Cat pawing at food bowl? ANd yells at me for coughing!

Hi all.

Girlfriend is about 7 years old, and I just noticed recently a couple of odd behaviors. First, when I cough, she "yells" at me. It's like that sound they make when they are stalking birds through the window, but she doesn't have the stalker stance. She could even be sleeping and when I do it, she yells at me in her sleep. SHe's like a crotchety old man suddenly.

Next, and this is also new, she has started pawing at her food bowl as if she just went in the litter box and is trying to cover it up. I got her some new food the other week and she really didn't like it (barfing around the house, not eating it in general) and that's when I first noticed the pawing thing. She paws so violently I'm surrprised she hasn't knocked all her bowls over.

Any ideas? Is this just --**gasp**-- age? She seems fine otherwise. I got her new food right away that I know she likes and she's been eating and using the litter box just fine.

Thanks!

I ca not help much, but tell you Skittles hates food that is with chunks and gravy and she paws like you said girlfriend does. I give her nutro she is happy....

Pawing at food is actually instinctual.
It's not that they don't like the food, it's that they are burying it to save it from being stolen.
They may want to eat it later, they are just 'protecting' it.

I too, have a griper.
Trouble gripes at my birds when they get too loud, or he gripes if someone sneezes too loud.
Yes, he'll even do it in his sleep.
We think it's incredibly endearing.

Pudge will chirp and meow at me if I sneeze.

One of my cats also meows whenever someone sneezes. I didn't know other cats did that.

I get glares and snubs with coughing/sneezing. As if they take great offense...

My cat did the burying bowl thing once we switched them to Nutro. She was about five, I think. A few years ago. She'll bury everything now, which she didn't do when she was younger. Do other's cats bury everything, besides litter box/food area? My cat will try burying stuff in the living room, bathroom, everywhere.

After Emily eats, she almost always paws at the placemat under her food bowl. There is no food on the placemat so she isn't trying to bury it. I guess it is just the instinctual behavior.

My cat purple hates fighting. One time, my husband and I got into a heated argument and I yelled at him and she BIT me, and hissed every time she saw me for the rest of the day!! That ended the argument though, because we were both so shocked.