6-9 Loose Lips - What's your cat's strangest habit?

[squeem3]

Happy Caturday

I thought I'd start a fun Loose Lips :smile: What's your cat's strangest habit?

Leroy's strangest habit is, well, being Leroy ohmygod_smile @-) He is just a weird cat :lol: Most cats crouch to eat from a bowl on the floor. Leroy stands up :shock: It doesn't seem like a comfortable position to be in while eating from a bowl but Leroy does it anyways. I thought about getting one of those elevated feeders for him but they all use the deep bowls that are great for a giant pile of kibble but not so much for 1 oz of raw food. Leroy also will sit in the bathroom sink after I use it.

Emma talks to two of her toys and carries them around. Sometimes I'll hide a toy and when Emma finds it she gets really excited and carries her toy around while talking and she looks so proud of herself for finding the toy.

Squishy's strangest habit was ignoring my gerbils as they played in an open box. He just had no interest in live furry squeaky things, which was a good thing for the gerbils :lol: Squishy did go nuts if there was a raccoon or another cat outside but for some reason gerbils were different.

 

[Beth & Atlas]

hmmm....That's a tough question for me to answer as a cat behaviorist...not much seems strange to me as I know what they are trying to tell me?

 

[Cini Mini's Mom]

For Cini it's NetFlix envelopes.
He LOVES them! Once he gets a hold of one he sits there with it and licks and drools all over it. Then he crumples it in to as much of a ball as he can.

I can just imagine what the Netflix receiver is thinking when they get the movie back. :roll:

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

One of KT's many wierd habits - when he's in a playful mood and being a 'dink', as he's strutting after a big run, he puts his head down between his front legs and looks at whoever he's playing with thru his legs and under his belly. If he bumps into something while in that position, he just turns a flip over.

Nuisance....well, Nuisance and Leroy would make a pair. Nuisance wakes up in a new world every 15 minutes - MAJOR A.D.D. baby! He's a couple of fries short of a happy meal anyway. Sometimes when he's hungry, I put his bowl down in front of him - he has to walk around it staring from all sides, reach a couple of paws in it and FINALLY stand up to eat it. When he takes the first bite, he has this look like "Where's this stuff BEEN all my life?"...but it's exactly the same thing he got the last time...

Schniggles (droolers are silly too)...she squeals like a little piglet when she gets excited and keeps it up for a long time. This is the one we were 'blessed' with the first of May, an OLD OLD pug with very few teeth, bad hips, broken/healed bad break on one rear leg, a torn ACL and bad allergies. She loves to eat - when she sees ANY bowl, she starts squealing at it demanding that it get down here so she can put it in her belly...imagine a beach ball with skinny black legs....

There's more but I've laughed enuf right now.... :lol:

 

[Georgia and Simon (GA)]

This is a great happy condo!

Simon has a few strange habits. When he is drinking water, he delicately paws the water with his left paw (he is a leftie like me!) before he takes a sip. Not sure if he thinks there is something in the water. Another habit is playing with q-tips. He loves throwing them around and tearing them up. I have to keep them under lock and key.

And then there is my Cleo. Her only strange habit is that she never leaves the upstairs of my house except on rare occasions. We call her "Queen Cleo" because she will only eat food if we present it to her in her room.

 

[Julie & Orange]

My kitties love to drink out of the faucet. When I turn it on they both jump up on the sink. Charlie will drink like you normally would expect a cat to drink out of the faucet. Orange though - he will stick his head under the running water and then lick up the water from the bottom of the sink after it runs off the back of his head! Orange has also been known to turn off the bathroom light switch while I'm in the shower.

When going to sleep at night Charlie will insist on getting under the covers. She paws and noses and puts up a fuss until I lift up the covers for her. Then she curls up next to me under the covers looking like she is settled for the night and stays there for a grand total of about 2 minutes before coming back out and sleeping by my head. I'm not sure why she continues to insist on making her way under the covers when as soon as she's under there she realizes she doesn't like it!

 

[Dyana]

Licking his wire brush and rubbing his chin and teeth on it, after I brush him and have removed all the hair from it.
Sleeping across my face.
Going into the basement and making mournful noises after he play fights with Ginger.
Drinking water all the time.

 

[Lisa & Mary]

Hopefully this is short lived and better glucose control and methyl B12 supplements will help her diabetic neuropathy. But it is super cute when Mary runs to greet me as she runs like she is wearing clown shoes.

