Sorry if this has been answered, ‘cat’ is under the minimum word length for a search.
My cat goes in and out of my house constantly, somtimes he is in for less than 5 minutes. Just now I let him in the back door and less than a minute later he was standing at the front door :mad: . He’s worse than my 6 year old. I have no idea what he does when everyone is working.
Why does he do this? Is this normal cat behavior? Any way to break him of this habit?
Mine does this too - I don’t think it’s weird. My theory is that the boundaries of in/out don’t mean anything to the cat. If you watch the cat in the yard, unless it’s asleep, it (mine anyway) runs around all over the place. The cat just goes “I’m here, now I want to be here. Now I want to be here.” Part of this desire involves you opening the door for him. He doesn’t care!
The cat doesn’t want in or out, the cat just wants the door to be open.
He’s just making the rounds of his territory. He has to be sure everything is ok.
I’ve got a cat who does this constantly. You just have to settle on where you want him to be while you’re gone, and live with that…or get one of those flapdoors installed…which also lets uninvited critters into your home!!
It doesn’t seem to be unusual behavior for a cat. I have had
them come in through the back door and walk directly to the
front door and go back outside again.
It’s just a cat’s way of testing his superiority over humans. Watch his attitude when you do let him in or out. I’ll bet it’s a great deal like, “Well, it’s about time!”
Mine does the same thing. I’ve always thought it had something to do with being neutered - motivations are screwed up. He has no real reason to be outside, so he has no reason not to come back inside, nor does he have a reason to stay inside, unless he’s hungry. His instincts are on autopilot, sort of stuck in a pointless loop.
Being a cat owner, I laughed out loud at the title to this post. It’s about as odd as a dog wagging his tail. Theories? Who knows? My cats treat outside like it’s just another room in the house- I just happen to be their very own, meow-activated door opener.
NORMAL CAT BEHAVIOR. Ha. What is that? My vet once said, “cats ain’t right”. This was as we were trying to figure how she came to either jump or fall off my third story apartment balcony. She survived with just a small scrape on the end of her nose. Unbelievable. But…cat behavior is so strange and interesting. Who could guess what this cat has going on. Cat Business.
One of my cats does this, too. Its actually kind of cute, but irritating. This past weekend my grandfather was over, and sitting at the end of the table near the patio door for a good part of the day. He didn’t seem to mind opening the door for her, until it started to seem as though she was doing it JUST to see if he would do it again 
I figured on matters like this it makes sense to go to the source, so I turned to She Who Possesseth the Noble Fluffy Kitty Tail and I posed this question to her, and after closing her eyes a half dozen times and idly licking a paw for a bit, she condescended to say:
One of our cats starts screaming to be let out as soon as I get home from work. Interestingly enough, according to my wife he usually doesn’t do this until I get home; if she opens the door for any reason he will try to run out, but he doesn’t start sitting by the door and being vocal about it unless I’m home.
Oh, and as far as I’m concerned, Normal Cat Behavior ranks right up there with Government Efficiency. Just once I’d like to see some.
I’m owned by four cats, and each has his or her own way to communicate. One does a head-butt against the nearest human when he wants out. One or another might stand near the door, but that is also the “fake-you-out” trick, too.
Cats basically do whatever they damn well please. That’s part of a cat’s job duty description.
You’ve heard the old story where God created an animal companion for Man? He designed an animal that is loyal, loving, obedient, kind, and compassionate. He rearranged the letters in His name for the animal, and called it “Dog.”
Then, so the Man would not get a swelled head over the devotion of Dog, God created Cat.
~VOW
Reeder’s got it. Quoting Desmond Morris from Catwatching
So, to summarize:
-fh
I believe it is a feline test of their superior ability to train their humans.
It only makes sense…
Icarus nailed it. Cats just want the door to be open. When I close the bathroom door, the cats sit outside and stick their paws under the door, trying to get it open. If I open the door and let them in, they are happy until I close it again. Then they immediately start trying to get out. God forbid I should close the bedroom door - don’t get a moment’s peace until I open it again.
Hell, they would be ecstatic if they could get me to leave the closet doors open all the time too.
Don’t forget that cats are natural predators. The ‘domestic’ cat is very little different from its ancestor, the African Wildcat.
Your cat is hunting for food in the back yard and hunting for food in the front yard. In between, he’s got this little project going on where he figures that if he can tire you out enough you’ll fall over in a dead faint and he can eat for weeks.
Every cat with whom I have ever cohabited has displayed this behaviour. We call it either “inagain outagain catagain” or “the flying cat circus”. It’s not so bad in the summer, when we can just leave the door open, but it’s a pain in the winter.