Feline Fun Friday – Adorably Quirky Cats

Most of the cats I’ve loved have had a quirky side. They had a habit that seemed un-catlike to me. I’ll bet you can say the same about the cats you’ve known. Some of them are amazing hunters, for example, and others tend to run the other way if they see a mouse. There are cats that figure their way out of (and maybe into) situations—the inside cat manages to get outside, for example. Super acrobatic cats might be found occasionally on top of a curtain rod in the living room or hanging from a chandelier. I found Olivia hanging from a valance once by a claw. After rescuing her, I removed the valance until…well, maybe forever.

Some cats develop a close bond with another cat in the household. It’s such a lovely sight to behold two bonded cats. Some cats, however, never learn to get along with other cats in their midst. I guess it’s fair to say that you can’t predict a cat’s behavior until you’ve lived with her for a while.

Katy (my sweet Himalayan) never sat on my lap, but she often sat next to me with a paw on my leg. She also slept on my pillow with me at night.

Winfield (our handsome white odd-eye boy) drank with his paw—dip, lick, dip, lick. He was our food monitor. At bedtime he’d go to the feeding station and check the level of kibbles and water in the bowls. If he could see the bottom of the kibbles bowl, he’d make sure we filled the bowls before we got into bed.

Dinah refused to use the litter box. She had to go outside to do her dooty even when it was raining.

Lily (our sweet torbie) brought us her stuffed toys. Every morning I’d get gifts of her baby opossum or a bear or hedgehog dropped at my feet. She was such a giving cat.

Max, a beautiful snowshoe-type cat we rescued from our wood shed, loved stuffed mice until the nose and tail were gone, then he’d discard them. He would play with a new mouse for a while, then de-tail and de-nose the thing, ending his relationship with it forever. Then the red nose pom-pom became his favorite toy.

Sophie ate string and ribbon, even metallic Christmas bows. Now that’s a bit quirky, but also extremely dangerous. The year we found blood in her vomit is the year we gave up using ribbon and bows on wrapped packages. George, a neighbor’s cat, chewed on electrical wires. Now that would be hard to remedy.

Olivia leaps up as high as she can against the walls in our house. That I’ve never seen in my many years of adoring cats. There are no bugs or flies—she just likes to leap against the walls. Her favorite toys are a small empty water bottle and paper towel and toilet paper tubes. I guess she’s into recycling. She also crosses her paws. I’ve heard from a few other cat owners who have crossy-paw cats. Most of them seem to be calico.

Does your cat have a quirky side?