 

[Anne&Muffin (GA)]

When the kitties spill litter out of the box, Muffin loves to roll around in it. Cleetus loves when I water the lawn with the hose - he chases the water around. :lol: I keep trying to get a video of this, but everytime the camera comes out, he stops.

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

Miss Boots turns her ceiling fan off and on as she desires. I thought she was doing it by accident until she did it when I was reading to her...guess she got hot 'cos she left her perch, jumped on the work table, walked to the switch and pushed it up...

 

[Anne & Zener GA]

Zener loves to have his tummy rubbed and petted. Since he was born with cerebellar hypoplasia his balance is poor so he falls over if you pet him while he is standing or sitting. He learned to "duck and roll" so we would know he wanted some loving! So, I'm not so sure this is strange habit, but more a smart kitty! :lol:

 

[Melissa & Tarragon]

What a great condo! One of Tarragon's is QTips. He likes to eat the cotton off the end. We have had to put child locks in all the bathroom cabinets and hide the garbage can. He also loves hair ties. You can't keep them out anywhere. Lastly, he is a big bug hunter. He kills them and then puts them in his water dish. I clean out their water dish 4-5 times a day when bug season is here.

Turnup's is licking inanimate objects when she wants attention - walls, gym bags, garbage cans, floors, etc.

 

[Traci and Boomer]

Merlin: licking plactic bags :shock:

Trinket: every time she eats she does a "food dance" pawing everything near her bowl including standing on her hind legs and pawing the wall, she also is not scared but curious about the vacuum cleaner. When I take it out and turn it on she comes to check it out while Merlin hides for dear life like all my other cats. Not Trink. :roll:

 

[Carol & Yoshi]

Niko covers his food bowl. There's a hand towel underneath and when he's had enough, he very nicely brings the corners and sides of the towel up over his bowl to completely cover it. He even covers it when all the food is gone. He does such a beautiful folding job that my petsitter thought I was covering his bowl when she first met us. :lol:

The other goofy thing he does is intermittently jump straight up a wall -- not a running jump but a standstill from the floor -- sometimes higher than 5 feet! More than once he's jumped up where a light switch is and turned on or off the hall light as he was passing it. @-)

 

[Linda and Bear Man]

Pinkerton likes to surf on the iPad. He started out by playing cat games on it, but now he comes running whenever he sees me using it. He loves to peer over my shoulder and watch. I think he has voted a few times in Dian's shelter challenge. He has come a long way technologically from his previous favourite pastime of drowning his furry mice in the water bowl.

 

[squeem3]

Wow! There are some really strange oddball cats out there :lol:

Nuisance....well, Nuisance and Leroy would make a pair. Nuisance wakes up in a new world every 15 minutes - MAJOR A.D.D. baby! He's a couple of fries short of a happy meal anyway. Sometimes when he's hungry, I put his bowl down in front of him - he has to walk around it staring from all sides, reach a couple of paws in it and FINALLY stand up to eat it. When he takes the first bite, he has this look like "Where's this stuff BEEN all my life?"...but it's exactly the same thing he got the last time...

I think Nuisance and Leroy would be great buddies :lol: Leroy sometimes stares at his bowl of food and then walks away looking for food @-) Once I sit him back in front of the bowl and show him the food, he'll start eating. If he doesn't eat, which has happened before when his tummy wasn't feel great... after licking bathroom cleaner residue off the floor ohmygod_smile, I know something is wrong and a trip to the ER/Dr. B is needed.

When going to sleep at night Charlie will insist on getting under the covers. She paws and noses and puts up a fuss until I lift up the covers for her. Then she curls up next to me under the covers looking like she is settled for the night and stays there for a grand total of about 2 minutes before coming back out and sleeping by my head. I'm not sure why she continues to insist on making her way under the covers when as soon as she's under there she realizes she doesn't like it!

Bed shark :lol: Leroy likes to crawl under the covers, too, and just slink around. Of course, Emma see this lump moving around and has to pounce on it :lol:

Miss Boots turns her ceiling fan off and on as she desires. I thought she was doing it by accident until she did it when I was reading to her...guess she got hot 'cos she left her perch, jumped on the work table, walked to the switch and pushed it up...

Miss Boots is smart :smile:

One of Tarragon's is QTips. He likes to eat the cotton off the end. We have had to put child locks in all the bathroom cabinets and hide the garbage can.

