For Tabby Owners! - your throughts??

I was wondering if any Tabby owners can share their kitties' behavior quirks? Behavior is of fascination to me and I am very curious to see if there are any commonalities in Tabbies(Tabbys?) that form a common pattern in this breed. For instance, here are some quirky things Freddie, my gray tabby junior cat (7 mos.) does:
He scratches around the food bowl;
He likes red balls, red feathers, anything red.
He rejects seafood.
He likes the telephone but not the doorbell.
He watches t.v., I mean REALLY watches it.
WOULD SURE LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT OTHER KITTIES!

Amber used to scratch around her food bowl, but she doesnt anymore. she does, however, dip her paw in her water bowl and lick off the water in addition to just drinking it straight.

she will eat anything.

I havent noticed any tendencies toward any particular color.

she doesnt like the telephone and is deathly afraid of the doorbell. if a doorbell rings on tv and it is loud enough, she will run!

and she likes to watch animal planet.

lets see...she loves to burrow under the covers or under a tent. if I have a blanket on the sofa, just laying around, she will nose her way inside and take a nap.

thats all I can think of for now.

Skinny loves to sit near people conversing. I swear she seems to understand what is being spoken. Since she is slightly cross eyed, a serious conversation does not last very long!
When she is hungry she also changes her meow to this very irritating pitch and won't stop until she's fed.
If she jumps on the table, she will knock out the small things on it, like pencils, erasers, etc. but nothing larger than a CD.
She has no hunting sense. Birds, mice, lizards,etc. are safe from her. My other 2 cats are notorious for that, but she won't join them.
Well, I think this is about all.

My red tabbies are all pretty laid back kitties. They also have a stubborn streak in them when you want them to do something they don't want to do (more so than other cats in my house). I've heard back from owners of the red tabbies that I've adopted over the years that they are the same way. We've just called it the stubborn-mellow red gene.

My brown tabby is nothing like the rest. My silver tabbies are still too young to judge them fully.

I've only owned a cat for 3 months so I don't know if she's got any weird behaviors or not.

When she hears the door bell, she RUNS to the door.

Loves to lay on newspaper or magazines. Wouldn't lay on her bed until I layed newspaper on it.

Loves to play with my hair ties. Scrunci's are her favorite, especially the one I've tied a 15 foot string to. She's very good at wrapping that around stairway banister.

She ran to the TV to check out the crying puppies and tilted her head in fascination. We had been to the vet a few days before and she heard puppies crying there. Maybe a connection?

Loves to watch and bat at the fish in my 20 gallon aquarium AND also knocks the filter lid off to get a drink!! yuck

Stalks any flying or moving animal she sees outside (birds, butterflies, squirrels) Likes to stalk me too and hide behind objects. Fortunately, she's only stalking me cos she wants to play.

She also makes a particular churp/noise when I leave for work in the morning. Really I would like to stay home but someone's gotta bring home the dough!!!

I have tabbies in several colors, most well known is Alix P. Curl.
None of them behave the same They each have their little quirks that I adore (Tippy gives hugs, Alix comes running if I'm sad - she's tuned in! Ophelia is a diva in a brown tabby fur coat.)

Twig our gray tabby is 16 pounds and is definately the alhpa cat.
He Loves the doorbell. He runs to greet you (not me though,he just looks at me from his tower like"oh it's just you" and then waits for me to come to him to give him pettings) if you come in. He likes to sniff you to see where you've been. he scratches around his food when he's done with it. he also likes to scratch on napkins or paper towels. he digs to China in his litter box when he's done doing his "thing".He loves to be under the covers between your legs when he sleeps but only for 30 minutes, no more for some odd reason(I've timed him the last few times he's done this and neither of us have moved or changed positions or anything).He likes to be loved only on his terms, like when I'm on the computer then he decides that he needs to be petted right then and there from me ONLY, noone else. He likes to sit on the fish tank for the warmth of the lights. he likes to chase Rocket our Abyssinian and vise versa. he also has this thing about eating bread and muffins. none of our other cats eat these just him.I keep our breads and muffins either covered or in the fridge because he will eat through the wrappers to get to them. He likes to hunt snakes and bugs in the basement. he is very territorial and will hiss and spit and try to get at any other cat outside(he's an indoor only cat who gets to go "outside" on an inclosed porch only). Oh yeah, he rarely meows. He will only if he is chirping at birds, or if something is on his sleepy spot right next to his daddys side of the bed. That's about Twig in a nutshell.
he's one of my spoiled rotten babies and I adore him(Rocket, Isis and Luna of course) with every fiber of my being.

Twig---great. This is such great feedback. I forgot to include that Freddie likes biscuits, too, the flakey ones. He rarely meows, it's more of a soft sigh, or whine w/o being a negative whine. All of this has been fascinating to read, I hope we get more Tabby parents....and I can see some patterns. The bit about watching tv when she heard puppies, like the crying puppies at the vet, was quite interesting. Way cool.

