Cats do the strangest things

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Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:12 pm

I'm not really a 'Cat person', but when a young stray turned up in my garden in the depth of our very cold winter, I took pity on her, fed her and she is still with me.

But she has, what I think is an odd, though probably not unique, habit.

In the still early hours of a morning, just as the night turns grey, she'll make her way downstairs into the living room, start a soft but continous 'yeowl-yeowl-yeowl' sort of sound and then bring upstairs one of my socks from one of my trainers.
(I've taken to leaving the trainers in the living room to test her..)
Once she's left it just outside my bedroom door, she'll go back down the stairs and repeat the exercise with my other sock.
Sometimes, she'll bring my sons socks when he stays over.

Once she even carried up a beer bottle top from the kitchen. Shocked

She never brings the socks into my bedroom, but places them just outside the door even though the door is wide open.
Sometimes one sock will be on the stairs, or in the living room doorway, but nearly always there'll be at least one of my socks waiting for me on the landing in the morning.

I don't understand cat mentality, so I have no idea why she does it.

Just thought I'd share... Smile

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:20 pm

Maybe she sleeps in the living room and can't stand the smell of your socks Laughing

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:47 pm

That's bad ^^^

She might give in to her predator behavior and the socks play pray as she doesn't go out much?
mine used to bring the loot of the night to the kitchen door and make a nice display for me

4 dead mice, one salamander and 1 koi carp of $750.00 and a trail of scales to the pond of the neighbor where she caught it. Crying or Very sad

BTW cats own people, people don't own cats, they're only tolerated Laughing

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:46 pm

llamedos wrote:

I don't understand cat mentality, so I have no idea why she does it.

It is less of a mentality, it is an attitude. Laughing

I was going to say that IMO, cats don't think, so what they do is "instinct", not mentality. But some "cat Persons" would jump all over my case...

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:00 pm

conga22 wrote:

Maybe she sleeps in the living room and can't stand the smell of your socks Laughing

ROFLMAO

Just be glad she's not bringing you freshly severed bunny ears or larger chunks. My aunt's cat (they live on a farm) regularly leaves some in the back porch.

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:23 pm

That's a more active cat than ours.

I used to have a gunea pig and introduced it to the cat it carefully. She sniffed it, looked at me, looked at the guinea pig and casually wandered off. Treated the guinea pig as if didn't exist. Didn't even bother with neighbor's pet birds. And I think she is the only cat that does like being owned by humans, she is way over-dependent on people and has no hunting instinct whatsoever.

Sweet cat but boring as hell.

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:46 pm

This is the sock thief sat in my car Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

:cat whisperer:
She thinks that you are a slob and that the socks belong in the hamper and that you should let her outside to kill something so that she can give you a proper gift.
:/cat whisperer:

Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:08 pm

^^^^
No need to whisper Wink

She has brought me lots of pressies including several birds, various mice in different, but interesting states of evisceration, and even an intact [but very dead] mole.
She's currently working on stalking whatever it is that is leaving suspicious looking large holes in my lawn...
I suspect a rattus norvegicus is the culprit and it's a race between her and my .22 as to who bags the thing first.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:17 am

Llamedos - we appear to have cat twins. Very Happy

Master Baiter Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 154

My mum's cat brings in rabbits and various field shrews/voles/mice. He's also good at catching birds, and has on at least 2 occasions, brought in crows or pigeons that are almost as big as he is.

He's awesome, ginger, and called "Chairman Miaow".

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:08 pm

My cat is a bastard.

He shits in my flowerbeds and then brings me half eaten animals as a makeup gift in the mistaken hope that I won't drop-kick him over the garden fence. Recently, he has taken to shitting in the pot of a small tree that I have placed in my conservatory. For that I get no reward though. Only a look of "Clean that up you prick. And whilst you're at it, let me remind you that I'll shit where I like".

You name it, he's bought it home - rats, birds, rabbits (that one was interesting as he'd eaten it's head and legs and just left the body. Looked like a furry hip flask), mice, a seagull (bigger than him), hedgehogs, a squirrel (the utter, utter bastard) and basically any other wild-life he can find. If he came across one, I feel sure he'd bring home the carcass of a badger just so he could gloat about it.
I tried to fit the fucker with a collar and bell to let the wild-life know that he was coming. Fifteen fucking quid and the little shit had it off and had dumped it in the woods somewhere within 10 minutes of me fitting it.

He holds his own against dogs (I've seen him square up to a Dobermann) and other cats (he just sits there whilst they yowl, treating them with aloof disdain). He hates being picked up but doesn't mind being stroked if it's on his terms. About the only time he's ever friendly is when it's dinner time and then the little bastard turns into my bestest buddy in the world (I see through your ploy you furry fuck). I also have to watch him when people visit the house, as, if they try to stroke him, he turns into a rabid little cock-wallet and attacks and bites their hands and legs.

Contrary to popular belief, my cat does not own me though. Nor does he tolerate me (as displayed by his intolerant behavour). I, on the other hand, do tolerate him and I remind him verbally every day that he is only one step away from a bag, a brick and a trip to the canal.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:38 pm

And here is the loathsome little bastard.
Probably just about to take a shit in my boot.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:56 pm

OMG
That stare!
That's one evil cat you have there.... Shocked

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:17 pm

Llamedos,
I also have a young carrier-cat like that Very Happy

Yesterday she had a fine day, there were two deliveries and she had A LOT of packaging material to run around with. Too bad I didn't have my camcorder in handy when she went all through the house with a long string of air-filled packaging plastic, even tried to jump on the table with that stuff in her mouth and of course, missed her jump... Shocked

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:27 pm

Slightlyoutofit wrote:

My cat is a bastard.

