I’ve read, somewhere, that it’s not sitting ON the paper or whatever, it’s sitting on a boundary between one thing and another. Notice that they are rarely in the middle of the paper. This supposedly has an increased camouflage effect in the wild, and is thus hard-wired, like the compulsion to chase small moving objects.
I’m afraid you are ALL wrong. Cats do not just sit on paper, they sit on paper that they believe is important to YOU, in order to divert attention back to themselves.
Try this one at home: put a piece of paper in the middle of the living room floor and ignore it. Most cats will ignore it too. Now sit down and act like you are reading this paper: BAM, instant cat magnet.
This also works for other items that humans pay attention to when they could be paying attention to cats, such as laptop computers.
Every cat I’ve ever known, has had to sit exactly in the center of the paper. Not at the edge. This, I can only presume, is because the cat realizes that this will be most disruptive to the biped’s efforts to read the paper, thus making the cat the center of the biped’s attention, and to the cat, restoring the natural order to the universe. It is also why they find computer monitors so attractive.
Dewey and Eddles sit in the middle of the paper or plastic bag, and it makes no difference if it’s important to me or not. Last night Eddles dragged a plastic bag out from under a chair to sit on it.
I’m with this; cats like to lay on whatever you’re currently focusing your attention on. I can leave a book open or papers strewn on the table all day, but as soon as I try to read said book or work on said papers, the cats absolutely have to lay on them. Same goes for the laptop.
My cat has this problem v.bad, will go into yowling fits all the time. My cat is quite old (almost 17 yrs old), but otherwise in good health. Took her to the vets today, who thinks it might be to do with a thyroid problem.
Our 15-year old started getting very restless, and started vomiting up her food on a daily basis. Sure enough, it’s a thyroid problem. On the plus side, though, the medicine they give you nowadays is dispensed as a gel from a dosage pen and rubbed inside the cat’s ear. Cured the problem very quickly. Just avoid getting it on you.
Your vet should have taken a blood sample. Hyperthyroidism can lead to worse problems if not treated. Of course, it can also just be a symptom of something more serious.
Hobbes, a boy cat will sit on any paper or plastic, so long as it’s on a hard surface. like the tile floor or counter top. Put the paper on the sofa or carpet, he’ll ignore it, unless it’s something I’m reading or working with. Then he’s all over it.
My cat also loves paper, but even more weirdly… he appears to have a leather fetish.
Evidence:
• If you’re wearing leather shoes, especially anything in the beach sandal/birkenstock family, he will patiently wait for you to take your shoes off so he can jam his head into the toes and roll around in your foot stank. When he’s got all your foot sweat rubbed all up in his face, he will sit on your shoes, “kneading biscuits” with his feets, purring like a lawnmower.
• If you wear anything leather, like a jacket, take it off and lay it down, it will immediately become his BFF. See, “biscuit kneading” and “lawnmower purring.”
• I bought a leather chair from Target. It’s his now.
• My leather portfolio thingy? Shredded to leathery bits from all the kneading.
Seriously, I think my cat is hiding his mask, whip and trapeze and he dominates the dogz while I’m at work. They do seem to do what he tells them to do…
I think it’s the noise, my kitty won’t give a hoot about paper, but if I crumple it or step on it, or flip the cat runs over to investigate. She loves to play hockey with crumpled up paper. Or play hockey with Lincoln Logs in the utility room.
That is why cat’s like keyboards, they make noise and move
That works for me. My boy likes sitting on the boundary between carpet and tile in my condo. And they both like sitting on things – books, arms, toys, legs, what have you. :dubious: