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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Things you didn't know about cats until you got one....

130 replies

Mumdiva99 · 03/12/2020 20:42

This is just for fun and might be interesting or useful.

I'll start - I didn't know cats played fetch. My beautiful blonde cat plays with a rubber orange bullet and brings it and drops it waiting for me to throw it. This can be a long game....

What have you learnt?

OP posts:
Toddlerteaplease · 04/12/2020 07:53

@ImAKaren cats 30 years ago were apparently a different species. Lol.

I think they must have been. None of our childhood cats, had the big personalities that our current ones do. Or were as vocal!

Toddlerteaplease · 04/12/2020 07:55

@Mumdiva99 I think she's actually red. My cheddar is red and she looks the same colour.

FamilyOfAliens · 04/12/2020 08:04

I’ve had cats all my life from being a toddler but it was only when I started using spot-on flea treatments that I learned any liquid substance placed on their neck works its way gradually down their body through their fur.

Hence why they concentrate so much on washing their head/face as it cleans the rest of their body too.

I’ve also discovered that pretty much everything they do melts your heart Smile

Things you didn't know about cats until you got one....
LadyBrienne · 04/12/2020 08:12

They have fetishes - my boy is obsessed with hair bands / ties - he will steal them from the bedside table, lounge, dining table, bathroom etc - where ever they happen to be ... he will even try to pull them from your hair if he notices that your pony tails has a hair band in it ... he runs off with them ... we never see them again ... somewhere in this house is 8 years worth of hair bands

LadyBrienne · 04/12/2020 08:14

Thief

Things you didn't know about cats until you got one....
IrisAtwood · 04/12/2020 08:21

That they have site to site transport just like Star Trek. No cat in the kitchen, glance out of the window, look back, cat sitting in the middle of the kitchen when I knew that she was upstairs.

GuppytheCat · 04/12/2020 08:21

@Mumdiva99

This is just for fun and might be interesting or useful.

I'll start - I didn't know cats played fetch. My beautiful blonde cat plays with a rubber orange bullet and brings it and drops it waiting for me to throw it. This can be a long game....

What have you learnt?

I’ve learnt that we appear to be sharing a cat, OP - right down to the speckledy ears
Original poster
Mumdiva99 · 04/12/2020 08:23

Oh thank you all so much for adding to this. I love all your tips.

We've had to remove all the nerf gun bullets as the only sick I've seen from one of mine had chewed up bullet in it....I think she might have choked or just didn't agree with her. But they love hair bands, paper, foil, origami (my daughters current thing).

OP posts:
AlCalavicci · 04/12/2020 08:32

My Dcat plays fetch too, he likes screws up bits of paper, pref post-it notes.
He likes been in his carrier he sleeps it it must days, all others cats I have had and seen fight like buggery when you try to put them it one.
This one does not like any human food at all, previous cats I have had have all liked chicken , fish, butter, cheese, etc
3am is official kitty parkor play time .
Not all cats hate water , mine plays in it, either running water or just dipping his paws in his water bowl.
Scented candles / plug ins/ air freshener etc can be bad for them , mine hates the scented candle I bought a few weeks ago.

whenwillthemadnessend · 04/12/2020 08:40

Great spider catchers

tessiegirl · 04/12/2020 08:41

Not blonde - ginger! Hmm

Anyway, one of ours plays fetch too! Amazing!

frosted232 · 04/12/2020 08:45

I never knew cats could growl. All the dogs in my neighbourhood are petrified of my cat, she sits on the back wall growing and hissing at them when they go past. My mother has a golden retriever and he is absolutely terrified of the cat, he only sniffed her once when he was a pup and got a swipe and a growl in return and he's never forgotten it!

frosted232 · 04/12/2020 08:46

*growling not growing, damn autocorrect!

PirateCatQueen · 04/12/2020 08:49

@bellinique

I've taught my cat to give a paw before I give him a treat.

He now randomly offers his paw to me when there are no treats in the vicinity and it breaks my heart and I have to go hunting for a treat for him.

Manipulative little bastard.

Cats invented inception...
DivisionBelles · 04/12/2020 08:53

@LadyBrienne

They have fetishes - my boy is obsessed with hair bands / ties - he will steal them from the bedside table, lounge, dining table, bathroom etc - where ever they happen to be ... he will even try to pull them from your hair if he notices that your pony tails has a hair band in it ... he runs off with them ... we never see them again ... somewhere in this house is 8 years worth of hair bands
Mine has a nail file fetish. She will seek them out and then play with them and rub herself up against them. Weirdo.
Kidneybingo · 04/12/2020 08:54

They definitely understand some words, and act like dogs, following us around, and coming when called.

Hoppinggreen · 04/12/2020 08:59

DH “didn’t know they had personalities”
He had never had a cat and then he moved in with me. I had 2 and they weren’t really sure about eachother until I had to go away for a week, when I got back all 3 of them were in love! He kept saying “ they actually have a personality don’t they?”. He genuinely had no idea you could interact with a cat. Many years and many cats later he has quite in depth conversations with ours now.

TeaMilkNonePlease · 04/12/2020 09:05

Our cats had long memories. Their previous owner fed them tinned food while we preferred pouches. Yet ten years later they would still turn up in the kitchen to the sound of a tin popping open.

HMSSophie · 04/12/2020 09:06

That they miss you. If I go out mine sits on the window sill waiting for my return. He gets excited when he spots me and rushes to the door to say hello.

bluebluezoo · 04/12/2020 09:08

Mine has a nail file fetish. She will seek them out and then play with them and rub herself up against them. Weirdo

Shoes and plastic bags here.

Original poster
Mumdiva99 · 04/12/2020 09:53

@GuppytheCat we do share a cat. Mine has the kitten kong and loves it. If you love in a town with MK initials maybe they are related.

Here she is helping my son with a science experiment.

And as I'm getting told off for calling my other cat Blonde (she is....and it's on her documents lol) - what colour do you call your cat? Or how do you describe him?

Things you didn't know about cats until you got one....
OP posts:
GuppytheCat · 04/12/2020 09:54

Shoes are the only thing our older cat is possessive about. She is very dim mild-mannered and let the new kitten barge into her living space, use her cat bed and eat from her bowl - but when it tried to play with a shoe, she had a massive hissy fit.

GuppytheCat · 04/12/2020 09:56

We don't live near there, but our cat was from a rescue litter shipped across country because the local rescue was full -- so who knows!

Allergictoironing · 04/12/2020 10:10

I never knew cats shed their outer claws, as until I got mine all the cats I had known well were indoor/outdoor in rural areas so tended to shed them outside. Mine being indoor only, they shed them mostly on the sofa - many times have I sat down & been pricked by a claw sheath!

lesleyashfishlips · 04/12/2020 10:41

That one of my cats keeps her toys under the living room bookshelf. Which I only found put about when I went to hoover underneath and blocked the hoover with cat toys.