I don’t know why, but both our dog and our cat seem to think I can’t possibly want to be alone in the bathroom. Yeah, I could close the door, but when I’m home alone, it seems silly.
The dog is the worst - she’ll not only follow me there when I come home from work (OK, so she missed me) but she’ll also get up in the middle of the night and come from the living room to accompany me in the wee (heh) dark hours of the morning.
Every once in a while, the cat feels he needs to join me when I take a seat. He’ll rub up against my legs, purr, then sniff around the rest of the room. I suspect I’m just an excuse for him to enter a room he usually avoids.
Reassure me that I don’t have the only critters with a porcelain fetish!
Of course not. Why shouldn’t they love a situation where you are in an enclosed space, with seemingly NOTHING to do but pet them? You’re a captive audience. Also (and I shudder to think this), I wonder sometimes if they don’t know EXACTLY what you’re doing, and cluster around in hopes of getting a chance to check out your “gross national product,” like they would if you were another animal. Icky, but there it is.
Damn, same problem here. Not that I have stage fright with animals or anything, I just don’t like a fuzzy furry purring animal figure-eighting around my ankles when I’m trying to take a leak! Jeez guys give it a rest!!!
Yep, my two female cats love to nudge open the door, wander in, ask for a pat and a scratch behind the ears, purring loudly… then they wander around the rest of the bathroom, sniffing, poking, peeking, and hiding. The oldest likes to poke her nose in the bathtub when it is empty (she knows all to well what it looks like full, when she gets her monthly bath - it’s like she’s trying to face her demons, convincing herself that it’s not so scary, so that next time, she will be brave… it never works). The youngest usually goes back out into the hall… and then sticks her little arm into the crack between the door and the wall, all the way up to her armpit, and wave hello at me. When I answer she retracts the arm… waits a few moments… then does it again. If I’m in there for the long haul, she sometimes gets bored of this, comes back inside the bathroom, and sticks her arm between the door and the wall outside into the hallway. But usually no one answers her then. She makes cooing noises (“coo? rrrr? rrroeerr?”), hoping to get a response from somebody. Sometimes the oldest will go over and clean the youngest for a while. They don’t leave until I stand up to flush. Then they race each other out the door and skip down the hall. Weirdness. But I hardly ever need to bring a book.
All the cats and most of the dogs I’ve been alone in a house with will do the same thing. They’ll nudge the door open if I’ve just pushed it behind me and the door hasn’t closed.
When we had a Bourke’s Parakeet, he flew in for a visit while I was on the pot, and tried to land in my panties, which were stretched across my knees.
It was too uncertain a perch, so he didn’t stay long, but it certainly surprised me.
I totally understand. Our dogs don’t bother to follow us to the bathroom, but our cats DO. I haven’t shit in privacy for YEARS. I wouldn’t know what it is like…
Our cats follow me everywhere, especially if I’m the only one home. The female cat primarily just asks me to turn on the faucet in the sink if I’m in the bathroom for any length of time, and she leaves as soon as she’s had enough to drink.
The male, though, is definitely of the opinion that I am a captive audience for his affection. If I don’t pay attention to him, he starts gnawing on my ankles.
Both of them love to watch the water twirling around in the bowl, especially if there are smelly brown things floating around as it twirls.
The presence of the cats really doesn’t bother me that much. However, I can’t seem to break my son of the habit of following me back to the bathroom through a closed bedroom door.
The first thought when I read the thread title was “this is about cats” and I was half right.
I guess it’s a social thing because none of my cats seem to go to the pan by themselves. The youngest almost got her head peed on by my boy kitty when he was trying to take a tinkle, she was being so nosy.
My cats don’t do this and never have. Of course, this is just further evidence that the both of them are dumber than rocks, and so don’t have the intelligence to pick up on whatever it is that attracts pets of normal faculties to follow their people into the W.C…
Scarlett, bless her soul once found the stream so exciting that she tried to swat at it. I should say did swat at it. It was so funny I would have peed from laughter had I not already been. Peeing I mean.
Only weeks later, she thought she’d check out where the Fun Yellow Stream went, so she got on her hind legs to peek over the top and got the back of her head nailed.
Marty on the other hand lays claim to my first visit every morning, for he (being The Wise One) knows that will be when I am seated upon the Throne of Petting Marty.
He gets so excited for me to be there that if I hold my hand up high and snap my fingers, he’ll get on his back legs so that I can scratch his head that way.
We call this ritual “Boo Time”, for the nickname he earned as a kitten. Marty Boo.
I live alone with kitty, and since she was a kittien she has always made an apperance while I’m taking a dump. Pants on the floor, jockey shorts on the floor, she thinks it’s a nest and jumps right in. Makes a perfect nest for her (I guess)
Thank Og me and my boys aren’t allergic to cats! Also, I’ve had to put another cat box in the bathroom because she pees on the rug because she sees me taking a leak in the toilet and thinks she has to do the same.
Anyway, now she has two places to go.
Would somebody explain cat behavior to me?
Our Callie would frequently weasel between my legs and stick her head over the edge of the bowl for a good close look when I was taking a pee. She got her nose peed on a couple of times when I didn’t see her in time, but it didn’t stop her from doing it again next time I didn’t close the door. Of course, we always referred to her as our “blonde” cat. She was sweet, affectionate, death on four paws to catnip mice and dangling bows, but with a permanent air of wide-eyed surprise.
Heh. Our bedroom door is hard to shut properly (warped, or the hinges are crooked), so often we just pull it to. Which results in a cat sitting on the headboard or on the bedside table, purring or just staring, staring with her dead eyes.
And she likes to join me in the toilet too, she’ll come and sit and stare at me. Never for pats, just for staring.
I have a Cocker Spaniel that barges into the bathroom, but he mostly wants you to turn on the cold tap so he can get a drink. Water tastes better when it’s moving I guess.
My cat ALWAYS follows me into the loo. He especially likes to bonk his little head against the cabinet next to the toilet. It’s actually somewhat freaky.
Yup, my cats have to join me in the bathroom. One of the cats always jumped up to the sink and peed while I was having my morning pee. Since another cat started peeing on the floor I also decided to put a litter box in the bathroom, which made it a free for all when I go in to pee. Now a couple of them usually try to get in the litter box and pee while I’m in the bathroom. The older cats have given up because the kittens are more annoying about it but every so often one of the older cats will come in and watch or rub against my legs.
The dog doesn’t have access to the bathroom, I think that’s for the best.
After we moved to this house and I built the cat suite, I kept having this weird feeling in the bathtub - as if part of my bath ritual wasn’t getting done. I finally figured it out - it had been literally years since I had taken a bath without at least one feline in the room. My Siamese would walk on the tub rim and talk to me the entire time.