... a squirrel (the utter, utter bastard)

Obviously not all that bad then. Wink

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:50 pm

^^ I await the day that your decapitated body turns up on my back doorstep.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:56 pm

^^^ I'll set my wife onto you. She grows her own vegetables, you know.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 5:07 pm

Thanks all, or you, for a great laugh just now!
I've just read this thread for the first time. I had already enjoyed a couple of chuckles when I came to Slightyoutofit's hilarious rant, followed by the photo of the evil creature itself. Yikes, it gave me the willies! Then, more really funny comments, (Hi imike!).

Suddenly in steps Elizabeth1601 (Hi Elizabeth1601! Welcome to Eater!), with her cute cat post...
An attempt to "un-derail" the hijacking of this thread???
Hahaha!!! Elizabeth1601 is still innocent to the ways of Eater! Wink

Cue imike and SOOI!!!
This thread lost any chance of remaining "cute cat" the moment that SOOI posted. All hope is lost, IMHO. So fasten your seatbelts and prepare for the Eater version of the "strangest things that cats do"...

[rant of my own]California my ass. It's socked in with fog, a bit windy, and only about 54 F. For all, or you, metrics folk - 54 F is approximately 10 <strike>liters</strike> millimetres. Anyway, the weather is chilly and crappy, I was feeling a bit down and I really appreciated the laugh! Laughing

[/end rant]

Here's my cat doing a strange thing...

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 5:12 pm

Fartina o'douriss wrote:

California my ass. It's socked in with fog, a bit windy, and only about 54 F. For all, or you, metrics folk - 54 F is approximately 10 <strike>liters</strike> millimetres. Anyway, the weather is chilly and crappy, I was feeling a bit down and I really appreciated the laugh! Laughing

[/end rant]

Sure you're not in north west England?

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 5:14 pm

I have two cats - Weapon X (Xy? X'ie?), a 6 year old male that looks like Llamedos' and Professor Nemesis (Neme), a 19 week old female tortoiseshell.

Weapon X is a well trained cat, but can bat out or nip you if you try to move him when he is comfy or stroke his side sometimes when laying down. He brought me a pidgeon. Twice. He brought it in the first time when I was asleep and woke me up, so I popped it outside . In my sleepy thinking, I forgot to lock the cat flap, so he shot out and brought it back in to me. He's is also an Ace, having notched up over 10 confirmed kills on active duty. Mostly mice. Mostly dead. It certainly got more mousey over springtime. His defence is attack, and I have seen him once bounce up to two Boxer dogs, that were itching to get him. The silly sausage.

Professor Nemesis is just too full of energy, and noise. She tries to play with Weapon X, but he thinks she is aggressive and smacks her one.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:51 pm

Slightly, your homage to your owner brought a tear to my eye (the good one).

I have heard it said that eventually dogs and their owners begin to look alike, and that children learn to behave from their parents. I am trying to figure out which came first, you or your cat's behavior.

Truthfully, at first I thought what I was reading was something posted by Rover from your Eater Employee file. As I read further though, I realized that the words and prases were familiar to your own posts, so I knew you had written the loving and emotionally touching tribute to your little buddy.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:15 pm

^^ True, I was emotional when I wrote that.
I was even more emotional five minutes after posting it, when I went into the garden to find that he had again shat in one of the flower beds that I lovingly planted a couple of days ago.

I'm so pissed at him. I can't have anything nice because he just goes and shits on it. I swear he does it out of spite.

I had to take him to the vet the other week and he very kindly managed to get out of the box I put him in and took a shit and a piss on the parcel shelf in the back of my car. To make things worse, there were roadworks and I got diverted and had to drive an extra 20 minutes around town with the smell of fresh cat shit wafting around me. I couldn't even open the windows as the little fucker would've jumped out.
That was one of his greatest triumphs.
I've tried everything - carpetcleaner, vinegar, disinfectant - but my car still smells like a cat's shithouse.

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:26 pm

Thank goodness my dog is coprophagic!!! Shocked

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

@Slightly: dissolve baking soda in hydrogen peroxide until you have a saturated solution, then add a drop of dish soap. Use it right after you mix it and soak everywhere the urine soaked, it biodegrades the urine and gets rid of the smell. Edit: test it on a spot first, it can occasionally bleach out some fabrics.

My male cat thinks he's a person or a dog. He ignores "kitty kitty" calling but comes when you whistle. He doesn't hiss, he growls. He sits, shakes hands, and begs on command. I've caught him sitting as his food bowl eating with his paw. He's an almost 20 lb male who looks like a tiny panther. He's really friendly with people and rarely ever scratches, even toddlers who try to carry him or sit on him.
But, I cant let him outside or else he beats the crap out of all of the cats in our neighborhood. He has come home with his own claws ripped off, apparently leaving them in the bodies of his victims. He will also put a dog in it's place in 1 minute by scratching it squarely in the eye.
He also removes any collar I put on him.
My female cat is an anti social and overweight little ball of cat hair. She hides from everyone and if you walk behind her for any reason, she runs for her life, certain that you're chasing her. Laughing

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