OMG! My parents’ younger cat did that to me when I still lived at home. I was surfing the 'net one night, with her sitting on the desk next to the screen. All of a sudden she begins swatting at the screen! Eventually, I realized that she was trying to catch the cursor. This same cat has also tried unsucessfully to catch the print head on the printer 
Couldn’t read ALL of this, but, staring at a cat is a sign (to the cat) as animosity. They think you are agressive and mignt attack.
Look away once and a while.
Kitty cat + pink tutu = Happy Creaky!!
I’m telling you, it’s sooooo cute!!
(I’m guessing it really may be a good thing that I don’t own a cat anymore…)
We won’t have room for two scratching posts. The “yelling and chasing” idea sounds great!
Sisal, hmmm…
Unfortunately, if we cover the arms (his favourite target), he just moves on to the back, sides, whatever. I’ll try to get Mr. Lissar to catch him in the act, remove the claws from the couch, and put them into his blasted scratching post. Stupid beast…
I bet we could put a tutu on Bailey. Except for the scratching things, he’s the worlds most docile, friendly cat.
One of ours meows at the wall.
There are no reflections to chase, nothing outside of the same wall that has been there for years. But he will walk up to it, look at it, meow at it, then walk away, his job apparently done.
When I ask him what he sees, what is bothering him about the wall, he ignores me. That’s to be expected, but what seems really bizarre is that our other cats give me a look that says, “What, you can’t see it?”
What do they know?
I’m not sure if you’re serious, but don’t do that. Yes, he can remove the claws from the couch, but don’t try to force the cat to use the post, or do it to “show” him how. Cats are contrary creatures (as I’m sure anyone that has one knows) and your doing that can very likely make him stubborn about using the post.
You can try playing with him by the post. With a string or something so he’ll end up clawing the post trying to get the toy. Hopefully this, over time, will make him go “hmmm, this feels good!”
Good luck!
I don’t know. But there is nothing quite as creepy as having your cat laying down by your chair and suddenly sit up like somehting has just caught her attention and stare across the room.
At nothing.
After a few minutes she’ll just lay back down like nothing happened.
I, however, keep lookinig across the room out of the corner of my eye.
It’s a world wide cat plot to drive all the humans living in their houses insane.
My cat just hovers, about 3 feet off the ground. When I ask it what it’s doing, he says, “Never you mind!” in a very German accent. Talk about creepy…
Quit attaching buttered bread to your cat!
I thought it was toast with grape (or possibly blueberry… something dark, anyway) jelly?
[sub]That’d be jam, east o’ the pond.[/sub]
The very best way to get a cat to stop scratching the sofa is to squirt it with a water bottle. This is assuming (since the cat is scratching it) that the sofa isn’t an antique Chesterfield or Louis XVI. Believe me, the cat will learn very quickly that the sofa isn’t to be trifled with.
When we had a 20 gallon fish tank, our cats used to like to sleep on the hood. If the hood was open, they enjoyed drinking the water, totally ignoring the fishes swimming around. I wonder which tastes better to a cat–fish tank water or toilet bowl water?
It’s probably a mouse that he stashed away in there when you weren’t looking. Of course, my judgement may be skewed by recent events in my own home.
Have you seen this site? Oh so funny! Scroll down and click to see MORE CATS THAT HATE YOU.
http://www.mycathatesyou.com/catindex.htm
Hilarious!
They know you’ve got termites, mice, or raccoons living in that wall.
We once had a cat who would “converse” with a dark spot on the wall. She also talked to bugs, so maybe she thought it was a very slow moving bug. She wasn’t a real bright kitty, she used to put her paws on the hot oven door when I checked on the roast…EVERY TIME.
We’ve had a variety of cats over the years. A couple of them liked to groom my husband’s armpit hair…and then bite him GOOD right in the center of the armpit. He does NOT appreciate this.
I’m afraid that I’m turning into a Crazy Cat Lady. I’ve been known to tell my cat to “Hold on a minute, Mama’s fixing you a plate right now” as I dish out HER share of the steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans on HER plate. If we give her her own plate, you see, she doesn’t try to eat out of OUR plates…while we’re still eating!
Yes, she eats the green beans. And the figs, and the avocado…but don’t worry, about 95% of her diet is simply cat kibble. She just eats human food for a bit of variety, and to assert her dominance.
Actually, that makes a lot of sense–the wall he meows at contains a no-longer-used chimney, in which some squirrels set up residence a few years ago. We managed to get rid of them, but who knows what else might have crawled in there since?
Thanks for the idea–it sounds like it just might be the answer!
I think spraying only works if you catch him at it at least 75% of the time. He’s gotten so we’ll yell, “Bailey! Stop that!”, and he’ll turn and stare innocently at us with his claws still embedded in the couch. He nkows he’s not allowed. I think it’s turned into “fun game Mommy and Daddy play with me, pretending I can’t claw the furniture.”
Aargh.
My cat holds conversations with anyone who will answer. My family thinks it’s terribly funny when I walk through the house meowing back at her. Bah. She’s also hiding in a box right now. Terribly cute.
We got another cat today…hyperactive little beast. Adorable, but very curious. Verrry curious. I’m told he has a pesky tendency of falling into toilet bowls. This could be a long weekend.
Oh, yeah. Mr. Lissar can talk to cats, too, and… this is the freaky part… they talk back. I’ve seen him call cats from four or five houses away. They stop what they’re doing and trot over to talk to him. He makes this odd, wheezy meowing noise that they seem to translate as “Hi! I’m friendly!”. It’s kind of spooky.