Why is she using those back legs?

Butzie loves playing with wand toys. She especially loves to play with them around her cat post. When we play there, she will wrap herself around the post and while trying to get the toy with her front paws, she will dig her paws into the post and attack the post. She doesn't do this if I play with her away from the post. Any ideas why?

I think its just in their nature when they are playful to attack anything that is around Trout does it too

She actually puts her toy right in front of the bathroom door, then walks around to the other side of the door to atttack it from underneath the door

Both of mine do similar things - I think they like to 'hide' and attack with their front paws from behind something - their favourite is to take a toy under a dining chair and play with it by sticking their paws between the struts, going mad and doing somersaults around the struts under the chair

Zoe will grab certain toys and hug them to her with her front paws and then "bunny kick" it with her back ones sometimes too. Too funny!

Bunny kick to catch the bunny?

It's a rougher kick they usually use in fighting. Since play (for unaltered, non pet cats) is a precursor/training for fighting it becomes part of play for kittens and young cats.
For our house cats it just means they're more riled up. Never let the 'bunny kick' be turned on you, back claws are for shredding and when they get in that mode sometimes a cat will forget itself and be much too rough.

Brown Boots does the exact same thing to her scratching post when we play. My hubby calls it the King Kong move because she looks like King Kong climbing the Empire State building. She starts by using her hind feet to kick the post then gets upright and climbs all the way up scratching as she goes.

Maia also does the "bunny kick" ever since she was a kitten! I even have a couple pics of her with her favorite attack toy as a kitten doing this very thing!


It is actually an excellent behavior that she only does this with inanimate objects, this shows she has respect and awareness of inflicting pain. Maia is much the same way, she knows the difference between my hand under a blanket, which when I do play with her this way, she goes nuts! I am guilty of allowing rough play to an extent, and she loves it! Definitely have the battle scares!