Cats will come up with their own games to play with us.

Cats Playing Games

by WereBear on Aug.14, 2008, under communication

Mr. Bond has started a new game. While he hangs around and participates in the preliminaries, once the dinner dish gets put on the floor, he vanishes.

Does he not want dinner? Why does he show up and then not settle down at his bowl?

more cat pictures

Mr. Bond isn’t sick, disliking the meal choices, or simply forgetting it’s dinnertime.

Mr Bond is playing a game.

What he wants is for me to seek him out, (and he doesn’t make it that difficult!) so I can pick him up and carry him to his bowl.

Mr. Bond loves to play these games. When he’s feeling neglected, he lurks in the hallway at bedtime, to see if I will seek him out. He will lure me into the bathroom just so I’ll scoop him up and look at the two of us in the mirror over the sink.

It’s not that Mr. Bond needs to play these games in order to get attention from me. He plays these games because he knows I like to pay attention to him, and he likes to come up with new ways I can do so.

This is a classic example of how the cat’s approach to play changes with maturation. It isn’t necessary to come up with ways of getting kittens to play; the problem can be getting them to stop.

But as a cat gets older, they no longer have the relentless energy that let them amuse themselves by batting around a paper ball for several hours. They turn inward; still wanting stimulation, but changing the form that it takes.

For me, as much as I adore kittens, the mental qualities of the adult cat are even more fascinating. They are thinkers. It is up to us to give them things to think about. Something Mr. Bond demonstrates every day.

Dear Husband doesn’t want to play this particular game. When I was working late, and he fed the cats, Mr. Bond tried the new game. Dear Husband told him that it wasn’t a game he felt up to playing, and that he’d better get into the kitchen before RJ discovered his uneaten food. Mr. Bond took it in good humor, and hustled into the kitchen.

I warned Dear Husband that Mr. Bond will likely come up with another game. Just for him.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.

:asking for attention, pretending

1 comment for this entry:

Amanda
August 14th, 2008 on 8:31 pm
Hee! For a few years, our Floof-princess would have a Drama around her food. She’d approach it cautiously, sniff it suspiciously, rear back in horror, etc. Since she really needed the nutrition, we fed her separately for a while- no rival cats, BUT no audience for the Drama either. She did give up the Drama there, even though she is still a decidedly spoiled princess-cat. And healthier, now that she’s not being Dramatic about food.