What's with cats and the bathroom?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My cat Maceo is the sweetest cat in the world, but he is quite weird. Besides having 25 toes and fluffy beige fur, he is obsessed with the bathroom. Every single time I go in there for any reason, he must RUN in the door, making that little trilling noise that cats make when they’re happy and excited. He pelts over to where I am, regardless if I’m brushing my teeth, peeing, doing laundry, goes up on his hind legs and rubs on me. Purrs his crazy head off, puts his paws on my knee, begs to be petted.

He also likes to play in the bathtub (empty, of course). He jumps in there and meows for me to go over and pet him while he’s in there. He can be very insistent. I sometimes find his toys in the bathtub. He will sit on the edge of the tub while I am taking a bath with his tail in the water, though otherwise he seems to dislike water. I don’t get it.

The weirdest part of this is, he’s skittish around people he doesn’t know, UNLESS they are in the can. During a pretty raucous New Years Eve party, one of my drunk friends came out of the bathroom and said, “That freaky orange cat sexually assaulted me while I was taking a leak!” I guess he put his huge paws on my friend’s butt while he was trying to pee. Then, of course, ran away at full speed.

WTF? I do not understand this obsession Maceo has with the bathroom. It’s not like he can’t spend time in the bathroom whenever he likes if that’s what he wants, but he only wants to if someone else is there. He is excessively affectionate in the bathroom too. None of my other cats is like this. Do any of your cats have this fetish as well? What is the reason for it, d’ya think?

2

My cat Neko is the same way. Cats seem to have a thing for running water, and Neko especially seems drawn to the toilet, the tub, and the sink. We had to get him his own fountain-style water dish so he would stay away from the toilet!

Neko likes to hang out in the bathroom whenever someone showers, and as soon as you’re done he’ll jump in behind you and start licking up the water. I’ve had him sit right on the edge of the tub when I’m taking a bath and stick his paw or tail in, just for fun. And he is all about rubbing up against my legs and trying to get petted when I’m trying to go to the bathroom.

3

Mine don’t like the bathroom if I take them in there; that’s where they get bathed (one to help with her hairballs, one to help keep the fleas she’s allergic to at bay). If I pick them up and head for the bathroom, they flip out.

However, if I go in there to do whatever (makeup, style my hair, clean up) and I leave the door open a crack, they both will nose the door open and wander in, survey the area, then sit on the bathmat and stare at me. Whenever my husband or I take a bath, they wander in, peek over the side, stare fascinated at the water, then sit calmly on the bathmat. If I dare close the door, I hear a sniff sniff sniff sniff under the door, a few weak scratches, a paw or two will appear underneath, and then my younger one begins “trilling” (“rrrrrrrr? RRRRrrrrrorrr? Rrrrrrrrrrr?!”) then eventually I hear a THUMP and a heavy sigh, as they give up and decide to lay heavily against the door until I’m finished.

Sometimes if I go in there in the daytime, and nobody’s home but me and the cats, I’ll leave the door open for whatever I’m doing. If I’m sitting there reading, the youngest one will stroll in, bump her head against my hand/knee/foot a few times, then sit outside the door and just guard it. Like a gargoyle. Whenever I get up and walk toward the door, she starts skipping (really, it’s weird) and trilling her little heart out, leading the way for me back down the hallway.

But yeah, when nobody’s in there? We leave the door open all day and all night, and they never wander in on their own. No, wait, except the oldest, she likes to open any and all cupboard-type doors in the house. If we’ve been out for a while, we’l come home to every door in the kitchen being slightly ajar, as well as the one door in the bathroom. She doesn’t go in them, she just wants to open each one, peer inside to see if there’s anything new, I guess, then leaves them. Weirdo.

4

I don’t have a cat, but my best friend has three cats, and I love them as if they were my own.

One of them, Lulu, ignores you no matter where you go. Lulu is the one giving the raspberry. The bit of orange tabby at the left is Ninnytwit, and the calico on the right is Squinks.

Ninnytwit likes to follow people into the bathroom and guard his litter box. (I don’t have a picture of him alone.) If not guarding his litter box, he likes to rub on your legs… and occasionally jump on your lap. This is weird, but not exceptionally so, because he’s friendly in every other room of the house, too. He just really likes to be friendly in the bathroom.

