Here, Samuel demonstrates how cat’s patterns are about what’s figuring out the thoughts in their heads, not matching their background. Cats, of course, want us to notice them.
Sometimes, though, we are wondering what they are thinking when they behave in ways that are not immediately apparent to us.
Why are they asking for treats when it’s not the right time? Why are they waking us up too early this morning? Why are they acting like we are leaving the house when we aren’t planning to?
We have inadvertently tripped a cat behavior pattern.
Those of us who feed the cat with a can opener know any can opener behavior will draw their curiosity. If we get a new one, or fix the old one, or use it in performance art, it doesn’t matter that we aren’t using the can opener for them, at this moment. They are hopeful.
My cats used to have a pattern for when I came home from work. I’d drop into my chair, greet them, and open the fishing creel beside the chair to distribute treats. However, with my wanting to give them more healthy food, we have upped the canned content and stopped some of the Treat Times.
They mostly went along with this, but sometimes, I feed them in the morning and then sit in my chair. Even though they have just had a meal, even though I never give them treats right afterwards, the action of me sitting in my chair sometimes gets them clustered around my feet expectantly. That action, bound up with all good things such as affection, attention, and treats, has worn a groove in their minds. I have to then say, “You just got breakfast! No treats now.”
The other day Puffy, knowing he wasn’t supposed to nudge me with his paw after this announcement, yet stymied about what to do with it, used it to give Mr. Bond a nudge. You ask.
This is the foundation for much otherwise puzzling behavior. It doesn’t make any sense to us that they want treats right after breakfast. Or does it? Have we never seen a doughnut late in the morning… and even though we’ve had breakfast, we’ve thought about it?
Cat behavior is only inexplicable to us. The cats always have a reason.
One night I awakened at 4 AM because I had too many blankets on the bed. I peeled off the quilt and put it on the chest at the foot of the bed. It was over in one instant, and I settled down to go back to sleep.
RJ did a whole production, involving jumping on the bed and leaping off with force, playing with the stuff on my night table, and pulling himself along the floor by using the edge of the boxspring.
I kept rebuffing his efforts and scolding the clearly out-of-bounds behavior. I finally got up at my usual time, without any sleep, but also knowing I couldn’t start feeding them at 4 AM. That, of course, is what he wanted.
But what had tripped him? I couldn’t figure it out in the depths of half-sleep, but once I was fully awake, I realized the action of putting the quilt on the chest was close enough to my actions upon waking to have triggered RJ.
While RJ is quite good about sitting like a gentleman, waiting for his food, and not annoying me in the morning, this was different. He felt I had signaled breakfast, and then not followed through. This made me even happier I had handled it without getting upset at them. It would have only confused RJ.
We all have times when we can’t figure out what the cat is doing or asking for. But if we look for the patterns, and think about what we might have said or done that is very close to a pattern that usually involves the cat, we can often solve these cat puzzles.
Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more to The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my LATEST CAT ADVICE.
