# My Cat Does this Weird Thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459 "2004-02-10T15:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/21 "2004-02-11T01:55:11Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Your love cat just can’t get enough human hugs, therefore steals that which smells most humanish. Not you’re neglecting the fuzzball, but the cat probably loves human pheromone and there just can not possibly get enough attention. > > LittleCat is a whore for attention and is so affectionate it’s downright annoying. There is no such thing as “enough hugs and pets” no matter how much attention she gets. She’ll swipe socks and undies out of the laundry basket, bras are just grand as far as she’s concerned. She was over the moon on a hot summer night when she found Sniffs\_Markers sweaty t-shirt. > > Snuggling up to that is almost as good as snuggling up to human litter-mate. I don’t know… something tells me that it’s because the things smell period, not because they smell like us. Halfie hates the dog, but he goes insane whenever he finds his muzzle. Dragging it around, putting his head in it to smell it, rolling on it… I think our used clothes just smell interestingly strong too. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/22 "2004-02-11T02:16:03Z")
My female cat (Bonk) loves to lick Ziploc bags. And paw at paper on the ground for HOURS. Stand on it with 3 paws, dig with one. Dig dig dig dig. And she’ll only play with hair ties and crinkled-up candy wrappers. Tomcat (Boom) yowls in the window, which I’m trying to break him of via water. He alwso contorts himself into some of the strangest postions. I just stare at him while he slep and think, “Does he have a spine?” And he loves playing with milk rings. Kitten (Crash) is just insane like a kitten, duh. But he does “sneak” onto my lap. He loooves sleeping on us. So, if we push him away, he’ll put one paw on our lap, then another, then scoot his torso up, and suddenly there’s a cat on my lap! Nobody hoards things, but I think that’d be so cute. ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/23 "2004-02-11T03:12:28Z")
Why don’t you make Cat his own nest (in a little basket?) of your old, unwashed clothes, the ones you were going to throw out. You probably won’t be able to smell it but he’ll be in kitty heaven. Sometimes avoiding the problem is as good a response as solving it. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/24 "2004-02-11T11:45:53Z")
> [@boofy\_bloke](#): > > Why don’t you make Cat his own nest (in a little basket?) of your old, unwashed clothes, the ones you were going to throw out. You probably won’t be able to smell it but he’ll be in kitty heaven. > > Sometimes avoiding the problem is as good a response as solving it. I was about to suggest this. We have a basket full of worn-out clothes (mostly T shirts) specifically for the cats. They LOVE it. My cat, Sapphire the slut, AKA bratcat (and I’m afraid that she DOES come by all these nicknames honestly) used to drag brushes and featherdusters around. My daughter could not leave her cosmetic brushes out, nor could we leave the basting brush unattended for a second…Sapphire would jump up to the Forbidden Counter and drag her treasure away. We finally got her a couple of those catnip-filled cloth squares and a couple of toy mousies. She loves them to pieces, and in fact we keep several backup mousies in a drawer. Her particular favorites are “Bouncy Mousies”, which have an elastic cord attached to a hangar. You put the hangar over a door jamb, and the cat can happily swat and kill the mousie for HOURS. Sapphire, of course, prefers that her humans join in with this play, and I’d say that she gets about 2 hours of mousie play with various humans over the course of an average day. And of course cats do weird things…isn’t that why we keep them around, because they’re amusing? I love to watch our pair play with each other, it’s better than any TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/25 "2004-02-11T13:24:11Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#): > > And of course cats do weird things…isn’t that why we keep them around, because they’re amusing? I love to watch our pair play with each other, it’s better than any TV show. Ain’t that the truth? We have to drop what we’re doing when Mr. Kalhoun or I say, “C’mere quick! You gotta see what (Devil) (Echo) (Quicksilver) is doing!” THis morning’s alarm was that “The Infant” (Quicksilver) was rolling around in our shell-shaped bathroom sink! Just being adorable! ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/26 "2004-02-11T13:49:03Z")