I don't think that traits are as a result of breed per se, but more just the character of the cat itself. Shaped by whatever the cat has lived through and really doesn't have much to do with what type of cat it is. For example, I always thought of Orange cats being such a love, but my latest arrival Cyclone is orange and not even close to being mellow. Tabbies are such a mix, they could be just about anything to anyone.

I've noticed that all of the tabby's I've ever owned have been very talkative cats. As opposed to the other cats. Has anybody else noticed this?

Oscar is a very talkative kitty. He will talk to you all over the house. He will watch TV and especially likes Animal Planet shows.

One thing he likes to do is ambush me when I walk by the bed and he will run to the top of the windows so he can hear the spring in there make a Booooiiiiiinnnnnggggg sound. Drives me crazy in the mornings before coffee

I forgot to add some other things my cat also does.

Greets me at the door when I arrive home from work. Purrs non-stop and craves my attention for at least the next 10 minutes.

Waits by the window about the time I arrive home from work.

She LOVES to play and is very verbal about getting attention. Will actually bring her toy to me as if to say she really means business.

Understands simple words like "No", "Ouch", "Play", and "hungry".

She also likes to lay on or near my mouse pad. I've actually taught her to step OVER the keyboard.

I've attached a photo of her. I've been told she's an American Shorthair orange tabby. She also has lynx-like points of hair on the tips of her ears.

oh, how lovely she is~! Big girl? I'll have to copy you on that training to walk OVER the keyboard - quite helpful, hmmmmm.... Freddie just plops himself down right on top of it.

Max is a tabby, but I don't know is his quirks are because of being a tabby or being individual.

1. He also scratches around his food.
2. Loves to play catch - he will play it until you hide his mouse/milk ring.
3. He will also scoop water and drink from his paw (he is a poly)
4. He does his "your home" song & dance. This consists of walking back and forth in front of me - meowing the whole time.
5. When I say it's time to go to bed or when I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom (which he must accompany me, because he doesn't think I know the way by myself) he has to race me back to the bed.

That's all I can think of for now.

I have a tabby that dips his paws in the water dish...and loves to ambush people! Not too good with strangers.

Lucy will only drink water from the faucet. Cindy, however, follows Lucy to the faucet and seems curious, but won't drink from it!

Cindy loves bags, newspaper, and almost gets a catnip-like high when playing with them. Lucy, on the other hand, couldn't care less about bags and paper, but loves playing fetch with plastic bottle caps and bottle cap toys. Lucy is more dog like and will eat anything off the floor. Cindy is extremely picky, will sniff things, but never tastes or eats anything except her cat food.

Lucy loves the candy like cat treats. Cindy totally ignores them.

As for affection, Punky, the tortie, is the only kitten who will knead her paws and lie on your lap adoringly and snuggle with you.

I think that all cats have an individual personality that is further developed by their life time experiences.

I have a tabby called "TABS"!!! not very origanal but it was Tabatha but being a boy he wasn´t very impressed with that.
Anyway I have noticed different behaviour in him compared to my other cats.
1. He used to be very good at being an alarm clock. He would always jump on the bed and meoww 1 minute before our alarms went off every day. On the odd day that he was out i found him meowwing at the door to come in, as i let him in it was just the correct time for the alarm to go off. He never learnt about lay ins on a weekend though.....strange dont you think.

2.Loves to wash. If he is on your lap he often tries to wash us too sometimes for as long as ten minutes...

3. Likes to watch tv..but only certain programmes interest him.

I am sure there is more but cant think of anything at the moment. I will add anything else that springs to mind later

Welcome to the site. I noticed you are new, and from Tenerife in the Canary Islands, is that the capital? It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. When I was in college, I had a friend that came from Tenerife. He was very charming, bright and had all this European sophistication - all the girls loved him. Thanks for your tabby stuff from Tabs!

Thanks for the welcome.

I am english really but living in tenerfie. Tenerife is one of seven islands that make up the canary islands just off the cost off africa.

I spose i must have some of the european quirks you talk about.

I have really enjoyed readong abour other tabby cats and their nature.

Tabs has a bad something at the moment. First we thought it was his tail as it was really limp..then possibly back but the vets has said that apart from muscle tension his back is fine x-rays were all clear...now it looks like it is his back left leg...so back we go again to the vets for more x-rays.

He has either hurt his back leg or enjoying all the fuss and getting too eat his food where he is sitting that he is going to go through every part of his body.

Will let you know what they find is wrong this time.

Yes, we are all very supportive here. My junior cat of 7 months, Freddie, is fighting lkeukemia and this week we will need to make a very hard decision..... the Health & Nutrition category is where I have spent the last 8 weeks of my time. Wonderful letter and people talk in the Forum. They may be interested in hearing about your Tabs. I do hope he is ok. It is like fretting over an infant. It is 23 and sunny here today - the Canary Islands sound wonderful.