My friend’s cat, Artie, never learned “proper” kitty speak but he has learned to express his happiness when you pet him and play. He growls, hisses and spits and that is how he tells you to keep rubbing under his chin. Go figure.
My Mia likes to chew apart rubber bands. Not eat them though. She saves that for mint-flavored dental floss. I have to hide the floss.
My Rocky is part Maine Coon and is very expressive. When I brush him, he goes practically orgasmic like QuickDraw McGraw’s pet Snuffles when he gets a dog biscuit. It’l hilarious. He also has a foot fetish. He’d much rather be petted by your foot than by your hand.
Petite used to watch baseball with me. She would sit on the arm of the couch and stare at the tv.
Scampers has to have some Siamese in her, she is pure slick black and whenever her dog Jacque (all of 100 lbs) goes outside into the back yard, she will stand by the door and meow this most pitiful meow until he ais in. She has even gotten larygitis when he went out for a long time.
Psycho Kittyloves french fries. She will yell and yell until I give her some - now that I’m on a diet and not bringing home junk food very often, she isn’t very happy with me.
I used to have knock down, drag out fights with my cat. Sometimes, he would demand attention by blocking the keyboard or mouse while I was on the computer. If I pushed him away, he would scratch/bite me. I would tap his head to “spank” him, and then he would get pissed and let loose. Then I would get pissed and let loose. That stupid cat was the only cat I ever owned who slept longer than he was awake (usually ~20-23 hours asleep, 1-2 hours awake) and in that little window he would pick a fight with me.
One of the cats likes to sleep on top of stove burners (while they are off, thankfully). We make her get down every time we catch her but I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to the kitchen and found her snoozing on top of the stove. She also sleeps right on top of heat vents and on top of the computer monitor, which blows out hot air. This is a little Maine Coon mix with tons of fur, and she does this even when it’s 95 out. We don’t know how she hasn’t baked herself yet.
She is also absolutely terrified of flyswatters. All you have to do is pick it up and she freaks out. We adopted her as a stray and part of me wonders if she was ever smacked around as a kitten, because although we would never in a million years hit her and I don’t know where she could have gotten the idea, she sure acts like she’s going to be whacked with it. Just thinking about it makes me feel ill.
When I was a kid we had a couple cats that liked to get up on the roof via the backporch and a wooden ladder my dad never put away. The only thing was they could never figure out how to get down. At least not in a safe and sane way. All of a sudden we’d see then fly spreadeagle past the front door window as they slid off the metal awning over the door. They must have enjoyed it because they’d do it everyday, often more than once, until their weight damaged the awning and my dad put a stop to the flying cat behavior by finally removing the ladder.
I had a cat like this. I’d come home to an apartment that looked like it’d been ransacked by burglars. Every door, closet and cabinet, and every drawer was wide open. My cat never touched the contents, he just opened everything to see what was in there I guess. Except for my CD cabinet. It had magnetic push latches on the doors and he couldn’t pull them open. He never stopped trying to figure them out though. Took him about three years before he discovered he had to push rather than pull.
Piper, on the other hand, had a weird fixation on my bras and socks. He kept stealing them, prior to washing, and dragging them around the house. But he’d always eventually leave them piled up on the end of my bed. Very odd.
Had one that doted on cashew nuts. When she heard me open the jar, I had to brace myself for a blitz attack and she would not lay off until I fed her tribute.
Had another that loved to ride around the house draped over my shoulder like a stuffed toy.
Had another that learned to jump up and turn off the light switch.
Had another that would carry on conversations with me. He’d come and sit and stare at me until I noticed him, then he’d give me a “rar”. I’d say something and he’d “rar” back, but with different inflections. I worked up several comedy routines around him.
Had another that would let farts that would stop hearts. And he’d always get this quizzical, “Did I do that?” look on his face when he did.
Lucky you. A certain cat or cats of mine will open my dresser drawers and pull everything out, usually right after I have straightened and organized the drawers. Then I have to rewash everything because it’s been on the floor and slept on by multiple cats. They only need to open the drawer an inch or so, just enough to get their paw in and snag things out. I bought an extra dresser for my bedroom and luckily they can’t open those drawers. But my other dresser is still a problem and is mostly empty right now. I have something shoved in front of it so they can’t open the drawers but I can’t get to them either. I have to rig something to lock the drawers before I bother to put anything back in them.
If you offer my Siamese girl a piece of steak and a stalk of asparagus, she’ll take the asparagus first. She’ll want the steak later, mind you, but she loves asparagus with all her furry little heart.
Both my cats, who otherwise are opposite in their habits and personalities, enjoy scratching odd things in my bathroom (never when the other one is there). They will jump in the tub and scratch the smooth sides of it very vigorously. And they will jump onto the sink, stand on their hind legs, and scratch the mirror. Sometimes with both paws, sometimes with just one, usually staring into the mirror. I always ask them what the hell they are doing but they ignore me.
My ex-tom too, but he has learned to open the bathroom door when I am in there… (I worry that he may still be bothered by being neutered and is planning on revenge)
My weird cat does this when drinking out of the bathroom sink faucet. For her, it seems to be a habit born of her trying to gauge how far she has to stick her face under the tap before she gets to the water without getting her precious whiskers wet.
She used to try to get my attention by bringing me presents. It started out with anything soft that she could bite as a bribe to let her into the bedroom at night. In the mornings I’d find a Nerf ball and my little beanbag Catbert at my door. Eventually, as she got older, she started bringing larger stuff – she discovered a Nerf baseball bat I had that was almost as long as her and began dragging that around (I’ve had to buy two more since, as she’s destroyed the other ones) and I also bought her a whole bag of Nerf balls which she would drag around the house. Now that she’s getting up in age and a little arthritic, she rarely does this anymore.
Max also purrs while fighting. At first it used to weird me out that she’d start purring when we were doing battle, but apparently she just really, really enjoys rough housing.
She loves freshly washed hair. If she can get anywhere near your head after a shower, she’ll dig her claws into your scalp (OWW!) and start licking your hair. This also involves a lot of happy purring.
The other night before I went to bed, I let Emma out the backdoor and went into the bedroom where she was already sitting on the windowsill waiting for me to let her in.
Purzel likes to attack my parents dog. She waits behind the door till Frankie walks in. Then Purzel jumps at Frankie.
Havanna used to eat with his paws. He would grab a pawfull of food and ate it. Very cute.
