# What Do Cats Do That Annoys You? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315 "2012-08-31T22:53:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/21 "2012-09-01T02:28:01Z")
> [@nikonikosuru](#): > > Oh geez, where do I start. > > 1.) Twirling around my legs/generally getting in my path and then having the stones to swipe at ME as if I’m the one getting in their way. Well of course. If you DARE to step on the cat rather than falling down the stairs to your death, you’d have compromised its dignity! How dare you! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/22 "2012-09-01T02:51:36Z")
One of our (indoor) cats has an enemy (outdoor) cat; he’ll try to scratch his way through a screen door to get to his enemy, which is hard on our screen doors. Our other cat is pretty lethargic, but she gets enormous chunks of turd stuck to her hairy arse. I’m not a big fan of cat barf either. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/23 "2012-09-01T03:12:14Z")
Paraphrasing Red Forman “You could have the smartest cat in the world, but it still shits in your house” I don’t care if you keep the litter box in a hermetically-sealed basement room and you clean it every 15 minutes, when I walk into your house the first thing I think is “smells like cat shit”. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/24 "2012-09-01T03:18:37Z")
Don’t you people discipline your cats?? If you start when they are little kittens, they don’t jump on things you don’t want them on, they stay out of your way and they don’t scratch stuff they aren’t supposed to. Ok, never mind, I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/25 "2012-09-01T03:21:50Z")
Asthma that lasts for days. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/26 "2012-09-01T03:33:00Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Am I on candid camera? I swear I just yelled at my cat for the billionth time. > > Every time I come upstairs to my office, he sits at the bottom of the stairs and howls like I’ve abandoned him. Most of the time, if I whistle for him - like a dog - he’ll come trotting upstairs. It’s like he forgets there’s an upstairs. It drives me crazy. > > It’s like he’s in \*Memento \*or something. One of my husband’s cats (and she is definitely his cat) will forget where her human sleeps, and then she’ll howl at me because she can’t find him. I’m awake at night, and he’s usually asleep. So I have to tell old Stupid that he’s in his bedroom, and sometimes I have to lead her to the room. His other cat (and again, this one is HIS cat) likes to reach up and grope my butt in the morning. I’m not awake, and I’m trying to remember how to make tea (because even though my body is up and moving, my brain isn’t) and I feel these little hands on my butt. Squeezing. Usually this means that Charlie just wants to be picked up and held, but sometimes it means that he wants a toy, and I have to figure out which toy he wants. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/27 "2012-09-01T03:53:41Z")
I have two cats. My girl cat is completely sane, and could care less if I’m around. The boy cat must have been taken from his mother a little too early, because he is neurotic and so clingy I can get nothing done (I’m having to fight him off of me right now, in fact). He also, for some unknown reason, likes to sit with his front paws in the water bowl. I have no idea why. He just sits there with his feet in the water for minutes at a time like he’s auditioning for a Palmolive commercial. And then he’ll come over and put his cold, wet paws on whatever part of my body I’ve left open to him. It’s been this way for 9 years now. I love the little guy, but his antics can be damn annoying. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/28 "2012-09-01T03:54:52Z")
My recently departed cat was both the most annoying and endearing cat I’ve had. Among his most annoying habits: When he wanted attention and I was at the computer he would jump up on the desk and flop onto the keyboard or walk back and forth between me and the keyboard with an emphasis on sticking his ass in my face. He took the kneading thing to extremes, I’m told that stems from being weaned too young. Whatever, it could be maddening at 4:00AM. Some times I would awake to him trying to nurse on my eyebrow! When I lay down on the couch to watch a movie he would stand on my chest and turn around and around, trying to find the perfect position to lay down, all the while totally blocking my view. He was a master of trying to escape to the outdoors, a world he was poorly equipped to survive. Many was the morning that I drove to work wondering if he had somehow slipped out as I was leaving. That’s the tip of the iceberg. Holy Shit…I really miss that guy! ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/29 "2012-09-01T04:05:52Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > 1. Using my furniture instead of the provided scratching posts to sharpen their claws on > > 2. Twirling around my legs and getting underfoot at the worst possible time, rendering me to choosing between allowing myself to be tripped or stomping on the cat Mine does both of these (well, she prefers the carpet to the furniture for claw-sharpening, but at least as annoying, especially since we’re renting). She also has some sort of emotional issue with small objects (especially paper) on desks and such. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/30 "2012-09-01T04:13:19Z")
