by Katley Demetria Brown

Created on: February 17, 2010

Cats are beautiful, intelligent creatures, and there are as many different personalities as there are cats.  Several kitties have lived with me over the years, and their behavior has never ceased to amuse and surprise me! 

We, as humans, have no idea what goes on inside their furry little heads, and can only guess at what they are thinking. 

Have you ever seen a cat play hockey?  They especially like to bat bottle caps all over the room with their paws, because they enjoy the movement and the noise.  This is instinctual behavior related to hunting.  When cats hunt, they swat their prey before they kill it with a bite to the neck.

They find laser pointers a never-ending source of fun, and enjoy pouncing the light from them. Crawling and flying insects can entertain them for hours. 

Cats who have access to a windowsill or an enclosed porch will sometimes make chirping noises when they see birds.  

Cats enjoy looking down on humans, which is why you will often see them perched on high places, such as on top of refrigerators.  This love of high places sometimes gets them into trouble, especially when they climb trees, and can’t get down.

Felines love paper, and they are especially attracted to newspapers (which they sit on) and important homework assignments (which they shred). So, teachers, if a student of yours comes to school saying the cat destroyed her homework, chances are she’s telling the truth.

Tom, a Russian Blue who lived with us many years ago, was a lovable feline with several unique behaviors. He liked smelly shoes.  The best part of his day was when my husband came home from work and removed his boots. As soon as the boots came off, Tom buried his head in one of them, getting satisfaction from the malodorous combination of leather and sweat.  While sitting on laps, he had this tendency to put his face in armpits; there was something about human body odors that fascinated him.  He would chew on my clothing while sitting on my lap, knead his paws in time to the chewing, and soak the t-shirt with his saliva in the process.

Tom, unlike most cats, was not afraid of water, for him it was an endless source of entertainment. He never drank from his dish; he played with it instead, pushing it with his paw, splashing water all over the floor.  When he was thirsty, he drank from the toilet, and protested loudly when we covered it. 

Fatso, our current furball, loves to sit on the couch and watch TV with us, and has this male affinity for the remote control.  I don’t understand how he finds it comfortable, but I always find that missing remote directly under his butt!  It’s probably his way of exerting control over the clicker.  He thinks he is part of the family, and has his own chair at the end of the dinner table, where he sits and watches the rest of us eat.  He steals food when he thinks no one’s looking.

Cats hate to be ignored, especially when it’s time for them to eat.  Right before feeding time, Fatso climbs up on the desk where I’m working and walks on the laptop keyboard, his way of saying “Time for lunch, stupid!” It’s like he’s swallowed an alarm clock, set for noon.

Feline behavior is quirky, and often a mystery to their humans, but it’s a never-ending source of entertainment, that lends itself to lively exchanges amongst cat lovers. 

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