Lol :lol: Both civies go nuts for qtips, too. Leroy will pretty much eat anything he can get his mouth onto @-) ohmygod_smile Main reason why I have zero decorative objects, live flowers, etc at home. I keep the floor free of even scratching post carpet fuzz because Leroy will eat that, too ohmygod_smile

Merlin: licking plactic bags :shock:

Trinket: every time she eats she does a "food dance" pawing everything near her bowl including standing on her hind legs and pawing the wall, she also is not scared but curious about the vacuum cleaner. When I take it out and turn it on she comes to check it out while Merlin hides for dear life like all my other cats. Not Trink. :roll:

Emma licks plastic bags, too. I've heard that plastic bags are made with fish oil or something that cats like the taste of.

Leroy isn't afraid of the vacuum cleaner either. He doesn't like the noise too much but he won't hide, just moves to the opposite end of the room and watches. Emma will disappear to the next room while I vacuum. Sometimes I wonder how they would respond to a Roomba.

Niko covers his food bowl. There's a hand towel underneath and when he's had enough, he very nicely brings the corners and sides of the towel up over his bowl to completely cover it. He even covers it when all the food is gone. He does such a beautiful folding job that my petsitter thought I was covering his bowl when she first met us. :lol:

Lol :lol: I have a fabric placemat under the water bowl and sometimes Leroy will pull up the sides to cover the bowl. But then he can't figure out how to pull the sides back down so he can drink :razz:

The other goofy thing he does is intermittently jump straight up a wall -- not a running jump but a standstill from the floor -- sometimes higher than 5 feet! More than once he's jumped up where a light switch is and turned on or off the hall light as he was passing it. @-)

Squishy would do that but the light switches were a button that you had to push in (old house with old electrical wiring and stuff) so he couldn't actually turn a light on or off.

One other thing that Leroy does (or maybe it's Emma?) is to pull open the medicine cabinet door and pull stuff out. The door just has a magnetic catch thingy so it's easy for a civie to pull open. After the first time that happened, I took all the potentially harmful stuff (herbal first aid ointments and remedies, eye drops, etc) and put them in a closet.

 

[MikeysMom]

Mikey: Sleeps on his back. Sleeps in the sink. His favorite game is "Attack the End Table." He's obsessed with running water. Has dreams and "runs" in his sleep. Climbs into the refrigerator if given half a chance. And the dryer.

Smidgen: Doesn't have any really weird habits, but when she was younger, she had to sleep on top of me at night. It didn't matter what position I slept in, she'd get on top. LOVES tomato sauce.

Jesse James: Runs up to 70-lb. dog and smacks him in the nose. Bites ankles (mine, not the dog's). Is fascinated by watching the toilet flush.

 

[Karrie and Maverick]

This thread gave my heart a big boost. Loved it!!!

 

[Pumbaa]

Pumbaa loves lettuce and steals it from me, and chows down on it, every time I make a salad. So much for cats being "obligate carnivores". *LOL*

Pumbaa is also a kleptomaniac, and steals things all the time, and drags them to the living room. Pens, erasers and rubber bands from my office, but also work tools like pliers, etc.

Tigger, a cat from my childhood years, loved cantaloupe. If you walked into the house with one, she came running, and wouldn't go away until it was cut up and she got her share!

A previous cat of mine, Killer, whom I loved for 17 years, adored fat-free fudgecicles, if I fed them to her on the stick. If I put a part of one in her food dish, she would ignore it. I had to sit there and hold the fudgecicle and turn it for her as she licked it off the stick!

This is a great thread! *LOL*

Suze

 

[Amy&TrixieCat]

Cute thread!

Trixie licks my arm like crazy right before I test her. She lacks manners...she'll walk all over anyone or anything to get to where she wants to be. She prefers that anyone else bath her than do it herself.

Noah is my quirkiest cat for sure. He purposely sticks his head under the faucet when the water is running, then runs back to his food dish and lets the water drip into his food. Lather, rinse, repeat until he's done eating. Noah also does "The Water Dish Danc'e": if I splash the water in the bowl with my finger, he gets all excited and shuffles his front paws. He sleeps on his back with his legs up in the air. He hates when I unload the dishwasher and cries the whole time. I guess I could write novels on Noah's strange habits!

Petey will only drink out of the faucet. He also does what we call "The Petey Pie HeadBob"...he gets so excited when he knows we're about to pet him that he rolls his head in such a way that half the time he loses his balance. He likes to chew on the shower curtain and, even worse, electrical cords - so we have heavy duty cord covers on all of our lamps.

