Can you explain this behavior?

kara_leigh

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Recently, I'm talking in the last week or two, Nora has started this new strange behavior. My husband and I each have our certain sides of the sofa we sit on...hubby on the right and I on the left. Now, whenever my husband gets up to go get something to drink or go to the bathroom, Nora immediately jumps up into his seat and rolls over on her back and gives him a look almost like "haha! I got your seat!" She'll also roll around on the seat while looking at him, then stop and look at him upside down. A few times, even if my husband hasn't been sitting on the sofa, if Nora sees him walking towards the living room she will RUN over and plop herself in his seat. The weird thing is, she NEVER does this to me...just to my husband.

Can someone please explain to me what is going on in her head or why she is doing this? Our cat has quite the sense of humor. lol
 

3catsn1dog

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Haha Im not the only one whos cats do this too...LOL...BF and I each have our own cats and the one neutral cat. GiGi is BF's and if we are on the couch and I get up GiGi takes my seat and if I move to sit next to BF GiGi flips out and jumps on him and starts rubbing all over him for attention. And Hercules does this to BF if he gets up and will have jealousy issues he even tried at one point to kick BF out of bed! LOL IMO its just cats being cats and showing that they are superior to us humans!
 

baloneysmom

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Bugsy does this to me on a daily basis. He never does this to the boyfriend though.

It could be my side of the bed, my computer chair, my side of the sofa, whenever i get up, even if its only for 30 seconds, Bugsy is in my spot seemingly passed out like he had been sleeping there for hours.

I have no clue why they do it LOL maybe they are bored and playing a game? Either way its super cute LOL.
 

sk_pacer

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This is best explained by the phrase - it's a cat thing


Da Magpie does this to me very day, several times a day. If I come in here, I have to remove the cat from the chair, if I go watch TV, I have to remove her from the couch, and later from the bed. She does the roll around thing followed by the upsidedown gloating stare too, Da Lip never ever did that, but I am into Year 2 of this nonsense. The Tractor Cat also does this no matter what vehicle it is
 

mrblanche

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There actually have been some theories put forth for this behavior.

First, you have to understand that cats are all about territory. Part of that is the place they choose to sleep. At any given time of the day, you can bet that wherever your Alpha cat is sleeping, that is the "Alpha position" for that time of day. And, should the alpha cat get up, it's not unusual for a less dominant cat to try to take that desirable position. But it gets really complicated; the alpha position can change all through the day.

So, all that dithering aside, it may be that the cat views the BF as "alpha," and wants to claim that location as soon as he vacates it.
 

motoko9

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

There actually have been some theories put forth for this behavior.

First, you have to understand that cats are all about territory. Part of that is the place they choose to sleep. At any given time of the day, you can bet that wherever your Alpha cat is sleeping, that is the "Alpha position" for that time of day. And, should the alpha cat get up, it's not unusual for a less dominant cat to try to take that desirable position. But it gets really complicated; the alpha position can change all through the day.

So, all that dithering aside, it may be that the cat views the BF as "alpha," and wants to claim that location as soon as he vacates it.
I'm pretty sure my cats do this at least partly because of the warmth. A chair that just recently held a warm human body is much nicer than a cold chair, especially during the winter months!

I know what you mean about territory, though. Often when we come in after work/doing errands/whatever, one of them will take a look at us and then start scratching something. I told my SO that they do that to remind us that this is *their* house!
 

baloneysmom

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

There actually have been some theories put forth for this behavior.

First, you have to understand that cats are all about territory. Part of that is the place they choose to sleep. At any given time of the day, you can bet that wherever your Alpha cat is sleeping, that is the "Alpha position" for that time of day. And, should the alpha cat get up, it's not unusual for a less dominant cat to try to take that desirable position. But it gets really complicated; the alpha position can change all through the day.

So, all that dithering aside, it may be that the cat views the BF as "alpha," and wants to claim that location as soon as he vacates it.
Oh neat! This makes sense since Bugsy is our Alpha male. It seems to go with Bugsys other "wild cat" behavior that we have been learning about to fix his OCD.

motoko9;2697288 said:
I'm pretty sure my cats do this at least partly because of the warmth. A chair that just recently held a warm human body is much nicer than a cold chair, especially during the winter months! QUOTE]

This seems true too. I guess there are probably multipul reasons.

I am curious to see how many of these "seat stealers" are the alpha in the house?
 

baloneysmom

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

There actually have been some theories put forth for this behavior.

First, you have to understand that cats are all about territory. Part of that is the place they choose to sleep. At any given time of the day, you can bet that wherever your Alpha cat is sleeping, that is the "Alpha position" for that time of day. And, should the alpha cat get up, it's not unusual for a less dominant cat to try to take that desirable position. But it gets really complicated; the alpha position can change all through the day.

So, all that dithering aside, it may be that the cat views the BF as "alpha," and wants to claim that location as soon as he vacates it.
Oh neat! This makes sense since Bugsy is our Alpha male. It seems to go with Bugsys other "wild cat" behavior that we have been learning about to fix his OCD.

Originally Posted by motoko9

I'm pretty sure my cats do this at least partly because of the warmth. A chair that just recently held a warm human body is much nicer than a cold chair, especially during the winter months! .
This seems true too. I guess there are probably multipul reasons.

I am curious to see how many of these "seat stealers" are the alpha in the house?
 

3catsn1dog

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My seat stealers are extremely jealous of any and all attention not given to them. Our dog is the worst of them all but GiGi does not like her daddy giving lovin to anyone but her....She IS daddys girl and thats all that she cares about. Hercules has always been my baby boy he was pampered and spoiled rotten by me and BF when we first brought him home but he has always been my boy. But Herc is not our dominent cat. Fatman is the dominent out of the house. He bosses the bathroom the cats bedroom, our bedroom...well pretty much any space he decides to grace with his presence. I think we got lucky tho with how bossy he is when he shows his snooty attitude he doesnt use his claws on the other animals he just smacks them on the head and turns tail and runs away
 
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