Now, Squinks is an odd character. First of all, she was the runt of the litter and has grown into the smallest full grown cat I have ever seen. People refuse to believe she’s not a kitten. She also has poor coordination and a slower reaction time, but she’s adorable and lovable all the same. She’s polydactyl and has 27 toes. She rarely meows. She’s kind of shy. Not hateful and would never hiss or scratch, but just kind of shy. Loves Ninnytwit, though…

But she comes out of her shell and she LOVES anyone who is in the bathroom!

She will run ahead of you as you go upstairs to the bathroom, and she will race you into the bathroom and jump on your shoulders as you’re peeing (if you’re sitting down) and lick your face, making all sorts of assorted beeps and boops and purrs. And what’s worse is that she jumps at your shoulders from the sink - three feet away. And that HURTS, man! If I see her getting ready to jump at me and I have time, I stand up and catch her, because she can tear your shoulders. (Once I missed and she caught my leg instead. OWWW.)

She also must supervise any and all hand-washing.

She’s weird, but I love her!

5

Mr. SCL said they liked the bathroom because they had a captive audience. If you’re sitting down doing what you do in the bathroom, there’s not really any way you can get up and leave immediately so you have to pet them.

In the old house Valentino would freak out when I took a bath. Weird cat would walk back and forth on the edge of the tub, talking constantly and trying to rescue me from the horrible water. When I got out, he would lick my legs.

6

One of my furrt little freaks loves the bathroom too. Does the same trilling thing that Anastasaeon 's does, and also has to keep sticking her paws under the door. I think she is thoroughly convinced that there is a parallel universe in there and that the Omnipotent Provider of Treats and Cat Food will just up and vanish on her.

She absolutely loves to play "beauty parlor. If I’m blow drying my hair, or doing my nails, or anything really she just has to be right there to observe.

I got my nail stuff out the other night and set it on the counter. Before I could move she raced into the bathroom, jumped up on the toilet, and put both of her front paws squarely on the counter. She then looked up at me and meowed as if to say, “Do mine first!”

7

Yep. Both of ours come pelting into the bathroom whenever I head in there. They jump up onto the sink, wander around the back of the toilet, jump into the shower, etc. If I am taking a shower, they wait until the water is turned off, then stand up and paw at the door until I open it. Then they lean in and play with the water until it all drains away. Even if I just nip in to take a quick leak, one or both of the cats is there to watch. One day there is going to be an aiming accident and Pixel won’t talk to me for a week!

8

Ah-ha! I knew I was forgetting something in my post.

My friend did accidentally pee on Squinks once as she decided to try to jump at him at the wrong time and jumped through the stream. I think I recall her falling into the toilet once, too.

It did not deter her at all, even though she had to be bathed!

9

The Meep has long since claimed the bathroom as her territory - the rest of us merely rudely intrude on occasion. My personal theory is that she’s warmer than the rest of us (being Persian) and that’s the coolest room in the house.

10

AWWWW! Now that is a Meep if ever there was one!

11

My cat (Miss-Miss) loves following me into the bathroom also. So much that I had to put her cat box in there. She’s not so doting when I’m peeing (I’m a guy) but when I sit down she just has to be there. Also when I’m taking a shower and shaving.
This seems like a trait in all domestic cats. Is it the water flowing? Maybe the scent of the bathroom attracts them? (good or bad)
Maybe they think we’re their kittens and want to clean us up after doing our business, as they do their kittiens? Just a guess. :slight_smile:

12

I think that’s it for Marty. He’s the shyest of all our three. Mornings when I go in, I call him and he gets “Boo-time”. While I am stuck to the can, he gets attention. This is the ONLY time he’ll get on his back legs to get his head scritched. Nobody else here has seen him do this in fact, for that very reason. When I’m done, and open the bathroom door, he has to sneak out because Evil Fat Scarlett will be ready to pounce on him.

On the other hand, I think Cuervo likes the shiny surfaces. He jumps up on the double-sinks and paws at the mirror. Because he is hopelessly spoiled, he also gets one sink partially filled with water in case he gets thirsty during the night.