Mario paws at the water bowl while he's drinking. He also tours the house while he's eating. Since he's 17, I comply...I follow him around with a food dish; he'll eat some, then take a few steps and look at me as if to say "Ok, now I want to eat over here." I put the bowl in front of him again, and he eats more. Repeat as necessary till he decides he's done. When he was younger, he would try to eat dryer sheets and would dig through the laundry basket searching for them...I had to stop using them.

My GA, Mr Kitty, loved brussel sprouts and would try to steal them off my plate.

Frankie is just a crazy hyper kitty :lol: ! She's a retriever cat, but she gets so excited when she's playing that she usually drops the ball before she makes it all the way back.

Zen's quirk isn't so much strange as it is smart: he is a big time copy cat. He sees what gets the other cats attention and mimics it perfectly. He's also a retriever cat, but always makes it back and drops the toy directly on our feet. If the toy is light enough, he can catch it in his mouth...it was REALLY interesting watching him teach himself how to do this one.

 

[Natalia & Enana]

My Puty (GA) LOVED to eat plastic bags. It was actually very disturbing. I had to hide all plastic bags and suddenly I would hear a chewing noise coming from somewhere, turn the lights on and see him (hiding like a drug addict shooting heroin in a corner) with crazy eyes. My poor Puty....he was special. His poop looked like corn-dogs.

Gordo has a fetish for male shoes. He puts his head all the way into the shoe and rubs, rubs, rubs....he is special too.

Enana just likes to eat white tissue paper.

 

[max&emmasmommie]

If I put my finger or toe up to Max's face, he will lick it about 3 or 4 times. Sometimes he walks up and licks my husband toes. My one year old put her finger to his mouth and he licked it. Then, she did it over and over again until he was sick of it, and he bit her softly, but enough to let her know he was annoyed. So, now, she still puts her finger up, and when he opens his mouth she pulls it away and giggles.

If we sleep too late, he will get up next to my husband's face and very carefully, with claws retracted, paw at my husband's nose. He did the same thing to my mother-in-law when she took care of him, and he got hungry in the middle of the night. If my husband hides under the covers, Max will put his paw under there and root around until he touches my husband's face. Yet, Max almost never does this to me. He will sit regally next to my head and just stare at me until I wake up.

He has wanted to drink from the toilet for several years even after we got him a fountain. If he noticed that one of us was going to the bathroom, he would come in and wait for us to flush. Then he'd jump up there and put his two front paws in the toilet and bend down to drink. Even since he has developed neuropathy, if he feels strong enough one day, he clamors up there and does this. Sometimes I find muddy paw prints on the toilet seat because he's been outside first.

Max hates plastic bags. If he hears one ruffle, he looks terrified and runs away. I have no idea why, as I've had him all his life, and there has never been a "plastic bag incident" to my knowledge. Maybe it's the noise.

I used to have a cat who liked to lick frozen orange juice pops.

 

[squeem3]

I forgot about this one- Leroy loves to bash his head into sharp table corners and walls :shock: Not headbutt, bash @-) Maybe that's why he has ADD @-) :razz:

Jesse James: Runs up to 70-lb. dog and smacks him in the nose.

Squishy got whacked on the nose once.... by my first gerbil :lol: Squishy was just curiously looking at my gerbil on the coffee table when my gerbil reached up and whacked Squishy right on the nose. Squishy shot out of the room. Not the reaction I was expecting from him :lol: :lol: That particualr gerbil was mischevious and enjoyed rolling his excercise ball right into Squishy no matter where I put the ball or where Squishy went.

Mario paws at the water bowl while he's drinking. He also tours the house while he's eating.

Sometimes if Leroy's ADD is bad, I have to follow him around with tbe bowl :roll:

My GA, Mr Kitty, loved brussel sprouts

Squishy did too only it was a knitted toy brussell sprout :lol: There's a game on Catster that involved brussel sporuts.

 

[squeem3]

Pinkerton likes to surf on the iPad. He started out by playing cat games on it, but now he comes running whenever he sees me using it. He loves to peer over my shoulder and watch. I think he has voted a few times in Dian's shelter challenge. He has come a long way technologically from his previous favourite pastime of drowning his furry mice in the water bowl.

Love the picture of Pinkerton :smile: Emma occasionally is fascinated by my computer screen saver (bubbles). She doesn't care much for videos of fish or birds or anything :roll:

 

[Wonton]

This is a great LOL condo!
I adopted Wonton at 8 yrs old, she's now 11.5. I found this by accident when I was sitting on my couch and started wiggling my toes. She came running over, layed at my feet and wanted me to stroke her head with my foot. She would rub her cheeks on my toes and purrs like crazy...she loves it! Maybe when she was a kitten her family used their feet to pet her? Maybe they had their hands full with other cats or a baby? Just my thoughts.
She also will paw at her water before she drinks, maybe to feel where the water level is...again, my thoughts. And she likes to lick plastic bags, so some of our kitties have the same strange behaviors.

