So, I’ve had Dewey for, what, a month and a half now? And his true weirdness is coming out. I’m starting to think he really needs another cat, but my dog (who’d be a cat killah if I let him) is in training and I don’t think I really ought to rock the boat at this point. Does anybody have an opinion on why he does some of this stuff?
Obsession. He cannot leave his feather-onna-stick be. He stares at it all the time. He’s chewed all the feathers off. It’s a stick-onna-stick now. He gets very distressed when he can’t find it. You almost get the feeling that he doesn’t even want to obsess over it, but he doesn’t have a choice. The stick is like a drug to him.
Weirdly doggy behavior. He fetches the stick-onna-stick. I mean, he brings it to you, you throw it, he runs after it and brings it back and bugs you until you throw it again. He carries favorite toys around with him just like a puppydog.
For weeks his best friend was a sack of potatoes. Like, a five pound sack of potatoes. He stole it out of the grocery bag and dragged it around the house with him. He weighs maybe 10 pounds, tops, himself. Sometimes he’d lose a potato and corrall them all together, but sometimes he’d play with the potato like it was a prey animal. He dragged the bag around until he was down to one potato and then I called it quits because I was tired of tripping over potatoes in the dark.
Is this normal cat behavior? I mean, I know there’s nothing unusual about the way he sneaks into the bathroom because he knows there’s a lap in there, or the way he wakes up at 6 AM every day and tries to wake us up so we shut him up in the living room and dining room before bed, or the very creepy way he watches my fishtank. But potatoes?
Doggie-cats are quite common. Our black monster, Pixel, is part terrier and part beagle. She digs, fetches, and does all sorts of doggie behavior.
Count your blessings. Dewey picked something cheap for a friend. He could have picked your jewelry. Get him a sack of potatoes every month and he’ll be happy.
Ever step on a potato in the dark where you don’t expect a potato to be? I wrenched the hell out of my shoulder to stop myself from face-planting. Potatoes are a hidden menace.
How old is Dewey? A lot of kittens exhibit fetching behaviour - Cookie Monster did until she was about 18 months old, then just stopped.
The corralling of potatoes is one of the funniest images I’ve heard about a cat for a long time. I suspect it’s an atavistic parenting behaviour. Has Dewey been “done”?
You’re very lucky, though. I think Dewey sounds absolutely fantastic in his eccentricity. Piccies?!
I had a kitten who, even after he grew into a cat, (imigian that…) couldn’t get enough attention. It was impossible to pet him enough. On top of that, he loved to lick me. George could always be found within arms length, pestering me to be pet, and licking my fingers, nose, face, or grooming my hair.
That sounds like my Neko. He loves to play fetch (video) and has a tiny green frog toy that he is absolutely obsessed over. If he can’t find it he will worry and whine and whine and worry until we discover it for him.
I’ve read that certain breeds are more likely to play fetch, so it may be that your cat is one of them.
He’s fixed, yes. He’s about a year and a half old, according to his paperwork, but I’m not sure how they know that because my understanding was that he got left in one of the “no-fault” cages they have outside the shelter. He’d already been neutered and chipped beforehand.
Sorry, I forgot, I broke the Cat Thread Picture rule! This is him bringing Stick for me to throw again, and this is him asleep on my legs.
I want a cat that drags around a sack of potatoes! I’m loving the saga of the cat, Zsofia. You must get another (the boyfriend will get over it).
No, but I did sprain my ankle doing aerobics (you know, the kind where you jump around the living room to loud music?) and landing on a rope-bone once. Hurt like hell.
Quoted for extra emphasis.
Zsofia, some cats do fetch and it sounds like you have a very interesting cat. I wouldn’t want him to change. I can see how the random potatoes could be a hazard, maybe you could get him some more soft toys to corral?
As for getting another cat, if you really want one get one, however be warned that sometimes another cat may change the dynamic and your other cats behavior. My youngest, Pi, was very puppy-like in his attachment to me. He always greeted me at the door and followed me from room to room. At bedtime he’d join me and snuggle. He wasn’t very good with the other cats though and none would really play with him (too rough and unrelentless).
Then I brought home an anemic kitten I was nursing back to health and he fell in love with her. I’d take her with me to work all the time and she was very attached to me and would follow me around at work. Eventually, I decided to keep her because Pi loved her so much and I started leaving her at home and she and Pi bonded. Pi finally had someone to play with and they were inseperable and they forgot about me. whine
Well, Pi does still greet me at the door and Luna does sometimes and they do both still follow me at times but when it’s bedtime they usually snuggle with each other more than they do with me. So if you do get a new cat, it’s possible it could change some of the behaviors you love about your current cat, so only do it if you really, really want another cat.
Clarkyboy, our cat, loves to fetch as well. He also loves the blankie-game*, which I thought only dogs liked. And he is obsessed, to our almost constant irritation, over his three leather mice. He knocks them under furniture and does not stop bothering us until we fish them out.
Fret not, your cat is just strange… like every other cat.
*Wherein said animal loves being under a blanket and then wrestled with by The Evil Forces of The Hand Monster.
We have a “dog in a cat’s body” cat, too. We acquired him as a stray when he was fully adult (vet’s guess is 2-3 years old). He was not neutered when he first came to live with us, so we kept him in our basement during the day to keep him from marking our living area. Our son had LOTS of toys down there, and Paka (the cat) found some plastic toy jacks that he LOVES, even now. He brings a jack to us, and expects us to throw it for him. He chases it down, then brings it back. Even after we had him neutered, he still LOVES this game, although he will also play it with toy fur mice, milk-jug plastic rings, and even home-made twist-tie toys. The most dog-like part here is that he will bring us the toys to us on his own, and meow until we start playing with him, rather than waiting until we choose to play with him.
In addition to fetching, he is very devoted for a cat. He’s not a typical lap cat, but he does like to follow me around when I am home during the day. If a stranger comes into the house, he will enter “defense” mode, and hang out with us until he is sure that the stranger is acceptable. (We had someone from Pella come and give us a quote, and Paka came in and welcomed him, then curled up on the floor next to him, exactly like our dogs did with welcomed guests when I was growing up.)
He also normally comes when he is called. There are occasions where he prefers to sleep and ignore us (like a cat), but most of the time, if we call his name from another room, he comes trotting in to see what we want. He also prefers to chase down bouncy balls than track string being dragged across the room.
Our other cats (including Minou, our other current cat) have exhibited none of these behaviors. All of them (except Minou–who typically does not enjoy any kind of personal contact with humans) have been lap cats, but they looked for laps when they felt like it, rather than following their owner around the house all day. They were also either completely panicked by strangers entering the house, or completely oblivious. They would play with toys as long as the toys were controlled by their people–like strings dragged across the apartment, or dancing cat toys–but they have never actually brought a toy that they wanted to play with to a person spontaneously.
My little Tabitha (the white one on the left) also loves to fetch stuff.
What pisses me off though is that unlike a dog, she’ll never bring it ALL the way back to you, you always have to move a little more forward each time to get the toy. I know, I know, they do it because it’s a game of make the human get their big butt off the chair, it’s still annoying though! Damn cute little buggers.
Mark
Ah yes, I forgot to mention that Clarky also comes to us when called. The thing is, though, we can’t just call his name… we have to sing his theme song*, and in a particular key, and he’ll come running every time.
*Said theme song: “Clarkyboy” sung to the tune of the popular 1980s cartoon “Gummi Bears”.
My last cat was very dog like. She’d follow me around the house and come when I called her. Cats generally fall into three categories: Those that act like cats, those that act like dogs, and those that are people with cat fur (the rest have some characteristics of all three).
