I have a new cat, Cuthbert, and he likes sleeping next to my feet. Two nights straight, I’ve been woken up from a sound sleep by something weird going on with my feet. It felt like Cuthbert was trying to curl up on my feet but kept slipping off. He was also kneading my feet, the bed, the sheet, the blanket, etc. with all four feet.
I wake up and look more closely at him. He’s hunched over. His eyes are partially shut. He has the Vellux blanket in his mouth. When he notices that I’m looking at him, he starts crying, that tone that I’ve had other cats get when they’ve caught a mouse or a cat toy in the middle of the night.
The kneading is really energetic and it focuses on my feet.
The best way to picture it is: Imagine a cat with a blanket in his mouth, crying and jogging in place on my feet.
It’s thought cat’s knead when they are content. The do this when they are nursing. I’ve read the kneading stimulates the mother to make breast milk or something along that lines.
Depending on the thickness of your blanket and the sharpness of his claws, his contentment can be your aggrevation.
I have a cat who used to nurse on a blanket. It’s different than what Cuthbert does. He stays on his feet and it’s vigorous, not like the suckling behavior I’ve seen in other cats.
It’s just doing that because the cat left their mother too early. All three of my cats did this.
One would only do it if my father picked her up, she would knead his cheek, and suck on his shoulder area, (she liked flannel). Weird, right?
One did it on a rug.
One did it anywhere, but rarely.
None of them ‘meowed’ like yours, but the first one would give a half meow. We would imitate the sound, and she would repeat it as long we ‘talked back’.