Let’s see… My male cat, Tommy has a foot fetish. The second I take off ANY pair of shoes I’ve been wearing, he jumps on top, lays down over them and buries his head in em, makin squishy-feets. My little female, Boo-Boo, loves to lick and bite my hair, usually when I’m trying to sleep. She does not meow, she “trills”. She is also a little thief. ANYTHING that can be batted around a floor gets stolen. Gum wrappers, bottle caps (_especially_ bottle caps…I’ll have a 2-liter bottle on my desk while reading something, pour myself a glass, and…wtf, where’d the bottle cap go?), random bits of food you’ve not yet eaten, cigarette butts out of the ashtray, lighters, paper money…anything not tied down and battable is fair game, far as she’s concerned. I went to sweep the kids’ bathroom the other day (usually hubby and the kids clean it) and opened their linen closet. I found the floor of their linen closet COVERED in bottle caps, paper bits, receipts, gum wrappers, cracker packets, and, I kid you not, a hundred dollar bill, all apparently lost under the door jamb when a game of “Bat Around Something I Stole from Mommy’s Desk” went awry…_sigh_ I love my little Boo-Boo… Lily-bird is the “Momma” kitty. She gives me baths when it’s time to go to bed, and absolutely cannot (apparently) allow me to go to sleep unless her face is right up in mine, noses barely touching. (You really do get used to it…after a while…) When it’s time to wake up and I’m avidly trying to ignore my alarm, she’s always the persistent one, licking my face and walking all over me to wake me up till I get up and turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/27 "2004-02-11T13:54:14Z")
I seem to recall reading in the “Animal Doctor” column that many animals have a licking fetish with plastic bags because animal byproducts are used in the manufacturing process. Ick. Max has the same obsession with certain household items and is notoriously interested in anything with a slick fabric (he licks the lining in my winter coat, any non-cotton underwear, etc.). I used to have a cat who was fascinated by some strands of cheap Mardi Gras beads and used to carry them around with her. ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/28 "2004-02-11T14:56:57Z")
I think **Eats\_Crayons** may be right on the money (at least with my cat). Kitty-cat is a whore for attention…he always has to be pet My other Charlie-cat, he loves to jump on counters and knock stuff off it with his paw. He’s not particularly interested in the items he knocks down, he just likes to clean off the counter, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/29 "2004-02-11T21:01:52Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > It must be the natural fibers, i.e., feathers and whatever-they-make-natural-blush-brushes-out-of. I swear, it sounds like she’s going to say something in _English_ fercrissakes. My feather duster is made out of “naturally shed ostrich feathers,” so take that for what it’s worth. They must smell good to him. It really freaked me out the first few times he did it, and yes, the crying sound is just odd. Sometimes I do think he’s about to speak to me. Sometimes he makes that chittering sound. It’s like a deep gutteral sound. Then he switches back to the crying. **harmless** , my other cat is a bag-licker, too. The grocery store bags or the wrapping on toilet paper multi-packs. Drives me nuts. I can’t stand the sound - it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/30 "2004-02-11T21:36:06Z")
One of our cats often paws the floor around the food bowl, digging his claws into the carpet. What is this cat behavior based on? Is he trying to tell us that he would rather have different food, or is he trying to establish dominance or possession of the food? ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459/31 "2004-02-12T01:18:39Z")
> [@](#): > > One of our cats often paws the floor around the food bowl, digging his claws into the carpet. What is this cat behavior based on? Is he trying to tell us that he would rather have different food, or is he trying to establish dominance or possession of the food? Could be playing with his food (dead rat), could be excited, could be marking territory. Depends on the exact nature of the pawing and clawing. > [@](#): > > Max has the same obsession with certain household items and is notoriously interested in anything with a slick fabric (he licks the lining in my winter coat, any non-cotton underwear, etc.). I used to have a cat who was fascinated by some strands of cheap Mardi Gras beads and used to carry them around with her. Could be a drag queen. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-does-this-weird-thing/228459.md?page=1)