As anyone with a cat knows, they can be extremely weird animals. How weird? The Guardian asked readers and other writers to share examples.
Is your cat weirder than this? Share your own story in the comments below.
Josh Fruhlinger, writer, editor and Comics Curmudgeon
I had a cat once who would wake me up every morning just a minute or two before my alarm went off by tapping me on the mouth with his paw. Not that hard, but not that gentle either, with his claws extended just a tiny bit. Hey, time for breakfast, bud. My next cat, I started feeding at night.
Lauren Kelley, online politics editor at Rolling Stone
Our cat starts howling super early each morning, in pursuit of breakfast. One morning we woke up at 5:30am not to the sound of him meowing, but to someone telling a story. Extremely loudly. In our living room. Turns out he had walked across my laptop, turned on a Moth podcast, and cranked the volume all the way up. We were annoyed, but also kind of amused until the next morning , when he did the exact same thing . Now I close my laptop before going to bed.
Michelle Dean, author and editor
My cat, Liberty, licks the shower after I get out in the morning like, hops into the tub and cleans it. She does it nearly every morning. I cannot dissuade her.
David Plotz, CEO of Atlas Obscura
One of my cats eats earwax. She will capture an earbud and lick it clean. She will even try to lick it out of my ears. Its a truly bizarre habit.
My cat Velcro (named that because he used to stick his claws on me as a kitten) has a funny habit of sticking his paws in peoples water if they leave the table. This past Christmas, I walked away to take a call and my mom caught him in the act. So sneaky! But we wouldnt always know if our water was cat-aminated, if you will. Eventually we had to resort to putting coasters atop our glasses if we ventured away from our beverages.
Arabelle Sicardi
Rachel Perrone, communications director at RH Reality Check
My cat was in the garage while my step-father was winterizing the cars, so we were concerned that shed gotten God only knows what automotive fluids on her. I gave her a bit of a bath and, not surprisingly, she was so mad. Hours later, still damp, she came and sat in my lap, and I thought shed forgiven me. Nope she peed on me.
Rebecca Roth
Two years ago I was in the basement when I saw our cat, Luna, going into the only room in the basement that isnt fully furnished and doesnt have a litter box. She only goes in the basement for one purpose, and so, anxious not to have my house smell like cat pee, I followed her in case she did something very naughty. Instead, I watched as she squatted, arranged herself carefullyover the drain in the floor and peed. No smell, no mess and no litter.
Faith Rowold
My cat, Hannah, does not like being picked up. I still do it occasionally, but I usually only get a few seconds of snuggles before she squirms away. The reason I dont press my luck is because a couple of years ago, when a bunch of friends came over for my first NYC birthday party, a friend of mine either forgot or disregarded my warning and Hannah expressed her displeasure (via her anal glands) all over my friends shirt.
Fast forward to a few months ago, right after daylight saving time started. Hannah cant tell time, so suddenly her 6am breakfast call became 5am. Clamoring around on the bed, pawing my face, meowing to wake the dead, I couldnt handle it. Without thinking about which end of the cat was pointed at me, I pushed her away, and immediately regretted it. Hannah had expressed her displeasure directly in my face.
Hannah got an automatic feeder the next day.
Hunter Walker, senior political correspondent at Business Insider
Tomo doesnt quite get the being aloof part of being a cat.
Rory Rodrigue-Martin
Our cat, Nash, has a thing for ladders: we were remodeling the living room and he would climb up and down the rungs of the ladder whenever we werent on it.
Caroline Kenney
Pre-cellphones and even pre-cordless phones, Seymour, our tuxedo cat, loved phones so much that hed answer them. More than once, a friend told us that they heard a chirpy meow instead of the standard hello when
Peter Sterne, reporter at Politico Media
My cat, Hunter, loves to play with crumpled paper, and I guess he thinks my wastebasket is a box of toys for him. Whenever I crumple up a paper and throw it out, hell dive into the basket to get it, usually knocking over the basket and spilling out all the trash in the process.
Jennifer Kho, Guardian US managing editor
When we first brought home our pit bull, Daily, a few years ago, we were wondering how our cats would react. One of our cats, Stringer, went right up to Daily and stuck his head in her big mouth. She backed away, looking shocked. But for weeks, whenever she would yawn nearby, Stringer would put his head in her mouth. Over the next year, he met other dogs, but didnt do it; but then, a year later, a friend brought her pit bull to visit for a play date. Before we even noticed Stringer was in the room, hed run over and stuck his head in the surprised dogs mouth.
Jacob Tschetter, mixologist
Every night when Im deep asleep, my kitten Gollum will come up and sit on my chest and, as per my partner, she will stare at me for at least 30 minutes. If I dont wake up she will begin to burrow into my beard. If that doesnt wake me she will begin to nibble on my nose. Im fairly certain that she is trying to see if its okay to eat me.
Sorry about a few big gaps in the article. I posted it directly from the Guardian and can't seem to find a way to get rid of them. Oh well.
I don't live with a cat, I live with three Shih-Tzu mixes who, as one friend said about them "Small dogs are just cat's in dog suits." I'm not sure I agree with them, but they do have some strange habits. For instance Sally, the 10 year old, has taken to standing by my bed starting at about 6am making low growling noises and the occasional bark to try to get me to get up and give her her morning treat. I tell her to shut up and go back to sleep and she does. However, just like clockwork at 7am it's the same thing. Then I have a choice, do I want to tell her to shut up again and face the same thing at almost exactly 8am or do I actually get out of bed for the day. The very first thing I do in the morning, before my coffee even, is to tear a hot dog into three pieces and she get's her treat along with the other two. She has not done this for nearly the first ten years of her life, but seems very pleased that she now has daddy trained to obey her when it comes to getting up for the day.
Our youngest Shih-Tzu, Molly, is grateful that we bought her a nice house with a swimming pool and backyard that she loves, so in exchange she allows us to live here and to sit on her furniture and to sleep in her beds, etc. As long as it's clearly understood that these are privileges that she is granting us. I just wish that, since it is her house, she'd pay some of the bills!
This is a photo of our local neighborhood cat. The cat is deathly afraid of Wiki Warrior Wonder Wiener. She an attack Doxie, quite ferocious.
Wiki's new biography is coming out soon...''The Long and Short of it''...
They are small, but with a massively big personality! They don't think that they are small dogs. They see themselves as the king of all of the house and all of the cats and dogs in the neighborhoods. Yorkies are the same way. When our Shih-Tzu Harry was young we were walking on the walkway at Venice Beach and a Pit Bull growled and snapped at him and I don't know what the other dog said to him, but Harry got MAD! You would have thought that Harry was the tough dog the way he went right back at the Pit Bull barking and growling. I had to yank him back by his leash at the last second or he would have tried to attack the other dog and been eaten. He was still looking back at the Pit Bull growling and barking as I dragged him away. The other dog's owner and I got a good chuckle out of it.
Here's my cat resting his face on pointy amethyst crystals. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's a new age thing. Definitely a weirdo.
My baby Sally nearly always has to have a pillow of some type. Lately it's been the base of the lamp, but most of the time it's whatever soft toy she can find to rest her chin on. I'm not really sure where or how she sleeps a night. Every night Molly jumps up on my bed and I put Sally up on it. Then I turn in and turn off he lights. Every night after a few moments I can feel Sally coming up next to me to get some nightly hugs, pets, kisses and being told she's a princess. After I stop she jumps off the bed into the dark and goes somewhere else in the house to sleep, usually under my wife's bed, but on nice nights just outside of the sliding glass door of my wife's room. Or at least so I suspect.