MPSIMS: My cat licks venetian blinds.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My Big Girl Bed is next to a window which is hung with venetian blinds. One day about two weeks ago, my younger kitty, Chang, was in his customary position, sitting on the sill, under the blinds when I heard a strange scratching noise. I look to the window, and see a tiny pink tounge siloutted against the blinds. The goofball continued to lick the blinds for about 5 minutes.

Alright, wierd. But this cat has never been un-wierd, so I can’t say I was suprised. But then he started again today, licking the ** other ** side of the blinds. My other cat, a dignified mature Siamese, has never expressed any interest in the blinds, other than the fact that they sometimes make getting to the window sill a bit more difficult.

So, Dopers. Care to create a theory as to why my cat is insane? I don’t live near the ocean, so they don’t have salt spray on them. They’re probably dusty, because I don’t care enough to clean them, but what would a cat want with DUST? Oy. Help.

2

SwimmingRiddles, I have consulted my three cats on your behalf. Here are their answers:

QueenBitchKitty: Chang is young and has not yet worked out the ways of the universe. Have patience, human. Do we cats mock your infants when they soil their drawers or when they make loud wailing noises for no apparent reason? No, we do not. We would ask the same of you.

BadBoyKittyWithAToupee: Chang is merely exercising his Bastet-given right to explore the world in his own way. He is also letting you know, in his own way, that venetian blinds are a poor substitute for lovely textured draperies into which we can sink our claws.

StoopidGirlKitty: Dust is yummy.

3

LifeOnWry, you are rapidly becoming my Favorite Newbie. :smiley:

Swiddles, can’t say much about the cat. My cat, Telecatster, ignores the blinds. My children, on the other hand, think like StoopidGirlKitty–dust is yummy.

4

My cats do the same thing, I now have vertical blinds, they lick those too. They also love to lick plastic bags. I’m thinking it’s the material and not the dust they love so much.

5

Swiddles dear, you have much to learn about the amazing inconsistencies wrapped in fur known as cats. :slight_smile: Having been raised with cats, and having been owned by several, I can tell you that each one is a unique individual, and they all love to confound and confuse us mere humans.

Let’s see… I’ve had one cat who decided to mother everyone and everything in the house, including teaching our half-pug dog how to be a mother to her new litter, and was even protective of the hamster. She would stand up to our Doberman if needed, with not the slightest sign of fear, even though one good bite from Heygirl <don’t ask me, she came with that name> would be the end of her. She mothered us humans too, kids, mom, dad, all of us.

I had another one who had an uncanny knack of knowing when one of us was even thinking about getting out cat food, and she’d beat us to the can opener. She somehow could tell from the sound if it was cat food, tuna, or something she wouldn’t like.

I’ve had several who thought licking plastic bags was close to heaven, and better than any old mere catnip. No, to this day, I have no clear idea why that is. My last cat, Sassy, did this all of her life. She would lay on the kitchen floor, licking one bag for hours at a time.

Currently I have Sir Wilbur and Heather <cats> and Krystal <Jack Russell sweet monster>. Sir Wilbur thinks that plastic bags were invented just for him, to lay on, push around the room, rustle noisily, climb inside, and whatever else he can think of to do with them. If there aren’t any lying around for him, he gets upset and cries loudly. So much for keeping a clean house. :rolleyes:

Heather mostly thinks the bags are a nuisance, but she does love rubbing against all the blinds she can reach. I guess she’s trying to dust them for me. :wink: So, I now have a cat-sized hole in the living room blinds, where they’ve bent them so much they broke off, so they can climb more easily to the windowsill, which is admittedly a lovely, wide windowsill with a great view of the yard and street. It’s usual to pull up on the drive and see either Krystal or one of the cats peering out of that hole to see who’s home.

I have plenty of more stories, but the point is that each cat is different, and will do the oddest things, in all likelyhood just to make you scratch your head in puzzlement and go ‘Huh?’:slight_smile: So, your kitty is quite normal. For a cat.

6

One of my cats licks my face, mostly my eyelids, when I am trying to sleep. If I cuddle with her for an extended period of time, she’ll start to get a glazed look in her eyes, and she’ll actually drool. Not St.Bernard-type drooling, just enough to leave a sizeable wet spot on my shirt. Nice.

Another of my cats has a sweet tooth. And if something is in his reach, it’s game. My husband left a selaled plastic pack of those little white-powdered cake donuts on the counter. Said cat managed to get the plastic open, and licked all the sugar off of all the donuts. One time, unbeknownst so me, kitty knocked over a full bottle of pancake syrup and ate about half of it before I caught him.

Oh! And one more…the “sweet-tooth” cat also has a thing for petroleum jelly. He ate half a jar once. I walked into the bathroom, and the jar was on the floor. He was not just licking it, mind you, but taking huge chomps out of it, really sinking his teeth into it, and purring like crazy. I phoned the vet, and she said he would just be “lubed up” for a while.

7

My cat, Athena, is not interested in the blinds. The only times she even bothers them is when she wants them opened so she can see outside. She’ll hop onto the perch and then tap her paw on the blinds over and over until one of us opens them.

She does like plastic though. She can lick that stuff for hours.

8

Never underestimate feline perversity. Chang may be licking the blinds for no other reason than to confuse you.

9

Actually, regularly giving your cats a bit of petroleum jelly is good for them. Helps with hairballs and is considerably cheaper than the actual hairball remedies you find for sale (which, if you look at the ingredients are mostly petroleum jelly).

