Cats Do the Darnedest Things

Baby, a chocolate point Siamese, loves to lob his toys around, then put them in the water dish.

I don’t know how it is in your household, but in mine, the cats each have their own distinct personalities and little quirks that are endearing.

Baby loves his little toys. He’ll grab them in his mouth, toss them in the air, catch them and then lob them across the living room. He can amuse himself for hours while entertaining me at the same time. His quirk is that he loves to put his toys in his water dish. Many days when I come home from work, there is a toy or two floating (or sinking) in the water dish. I have even found fuzzy mice toys in his water. Since my other kitties might get thirsty, too, I keep multiple water dishes in the house and Baby has yet to fill all of them at the same time.

The water dish after Baby plays.

Chloe has a couple of quirks. She is a Snowshoe and has a loud meow. Every time I am on the phone, Chloe jumps up to where I am and starts meowing loudly into the phone. I don’t know if she thinks I am talking to her or if she is trying to get attention. It does work because I’ll pet her to get her to quiet down a little. I used to do HR recruiting and would sometimes call for a phone interview from my home. Chloe helped on several of those interviews. If the person on the other end reacted favorably to her meows, it made a good first impression on me.

Chloe’s second quirk is that she likes to move her wet food to eat it. I keep the cat’s feeding area clean and the dish spotless, so it isn’t because of a smell. She picks up a mouthful of food, carries it to the carpet, and then eats it. Sometimes she doesn’t finish her bites, and Baby will come and clean up after her.  She always will eat her dry food out of the bowl, though. 

Zooey has what I call a stupid pet trick. I had her for a couple of years when one day she decided to jump from the bed up to my shoulder.  I saw her start the leap, so was prepared to catch her.  Well, that started a pattern of behavior. Now she’ll jump up from the floor into my arms. All I have to do is pat my chest and she is airborne. Once she is up, she gets lots of love and gives me kitty kisses in my ears. 

Do your kitties have special quirks or tricks?  Leave a comment and share them.