5 am, jump in the bed, start kneading with sharp claws and drooling… ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/31 "2012-09-01T04:21:56Z")
My biggest, most annoying cat has to have his water moving in order to drink it. He’ll put his foot in the dish and sling it around to get it sloshing. I got a tray to put under it to keep the floor from getting wet, and now he has to pull the dish over the edge of the tray so it’s teetering on the edge and rock it back and forth. I thought of getting them a fountain to drink out of, but our dog is terrified of everything and she wouldn’t be able to handle it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/32 "2012-09-01T04:41:21Z")
They make pets out of people, then make them act like idiots. ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/33 "2012-09-01T06:33:10Z")
> [@TheChileanBlob](#): > > My biggest, most annoying cat has to have his water moving in order to drink it. Our cat Sydney is the same way. We got a fountain for her but she still waits next to bathroom sinks on the chance that we’ll forget our resolve not to turn the faucet on for her. But my biggest complaint is how she’ll piss and moan EVERY time we pick her up. [The cat.](http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~lreed/sydneyhellcat.html) ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/34 "2012-09-01T06:53:00Z")
We have two cats (and two dogs.) the younger cat drags the water bowl across the kitchen floor and then usually turns it over. I’ve walked into kitchen countless times to find a huge puddle of water on the floor. She also jumps up onto the kitchen sink every time the water is turned on to drink out of the faucet. The older cat hisses at me when I feed her. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/35 "2012-09-01T07:22:09Z")
My cat puts things like hair scrunchies and dishcloths in the water dishes or, better yet, halfway in the water dishes so they siphon all the water out onto the floor. She also mortally wounds mice but lets them escape into the basement where they die in inaccessible crevices and stink up the entire county. She also hides around corners, then jumps out and bitch-slaps my border collie. This entertains me and makes up for her more annoying habits. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/36 "2012-09-01T11:20:35Z")
I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question. Cat? Annoy? In the same sentence?! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/37 "2012-09-01T13:16:57Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Am I on candid camera? I swear I just yelled at my cat for the billionth time. > > Every time I come upstairs to my office, he sits at the bottom of the stairs and howls like I’ve abandoned him. Most of the time, if I whistle for him - like a dog - he’ll come trotting upstairs. It’s like he forgets there’s an upstairs. It drives me crazy. > > It’s like he’s in \*Memento \*or something. I think I own your cat’s sister. If she’s sleeping, and I leave the room, or go to the other floor, when she wakes up, she start meowing with this slightly hysterical edge to it. It’s like she’s saying, “Oh my God, where the fuck did you go?!?” I just have to call out, “I’m up here, ya moron!” and she’ll come bounding upstairs, wind through my legs, and then settle down for another nap. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/38 "2012-09-01T13:31:51Z")
My current cat and I seem to wind up playing Marco Polo around the apartment at times. If I change rooms when she’s not paying attention, it’s not at all unusual for me to start hearing meows (and she’s at least part Siamese). I just meow back, and we sometimes have a fairly long exchange. Whether she comes to where I am varies. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/39 "2012-09-01T14:28:23Z")
Not being able to enunciate their words. I can’t understand their meows. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315/40 "2012-09-01T14:39:33Z")
After a life time of living with cuddly friendly cats I ended up with one who does not like to be picked up at all. Ever. I find it highly unfair that I am not allowed to pick her up, yet she thinks I shouldn’t mind when she jumps on my reclined self and whips around to give me an alarmingly close-up view of her asshole. The enjoyment to annoyance ratio is still weighted in favor of keeping the cats. We added a second cat to the household at the beginning of June. They haven’t entirely warmed to each other yet, but I’m hopeful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-cats-do-that-annoys-you/633315.md?page=3)