Since there’s probably not a right or wrong answer to this, it’s probably not a GQ.
One of my 5-year-old cats has this furry ball, a little bigger than a golf ball. She’ll pick the ball up and walk around the room yowling pitifully. She only does this if the ball is in her mouth, and if we’re not in the same room as her. If she’s lost the ball somewhere, the behavior stops, even for weeks at a time until I happen to come across the toy again. Most of the time, this happens around bedtime, but she’s been known to do it at any time of the day. It’s rather funny, but I’m wondering what the reasoning is.
Our first thought was that she thinks she’s holding a kitten in her mouth (she’s spayed and to my knowledge never had a litter), but she also plays with the ball, batting it around and flinging it in the air.
I think it’s because she feels she (or he) caught something… like a mouse. My one cat, (of three), does the same thing. I think they are often very proud of their catch. When some cats capture a mouse or something small, they leave it on the steps of their owners porch as sort of a “gift.” That’s why people say not to yell at them for this, as they think they are doing you a favor.
Hm, I didn’t think of that. If you go into the room and ask her what’s up, she usually drops it and comes running, making her usual pigeon warbling (she’s a very talkative cat), but she does bring the ball to us a lot of times, especially in bed.
My cat, without fail, performs an evening ritual. She has a stuffed hedgehog that she by and large ignores, but every night at bedtime she carries it upstairs, yowling, and deposits it outside the bedroom door.
My husband usually throws it downstairs in the morning, for mysterious reasons of his own.
This question is a bit off topic, and maybe a little TMI, but…
Do cats really help with, um, the removal of insects? I remember in one of Cecil’s columns he recommended getting a cat to help with a roach infestation. Whenever I’ve seen one of my cats dealing with a bug (be it cricket, spider, or whatever) they just play with it until it either 1. escapes 2. dies 3. or plays possum long enough for the cat to lose interest. I’ve never seen a cat actually chow down on a bug before so I’m curious if they really do this.
Oh, most definitely. My cats completely eliminate any moth problems (or other flying insects) we might have in the house. We usually cheer them on, and it’s always funny to watch them score a direct hit that leaves them munching for a few seconds.
They’re more likely to just play with ground bugs, but they have been known to eat them, too.
The behavior described in the OP sounds strongly like the noises my cat emits when he’s caught live prey (mouse, bugs, etc). It’s a very distinct noise, different from his other meows.
As for the bug-catching question: Depends on the cat. Both of my mom’s cats are spoiled rotten, very domesticated. They stare in amazement at bugs and do occasionally try to catch them (sometimes resulting in amputation of a buggy body part). However, my cat was born to an alley cat, spent the first couple months of his life on the street and he is a mean hunter–no live bug or rodent survives around him for long. He normally doesn’t eat the mice, but the bugs go down the hatch.
My theory is that this is the “gather the kittens” cry so that the mama cat can teach them how to hunt and kill. I’ve heard mother cats call their babies with a loud PPRRROOOWWW cry, and that was the sound our cat made when we first got her, when she would bring a (fake) mouse to us and “kill” it, pausing now and then to give us meaningful looks to be sure we were watching and taking it all in. I think she thinks of us as the big, stupid kittens. She’s given up on teaching us to hunt, though.
Spayed pets of any kind will often have false pregnancies, and I know of several cats and dogs who have convinced themselves that they have had babies. The usually adopt some object as their baby and will carry it around, tuck it close to their bodies, “talk” to it, even try to nurse it. However, since your cat seems to have an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” attitude about it, I’m betting she just thinks she has caught prey.
All three of my cats eat bugs. Tasha prefers Junebugs, which are apparently the equivalent of Kitty Cheetos. T-Top likes anything that flies. Cara will eat any bug that’s already dead, but she draws the line at murder. Of the three, though, only Tasha likes to keep bugs as pets for some time before dispatching them down the hatch. Her favorites are what we call “click bugs” – when they fall back-side-down, they snap their wings with a clicking noise and hop into the air to right themselves. I have watched Tasha flip one of these onto its back, just to watch it jump, about 40 times in quick succession.
I have a male kitty that does this carrying/warbling thing with my socks. And also a black scarf that I’ve never worn. Sometimes when I wake up there will be a sock or that scarf in bed with me. So, I’m really, really glad we don’t have mice in this room.
I have heard that some bugs, like roaches and crickets, are carriers for hookworms. So I dunno about letting a kitty eat them. All my cats will do is stare at the bugs. Intently. But they don’t kill them.
Ooo! Click beetles, as we call 'em in my family.
I haven’t seen any around here (eastern MA), but when I was a kid in Oklahoma they were numerous. I used to put them inside my pillow case at night and fall asleep listening to the click…click…click…
Some people call this “calling mouse” or “calling rat”, depending on the call.
As for bugs, I’ve had several cats, and some of them killed bugs and some didn’t. All have been VERY intently interested in watching bugs, though. I had one cat who used to talk to bugs constantly, and in fact used to talk to a mark on the wall, which she apparently thought was a spider or bug. She wasn’t real bright, but she was one heck of a hunter. One time she brought home a wild baby rabbit.