Strange problem with my cat

[lisalisa]

Some brief history - we’ve had the Cat about 3 months . She turned up on the doorstep and made herself at home - not chipped no collar and despite our appeals on local Facebook groups and others no one claimed her
Now for the problem .....
She’s always since we’ve known her been quite calm and nice natured . Suddenly though at the same time every morning for the last 10 days and at other times of day during the last 2 days she’s been jumping up on the dining room table and eating the plastic tablecloth . I’m not sure she’s actually eating it but she clawing at it withher teeth and had ripped a sizeable hole in it . I sit st that table to work and the pattern is always that she comes to me to rub her head and fuss her which I do then she walks all over my lap top and work papers then dives for that part of the tablecloth . It’s the same part every day .
To get her to leave the table I started giving her a treat here and there but not every day. Some days I Judy picked her up and put her outside the room. It’s beginning to drive me mad though. What can it be ?

Well the first thing that occurs to me is she might be in heat. Not that that causes ripping tablecloths particularly, but it does certainly cause sudden changes in behaviour.

She's female, you've only had her three months, she was stray - she could easily be unneutered. Unless you had her done yourself?

Could it be that the first time was a one-off, and now it's just "fun"? Did she make a hole the first time she did it? And does she seem distressed or more like she's playing? (Albeit in that manic way that cats do sometimes )
Sometimes once there's a hole or dangly bit of cotton etc, the cat will go nuts trying to "catch" it for days afterwards. Ours have been known to do it with a patch of wallpaper - it will usually start with an odd reflection from e.g. a car/lamp/laptop, and then they'll make a visible scratch or tear a bit of wallpaper and won't leave it alone after that.

Not sure on how to prevent it if that's the case though - sorry! Except perhaps fixing the hole if possible so it looks less appealing.

Do you actually play with her? If not, my guess is that this is some sort of game for her.

My cat turns into a mad wild cat a couple of times per day - in the morning always at the same time. She suddenly walks around with a slightly arched back, huffs and appears restless. I then grab her fathery dangler toy and she jumps onto the armchair. She then grabs the feathery toy (I try to gently pull it away from her so she has to actively try to keep it) and kicks, bites, scratches the toy furiously and jumps around on the armchair (the photo shows her with her toy on the armchair).

If I were you, I‘d get such a toy and whenever she jumps on the table, I‘d try to distract her by playing with her.

Is she spayed?