll drop it wherever it is, take a few steps towards you, realize she’s missing something, turn around, startle herself when she sees the toy, and attacks it again. Yeah, she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Almost six years later and they’re still the same. Mayme’s Mousie died a long time ago (drowning - it was very sad), now she has her baby (a small pink teddy bear) that she brings to me every night, howling as she brings it to me. She has brought me my swimsuit, underwear, socks (“What a good Dobbie!”), Tupperware lids, washcloths, her stick toys - pretty much anything she can sink her teeth into. Howling the whole time. Dot loves pretty sparkly toys, but is not a retriever.
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### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/36 "2016-08-03T21:01:32Z")
It’s doing this because you’re giving it the reaction it wants. I don’t know what that reaction is, but animals are very quick to learn what works and what doesn’t.
If it’s at the same time each day, it’s unlikely to be a physical problem because they don’t manifest themselves exactly at the same time, it would vary.
So whatever is being the done, the animal is looking for a reaction and getting it.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/37 "2016-08-04T01:51:58Z")
Luci does the toy thing too. She has these two stuffed monkeys, and a little crocheted cat, and she’ll carry one of them around, and just wail like she’s in horrible pain. It’s absolutely adorable. (I keep trying to film her doing it, but every time she sees me with the camera, she stops)
She usually does this right after she eats, too.
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### Author:  [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-why-does-my-cat-do-this-thread/564767/38 "2016-08-04T04:05:33Z")
Brain worms … that’s only thing I cold come up with.
Spicy … forgets who I am after eight hours apart … runs around the house panicked for days until he remembers me … just weird …
If this helps … his mother, Shilah, would bring in tree leaves to Spice and his litter mates (Sugar and Everything Nice) like ten or fifteen times everyday day. Piles of old leaves in the house, to busy laughing to try and stop Shilah …
What ever causes this, it’s contagious, bring a normal cat in and they’ll be full of brain worms in a week.
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