13

Both our cats like the bathroom, but in different ways.

Minou likes to hear water running. Whenever anyone takes a shower, she sits on the bathmat or the closed toilet, and goes into a trance listening to the water fall. This is actually part of her normal morning routine, and she is very annoyed with us if no one takes a shower after she’s had breakfast. After the shower, or if you are in there for another reason, she comes in and walks all over the counter by the sink, knocking everything off. In the summer, when it’s hot, she actually spends a good part of the day sleeping in the sink.

Paka prefers not to be in there when the shower is actually running, but he’ll come in afterwards and walk around in the wet shower stall. He also gets very affectionate if I’m sitting on the toilet–he rubs my feet, drools all over them, and tries to bite my ankles, while purring loudly enough to make the floor vibrate. He’s friendly to me in other places in the house, but nothing like his bathroom friendliness.

We do keep a bowl of drinking water in there for them, too, in addition to a bowl in the kitchen next to their food bowls. They seem to think that the water in the bathroom is their own private swimming pool, though, and that it’s there mainly to play with more than to drink. Minou does morning ablutions after everyone is out of the bathroom, where she completely dunks both front paws (one at a time) into the water, then shakes and licks off whatever water is left. Later in the day, Paka goes in and pushes the bowl around on the floor, so that he can watch the waves splash over the edges of the bowl. Since they both use the bowl of water in the kitchen strictly for drinking with their tongue, I know that they really do know how to drink from a bowl of water.

14

I think they think they’re missing something if the door’s shut and someone’s in the bathroom. We’ve gotten to the point where we just leave the bathroom door cracked if we go in, otherwise, we’re subjected to a lot of scratching and howling until we open the door for them.

My in-laws have a picture that I took of my cats in the bathroom - it’s a very cute picture with my girl’s tongue stuck out, but I haven’t told them I took it WHILE going to the bathroom because both cats decided I needed company. They just think it’s a cute picture. :o

15

My cat’s terrified of the bathroom. Too many things make noise in there. The shower, water running, flushing… he’s decided that those are the sounds of something bigger and meaner than him, and he avoids the bathroom completely.

The only time he ever tries to see what’s in there is when I leave the door open a little while I’m in the tub. He’ll creep in veeeeery slowly, but the tiniest splash on my part will levitate him for a split second before he zooms out backwards.

16

Based on how the fuzzy black land shark who lives in my house comes running when I lower my bum onto the john, I have to conclude that he loves few things in this world more than the reek of my poo.

And that’s probably only the fourth-strangest thing about him.

17

Sammy is not to have the door shut against her when you go in to take a shower. Never mind “trilling”, she will yowl like she’s being murdered if you start without her present. While you are showering, she can be seen through the obscured glass, staring from the mat, occasionally meowing loudly. I have found it’s best to leave the door slightly ajar, so she can wander in and out, which she prefers to do occasionally.

Once the shower is over, the yowling commences again until you step out, and she likes to lick the water off your wet calves. Whe also likes to lick the water at the edge of the shower step.

She enjoys being present for other bathroom activities as well, but the shower watch is mandatory.

18

Our first Maxx was a bathroom cat, too. He would get into the dry bathtub and try to dig into the wall. I think he would see his own faint reflection and try to free the trapped kitty. He would always sit on the edge while I bathed. Sometimes, I’ll turn over, to ease back tension. He would go nuts! He’d try to “save” me by grabbing my shoulder with his claws. (He never used claws on people, normally) All the while, he’s be howling his head off.
Our new Max loves the bathroom as well. He will knock you down to watch the water go down in any of the three facilities. He also will watch me bathe, but he wants me to get out. (To watch the water go down?) Once out, he tries to lick my feet dry.

19

Roxie generally accompanies me to the bathroom, particularly when I first get home from work, but one time she decided to get comfortable. :rolleyes: She usually doesn’t do any more than the “kitty flop” - you know, flop down like she has no bones, roll over on her back all stretched out with that look that says “I’m cute - you must pet me now.”

20

:slight_smile: She does have another name, but she’s been better known as The Meep since she was a kitten. It’s the sound she makes instead of a meow. And yes, it’s unbearably adorable.