10

My cats don’t lick the blinds, but one of my cats, Twinkle, has discovered that she likes to lick photographs. When I worked at an animal hospital, I remember there was an article in one of the vet magazines about cats licking photos. I think the theory was that one of the chemicals on the paper “tasted good” or something.

Pippa, the BitchCat, loves to chew on plastic bags. I have even found bits of plastic in poop while cleaning out the litterbox (and I assumed it was her poop, because she’s the only one who chews on plastic). My husband’s cat likes to play with plastic bags and get inside them.

Twinkle is also known as “Twinkle Toe-Licker” because of her propensity to do just that. When she wants to wake me up, she will jump up onto the bed and lick my eyebrow or eyelid. She always licks my chin, but I read in a cat behavior book that kittens do that with their mom as a sign of showing affection and bonding, and since I raised Twinkle from the time she was 2 weeks old, she does think I’m her mom! I can’t figure out if she thinks she’s a furry human, or if she thinks I’m a not-very-furry cat…

11

Some plastics are manufactured with beef by-products for pliability.

That’s why many animals want to lick and chew plastic bags. I don’t know if that applies to Venetian blinds…

12

LifeOnWry - I’ve seen you around and you crack me up. You’re definitely on the list of New People To Look Out For. Yes, there is a List. But shush, don’t tell everyone else.

That said, our cat is also a Licking Freak. She likes to lick walls and baskets. Particularly the wall by the stairs, and particularly the laundry basket. She licks, and then looks at me. I’ve spent years trying to fathom what the “I am licking the wall, and now I am looking at you” signal means, but I just can’t work it out:

Bimbo The Cat*: I’m licking! See - I’m licking the wall!

Me: I see the licking. Do you want food?

Bimbo: No! Licking! Lick! Can’t you see what I’m saying? Lick!

Me: Stroking? Petting? Is this what you’re trying to tell me?

Bimbo: You’re so stupid! I can’t believe you don’t know the universal language of wall-licking!

Me: Does is taste good?

Bimbo: Sweet, sweet walls.

[sub]*Bimbo was named when I was eight years old. She is named after a cat in an Enid Blyton story called Bimbo and Topsy. My parents didn’t tell me at the time what Bimbo means. I think they were trying to teach me something, but the lesson has so far escaped me.[/sub]

13

Well, my cat Fido likes to sleep on and lick my work uniforms (as I explained in Persephone’s MPSIMS thread).

However, I may be able to explain that. What I can’t explain is why Fido thinks pencils are evil. If she finds one on the floor, she has to attack it, getting more frenzied with each movement she causes it to make.

She has the same reaction to an arts-n-crafts project my son made in after-school care this spring. It’s just a tennis ball with a slit for a mouth, googly eyes glued on it and yarn for hair. Fido is convinced Mr. TennisBallHeadMan is one of the minions of Lucifer, and bites, kicks and scratches him with little or no provocation.

Your own kitty may like the feel of the blinds against its tongue, and now that it’s put its scent on them, will never stop licking them.

14

Here’s the cite for the plastic fetish:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A5628-2001Aug27

15

OMG I read that as “My husband likes to play with plastic bags and get inside them”. I must stop drinking and reading the SDMB.

16

La Femme Nikita likes to hide dog food in my shoes.
I used to have a cat that would try to nurse :eek:

17

Sisko the wonder kitty is fascinated by everything that goes on in the bathroom. If I am taking a shower, he walks on the edge of the tub between the curtains and sticks his head around the inside curtain to watch me. Yesterday, he got into the back of the tub and stared at me, happily just outside the spray from the shower. When I take a bath, he walks around the tub on the ledge and looks at me. Sometimes he perches on the spigot. Often he sticks is paw in the water, and then licks it dry. Tonight he fell in for the 1st time. He just stood there with his head above the water and a “My, this is interesting” look on his face before jumping out. He didn’t even seem upset he was all wet. By far his strangest quirk is when I’m using the john. I’ll be sitting there, pants around my ankles, doing God’s work, and he climbes into my pants but under my underwear and spys on me through the leg hole. He is one weird little kitten. I’ve never seen him lick the blinds, but batting the cords on them is something he can do for hours.

18

My cat Amelia loved to lick and chew clothes. If you left any article of clothing on the floor it was fair game. She’d start out by licking the same spot for a few minutes, then she’d start chewing, leaving little kitty teeth holes all over the section she had just licked. Once I left an unopened bag of Hanes undershirts on the floor and she ripped through the plastic to get to them. By the time I came home and noticed her, she’d ruined every shirt in the batch. Many was the time I’d go to work, only to be asked by a co-worker why the back of my shirt was so full of little holes. The wierdest thing, though, is when Amelia was about 4 years old she just stopped and never did it again. This coincides with the time I bought my wife some roses and she left them on the dresser in our bedroom. When I came home from work that day, Amelia had pulled out each and every rose petal and had spread them across the floor. (Each of the rose petals had the same little kitty teeth holes in them, so it was pretty obvious who did it.) When I first saw the cat, she was sleeping right in the center of her rose petal bed. I can only assume that she felt this was her official coronation as queen of the house and she ceased chewing clothes because she felt it was beneath the dignity of a queen.

19

My cat Zak liked peas, which is fine with me because I don’t, so he would get the spoonful my mother insisted I take.
He didn’t like plastic bags, but a paper grocery bag was a wondrous thing…

20

My three cats confirm the self-coronation angle, but also say that clothing chewing is beneath NO cat’s dignity.