Cat Rituals

Cats are very ritualistic.

_Howard wrote:

But every morning, five or ten minutes before the alarm clock goes off, the cat comes and wakes her up; feline breakfast time. When my wife is out of town on business, the cat never tries to wake me up. She found out it doesn't work so no longer makes the effort.

My cat Dottie somehow knows the very instant we turn off the light in the bedroom -- even if she's asleep on my chair in the basement (which is usually). She SPRINTS up the stairs and down the hallway (we can hear her galloping) and LEAPS onto the bed. She stands on top of whoever is highest underneath the covers and purrs, waiting for her head to get rubbed.

It's uncanny.

I think a lot of the ritualistic behavior of cats depends on the cat.
I had a Siamese for about 16-17 years, and never noticed that. But she was very aloof.
My wife's cat, however, is really into ritual. She's a torby (the cat, not the wife), and you can almost set the clock by when she does certain things during the day. Funniest damn cat I've ever seen.

I'm completely convinced my dog, Evie, tells time. Her rounds are when we get up, 5:30 pm and 10:30 pm. And you can just about set your watch to her.

Does Evie have problems when Daylight Savings begins and ends?
Our cat has problems with the afternoon feeding time when DST ends. Oddly, she adjusts to the other feeding times in just a couple of days.
Of course, when DST begins and the feeding time is moved up, she has no problems at all.

I have 3 cats. All 3 without fail love to wait at the bottom of any particular set of stairs in the house, until someone decides to walk down those stairs, then just as someone is descending they run up the stairs. These are the rules, and they are always followed consistently:

1) (in cat think) "... okay I'll just wait here until someone starts to come down the stairs, then I'll run up at the same time and zip right past them really quick so they can't touch or catch me."

2) I will wait and wait all day if necessary until someone comes down the stairs. (thus, they will often sleep at the bottom of a set of stairs)

3) I never run down stairs when the humans come up. Only up stairs as humans come down.

4) Always run up on the right (from my cat pov). Never the left of a human.

Our one female cat loves anything that is feathery or stringy/hairy that she can grab onto with her mouth and drag it around the house to various locations - thus I always wake up to find a pillow, or article of clothing, or cloth of some kind laying somewhere where it isn't supposed to be. Only the female does this, the males don't.

All 3 cats attempt to wake me up prior to sunrise without fail to be fed. Whether or not they still have food in their dish.

Without fail, our black cat will always perch himself directly in front of the television screen whenever I watch Craig Ferguson and play with Ferguson's hands when he is doing his monologue. My cat never misses a night he is on, or a monologue. 

Okay, that last part is flat-out WEIRD.

The Craig Ferguson bit is very weird, indeed. But I am familiar with the run-up-the-stairs move.

I have a friend who has three cats. They leave food out for the cats 24 hours a day. Still, there is one cat that comes in every morning about 5:00 and wakes Judy. She gets up and walks with the cat to the food dish. While she waits, the cat runs into the other room and returns with the other two cats. They all begin eating and Judy is allowed to go back to bed. Of course, we all know that as soon as a cat gets food, people become invisible. Need to ask Neil deGrasse Tyson about this phenomenon.

Heh, the Craig Ferguson part isn't really all that weird. Consider that I watch Craig, from my bed, at the exact same time every night. Craig always has a monologue at the beginning of his show and my cat always joins me in bed at the same time. Craig has a relatively dark background to his set, so once he starts his monologue he moves his hands around allot. Since his hands and face are in the spotlight, they are like little lights floating around on a dark surface. .. and if cats love anything, they love chasing fast moving lights that stand out and catch their attention.
I use a laser pointer for the same effect. Drives them crazy. Good times.

SAI2 wrote:

Heh, the Craig Ferguson part isn't really all that weird.

Of course it's weird. Everyone knows that cats don't like Scottish comedians.

_Howard wrote:

SAI2 wrote:

Heh, the Craig Ferguson part isn't really all that weird.

Of course it's weird. Everyone knows that cats don't like Scottish comedians.

No TRUE Scotsman would be a comedian.

NoCoPilot wrote:

No TRUE Scotsman would be a comedian.

Maybe not intentionally.