 

[MelanieAndRacci]

I love this thread. I can just see all the kitties doing their things! :lol:

Racci has a fetish for fingernails and emery boards. Every time she hears me filing my nails, she comes running from wherever she is and tries to get into my hands to grab the file away from me. If she gets one, she licks and chews it to death. She'll keep sticking her nose in my hands smelling and licking my fingers & grabbing at the file with her mouth until I give her one. She also likes it when I file her nails. :razz:

Racci also likes to chew on my fingernails and when I'm petting her will put my fingers in her mouth and get just the tip of the nail and gnaw it very gently like a kitten feeding on her mom. If I pull the finger away she grabs another. :lol:

Calli always stole anything shiny hanging around. She was a master thief and you were chancing losing it if you took off jewelry, left pins, screws, anything small and shiny around. She would jump up, grab it, hide it, and it would not be found again until she decided to take it out of its hiding place to play with. DH had a built in excuse for everything he lost because more than half the time it was true. :lol:

Calli also loved men's shoes. She would rub all over them and couldn't resist chewing the leather ones a little. She also opened doorknobs by jumping up and hitting them and kitchen cabinets by prying them open with her paw from the bottom!

My drooler Abi sat upright on the couch next to me with her back against the back cushions and watched tv with me and every once in a while would lean over and give me a wet kiss. People would crack up walking in and seeing her.

Melanie & Racci

 

[Ann & Tess GA]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tess had a brief infatuation with her cube. She palyed in it, slept in it. I woulld have to drag her out for tests, if I let her go for a second she was halfway back to the cube! :roll: I finally gave up and just reached in and tested her right there. She wouldn't even come out to eat. Her food had to be next to the cube and she would stick her head out, maybe her front feet and eat right there.

then one day, no interest in it whatsoever.

Tess also likes to dip her paw in her water and lick it off. By the time she is done there is much more dripped down her fron than she probably got to drink.

My GA Cleo was something else. She had her spot on the corner of the counter near the phone. She would push any pens or pencils off and watch them drop. I would pick it up and put it back, she would push it off again, "Huh, it fell AGAIN!!!" Cleo also loved to lick sandpaper. I swear she was sharpening her tongue to give me "rug burns"!

We lived in Minneapolis then. Cleo would go to the kitchen door to to go out. If it was raining or snowing, she would turn around and head for the front door. Maybe the weather was better out there! She also loved to sleep directly on the radiators. They were way too hot to touch w/ your hand. :shock:

 

[Amy&TrixieCat]

She also loved to sleep directly on the radiators. They were way too hot to touch w/ your hand. :shock:

This reminds me...Noah, Petey, and Zen sleep directly on the heating vents that are in the floor. I'm always jealous of them in the winter, because they're small enough to do that :lol: ! Trix sleeps directly in front of one of the wall vents...you can see her belly fur blowing in the breeze!

 

[Sonia & Tom (GA)]

How funny is this thread! :lol:
What is it with qtips? We had to buy a small metal container with a lid that Minnie can't open because she used to steal them from the open container off the bathroom counter. She also has a thing for plastic bags.

Sunrise likes to be petted by standing up high on her hind legs and rubbing her head against our hands. She will take a few steps doing so.
She also like to open my closet door so she can look at herself in the full length mirror.

Tom would go bananas for, well, bananas. When our daughter was little, she would sit on the ground with her banana and Tom would try to steal it from her. He would grab her arm with both his from paws and pull down.

When I lived with my parents, our cat used to go in their room at night, open dresser drawers and steal socks.

 

[squeem3]

She also loved to sleep directly on the radiators. They were way too hot to touch w/ your hand. :shock:

Squishy did that, too :lol: It was the old radiator things that got really really HOT. Most of the radiators had (metal) covers over them. I had to put a folded towel on the covers for Squishy to sit on so he wouldn't burn himself. The radiators were at a perfect height to allow Sqiushy to comfortable sit on the cover and look out the window. In the summer when the windows were open, Squishy would put half his body in the window frame while sitting on the radiator :smile: http://www.catster.com/cats/187205/photo/3593478 and http://www.catster.com/cats/187205/photo/2432011