Religious cats?

I'm cat-sitting for the next couple weeks (see the Care and Grooming forum for more about that), and the cats I'm watching have been leaving me "presents" because they're upset about their mom being gone. Living room, bedrooms, hall, everywhere . . . except for one room.

The woman I'm cat-sitting for is Asian and a devout Buddhist, and she has a beautiful altar set up in one of her spare bedrooms. The cats have *never* left a "present" in that room. One of them hangs out in there all the time, coming out only to eat and use the litterbox.

I wonder if they know somehow that that room is sacred?

No - there could be many reasons why the cats don't go in there.

1. Door is usually closed.
2. Incense or something they don't like the smell of.
3. They've been trained not to go in there.

Door's open all the time, but #2 and #3 make sense.

Maybe they now it's Momma's room and can smell her scent there more strongly then elsewhere? Maybe too it's somewhere your scent is not the strongest so they don't feel the need to "claim" it as theirs? Also could be known as the quietest room in the house so they like hanging out in there to sleep as a regular habit?

It's certainly interesting to contemplate what makes cats do what they do!

When I lived with friends, their 2 cats hung out in my room, as it was a dog free zone. Whenever I unrolled my prayer rug for prayer, they'd be on it in a flash. When I made prostrastions, I'd have to nudge a fat little butt up to the edge of the rug. Somehow they always managed to siddle back down before the next prostration. No sense of the sacred there

Rocky, one of my two boys, shows up every time I ring my meditation bell (just a little silver bell my parents gave me about 10 years ago). If I'm sitting reading my meditation books or writing in my gratitude journal, he'll jump on my lap and purr.

Oliver pretty much leaves me alone when I'm praying or meditating, but when I was using a black brocade altar cloth for a while, he used to sit on it.

A couple of our RB cats used to like to hang out and listen to my Oma (my mom's mom) pray the Rosary.

Not exactly religious-- oh wait also not a cat, but anyway... I often go to a friend's house for friday night (shabbos) dinner and I always used to bring my dog Ginger along. Ginger loves bread and they do a blessing over the bread (hamotzi) before dinner and everyone is given a piece. They would always give Ginger a piece too. Well, Ginger learned the Hebrew words-- as soon as they said the words that are just before the bread is passed around Ginger would sit up and look for her share of bread! The rest of the time when they did all the blessing and everything she'd be relaxing next to me, usually lying down, until she heard that last phrase and then she'd sit up and look for her bread!

You'd think living with a nun as their person, my cats would be religious, but that's not the case, especially with Claire, who is named for St. Clare of Assisi. Some of you may recall how Claire turned a Baby Jesus Christmas ornament into a toy a couple of years ago and knocked it all around the house and down the steps. They've also been known to knock various religious articles off my dresser and bookcases. In the mornings, when I try to take my quiet time to pray/reflect/do spiritual reading, all they care about is trying to distract me so I'll give them attention or play with them. No religious kitties here.

@ Claire

Tino is very religious and very strict. He expects total calm around him at all times. When the others tried to pick on our dog when we first got him, Tino slapped them all for being mean (that was nice and mean of Tino). The rest of them try, but are not as special as Tino.