Eccentric Mischief

My 2 ½ year old female, Mischief, has some strange behavior. I don't want to call it a problem ... maybe she's just eccentric.

She's always been a very nervous cat. My girls have never been hit or disciplined physically, they seldom hear our voices raised or anything like that. This cat tho', will have the wits scared out of her with the least little sound or movement. Of course, her reaction sets off her sister Frosty and then we have to settle them both down again. They are both very high strung cats with hair-trigger reactions. The thing is, we can't figure out why she's so nervous and jumpy all the time. By the way, both of my girls are strictly indoor only cats.

Mischief is jumpy enough that if she is accidentally disturbed in the litter box, she will bolt for the door when she's only half finished, leaving poops scattered across the floor! It's bad enough with her long fur catching it and dropping it in various places let alone having this happen.

Now, this is the really eccentric part. I've never in my life seen a cat do this before. Of course again, it's Mischief. She loves her toys, especially the wands with string holding feathers and bells at the end. But ...... she insists on regularly 'baptising' her toys. We go out to the kitchen and find the feather end of the wand, or a toy mouse, or a tin foil ball, etc., in the water dish. She will drag or carry a toy all the way across the house, crying the whole time so you know she's carrying something, and drop it in the water dish ... never the food dish .... just the water. It's hilarious but again, I have no idea why she does it.

Any ideas?

I've known lots of cats who let their toys go swimming, or who leave them inside or next to the food dish. I always figured it was because they toy is "prey" to them and once they've "killed" it, they need to eat/drink. However, they can't eat the toy as it's not really food, so they take it to their food dish and drop it and proceed to eat their food. Of course this is all conjecture on my part, but it certainly makes sense.

Harley does that. I always assumed he was cleaning his "kill" . Some cats are just strange like that. Who know what goes on in cats heads.

As for the nervous issues, have you tried Feniway (I think that's what it's called)? It's a plug in, like an air freshener, and it has calming hormones in it specifically for cats. It didn't work with my nervous one, but she has seizures so she requires real medication, but I've seen it work miracles with other people's cats.

Ok, just found another thread and it is Feliway. Whatever it's called, I would try it for your spooked kitties.

Feliway .... interesting. It never occurred to me that there might be something out there to help them calm down. I'll have to seriously check this out next time we're anywhere near a pet store.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by calico2222

Ok, just found another thread and it is Feliway. Whatever it's called, I would try it for your spooked kitties.

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Tammy, some cats (and breeds, like my Russian Blue) are naturally skitttish and all you can do is move slowly around them, don't fling things at them quickly, talk quietly, etc. etc. They are who they are and while they might be more relaxed when they mature, they'll always be more hyper than other cats.

Hi Larke, thanks for replying.

Were your cats that skittish as kittens? Mischief wasn't ... this developed as she got older (she's almost 2½ years old now). She's very loveable .... actually, she's just adorable but this skittishness does get annoying sometimes when all you do is move a finger and she leaves skid marks on the floor as she runs away while at the same time, freaking her sister Frosty right out too! She manages to make ALL of us jump out of our skin with her reactions. Luckily, she settles back down very quickly (sometimes I swear she pretends nothing happened!)

Oh yes, something I forgot to mention: most of the time, when we reach out to pet her, she'll flinch back and cower to the floor like you're about to beat her. Knowing she's never been hit in her life, it just seemed odd to me that a cat would be so nervous being raised in such a quiet, non-abusive environment.

I guess if it's just her personality, then we'll just put up with it.

Originally Posted by Larke

Tammy, some cats (and breeds, like my Russian Blue) are naturally skitttish and all you can do is move slowly around them, don't fling things at them quickly, talk quietly, etc. etc. They are who they are and while they might be more relaxed when they mature, they'll always be more hyper than other cats.

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