Carrying toy and yowling?

My 5 year old cat Sophie is quite a firecracker, and she has recently fallen in love with a particular toy.  Every night while my family is still awake, she will entertain herself by throwing the toy over her head and chasing after it.  When we go to bed, I hear her carrying the toy around, and letting out long meows/yowls. The first time I heard her meowing this way I was worried she was in distress, however, she seems perfectly fine, and she immediately stops and drops her toy when I call out to her.  The funny thing is, she will only do this when she thinks no one is watching. I snuck downstairs to see if I could catch her in the act, and she quickly saw me and stopped.  I have also noticed now that she is bringing the toy into my room and on my bed in the middle of the night!! It's really adorable, but I'm just curious if this is playing behavior, or if she is perhaps bringing me her toy as if it were her prey, or maybe something else entirely?  

My Emily does the same thing!  She sounds almost distressed.  I"ve always thought she was trying to get my attention so I will play with the toy with her (toss it for her to catch, etc...)

My Bella does the same thing. She has her favorite bow tie toy made out of plushy fabric. She will pick it up and yell as loud as she can without dropping it. Basically she will only yell with the toy in her mouth.  But as soon as I look at her she will drop it immediately. 

I wonder if this is a girl thing?

Why does she do it?

My girls do it when they catch a mouse! So I think it's prey behavior. And of course the boys are lazy so they DON"T catch anything! haha!

So I think it's prey behavior.

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That sounds about right.  Emily is quite a hunter (the indoor type.) 

Yeah, the girls have to be the good hunters to feed and teach the young ones, don't they?  Interesting topic!

Huh! Who knew this was such a common behavior! Sophie has never caught a thing in her life, although she is super feisty and loves to play, so I wouldn't be too surprised if it were an instinctual hunting behavior! She's actually yowling with her toy as I write this, haha.

txcatmom said:

That sounds about right.  Emily is quite a hunter (the indoor type.) 

Yeah, the girls have to be the good hunters to feed and teach the young ones, don't they?  Interesting topic!

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 Exactly, and the boys are just like male lions, laying around in the sun LOL!

well you guys i have a male cat who does this, so unless he's a female cat trapped in a male's body, i don't think it's strictly feminine behavior.

i thought he just wanted attention.  he does it when i'm almost asleep, stands in here by the computer and yells loudly with it in his mouth.  he's siamese so i'm kind of used to them talking a lot, but he did sound a little distressed.  plus muffled because he doesn't take it out of his mouth.  if i'm almost asleep, i don't do anything but i've called him before and he came with it in his mouth lol.  i just assumed he wanted to play.  he does bring it and leave it on my bed too.

My Tumbles, male 2 yrs old, neutered, also does this just about every night.  I never see him playing with this particular toy, but he'll carry it around at night after we've gone to bed or during the day after he thinks he's all alone.  If I call to him, he'll drop it and come running and settle down.
 

RarePuss said:

I wonder if this is a girl thing?

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LOL, nope. My boy Maxie (MC) will carry his green mylar ball around the house in his mouth talking the whole time with it in his mouth. My kitties have many, many toys and other mylar balls, but the green one, for whatever reason, is the only one that Maxie does this with. God forbid if it ever gets lost!

I can always tell, even without seeing him, that he has it in his mouth because his meow is muffled a bit--like when somebody talks with their mouth full.   What a hoot! And very cute!

I'll find it in places where I sit, in my bed, or other areas of the house where he seems to leave it just for me.

I've always wondered what the fascination is with the one particular toy.

WhollyCat said:

I've always wondered what the fascination is with the one particular toy.

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I'm pretty sure it's prey behaviour too, as my girl caught a mouse and walked around the house making a huge (muffled noise).  And she's done it with lizards.

Maybe that particular toy taps into an instinctive prey thing.. right size/shape/colour?

My Phoebe does this... Especially with toys that contain feathers or real animal fur.  It is a hunting behavior.  They are proclaiming they've made a kill and they are mighty and successful!    Perfectly natural.  I don't know about girls doing so more than boys but my Phoebe is the only one of mine that do this.  At first I thought she was in pain or something but now I realize she does this with the toy in her mouth after she has "killed" it! 

Our mainecoon boy does this! He used to do it only occasionally, but since we've introduced my kitten into the house as a full-time indoor cat, he does it almost every night, sometimes multiple times, always with the same toy. I call it his "HEY GUYS I CAUGHT A THING!" yowl. I'm pretty sure he's doing it because he's a bit jealous of the babycat getting attention when he's not. It's kind of an adorably pathetic gesture of "See, I can do impressive things too! I killed a thingy for you! LOVE MEEEEEEE!!!"

Relevant to observations of it being a trait more prevalent in female cats, my little girl kitten has never done this, even though she's seen our male mainecoon do it many times. She hasn't yet copied this behavior. She just likes to take her toys and drag them all over the house and pile them in doorways until she runs out of toys to move like that. She doesn't "announce her kill." But then... if she wants attention she doesn't bother with toys, she just sits and makes a long whiney-sounding "meeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!" noise. Coincidentally, my 5-year-old does EXACTLY the same thing when she wants attention or treats, too.

My little Freyja does this with her stuffed mousies when she wants to play or needs us to pay attention to her. When mommy cats teach their babies to hunt, they bring them live mice so the kittens can practice catching it. Your cat just thinks you need to learn to hunt better! Just be glad it's a toy. When my mom was younger, she had a cat bring her a live mouse and left in her bed while she was sleeping.

My Pushy boy does this every day too. He only does it with his one special "octopussy" toy, and he doesn't want us to play with him because he'll just drop it and won't chase it. I think he does it because he wants attention.

Our cat Frosty used to do this with a tourniquate. She loved them and we'd have to play with her with it when she did that. She stopped doing it when they got new ones at the hospital my mom works at and she brought the new type home because it was time to replace it. She hated the new ones (and as a nurse so did my mom) but she'd yowl when it was bedtime too! She'd go to my bedroom door if I hadn't gone to bed on time and sit outside it yowling for me until I went to bed

My family's first cat Fritzi had a pink glove that she'd do that with. . .so funny! And my boy Scotty does it now, only with hair elastics. I cut my hair short last year so he hasn't had any hair elastics recently, but last week I found one while cleaning under something, and he's been doing it ever since. I suppose now I'll have to go buy a thing of hair elastics just for him!

My eldest cat Kuce does this as well (She's 19 yrs). She has her favorite toy ( stuffed fabric mouse that's a little worse for wear) that she'll carry around yowling at (sometimes we joke she's scolding it). Sometimes I wonder if she thinks a baby kitten she's lecturing.
 

Luna does that only when she has kittens. When her kittens were growing up she suddenly started to do that with few mouse toys, she had never done it before and doesn't do it if there are no kittens around so I'm quite sure it's a prey thing. She often brought the mouse to the kittens and seemed to expect them to do something with it. None of my males have ever done that.

The internet phenomenon Maru does that with a feather string toy, they have videos of him doing it. He's a neutered male.

My Jack does it several times a day, and l always tell him what a good boy he is when he drops them at my feet