The sock loving cat.

My girlfriend recently moved in with me. Along with the girlfriend, came her cat. A generally mean spirited, foul tempered cat that I love to death. She's calmed down a lot since she moved in, but she does have one strange peeve that really has me puzzled. At random times of the day and night, she'll find a sock in the laundry pile, carry it into the hall or living room, and start wailing. If you go out to look for her, she'll be standing over the sock, mouth open, staring into space.

She's never had kittens, but was fixed at a late age (like 3 years). Could she be carrying over some sort of maternal instinct? She's done this for years according to the g/f.

I wonder if kitty might be flehming (sp?)? Flehming is when a cat opens its mouth to get a good sniff of something. They have something in the roof of their mouths that is olfactorily sensitive. So when something seems particularly interesting smell-wise you might see them with their mouths hanging open and a sort of cross eyed look as they concentrate on inhaling whatever it is as it wafts into their mouth. :tounge2:

Socks are full of good smells and so maybe that's what she's doing.

Our Cooper loves STINKY socks........

She beggs for me to take off Nick's socks...... (she doesn't like mine, guess I dont' smell good enough)

She plays in a brown paper bag and hides her "stash" of socks in there until I do laundry!

I had to laugh too.

I don't know about the wailing part, but my Marbles does the same thing with the mouth hanging open when she smells something. I can't help but laugh at the look on her face . I tried to tell her that she looks smarter with her mouth closed, but dear god she is too cute .

And both of my cats like to take off with socks. They treat them the same way as their shaker mice. If it is on the floor than it is theirs to play with .


As for the wailing, might want to try putting a top on the laundry pile to stop her from getting at the socks, or maybe give her her own sock to play with.