Are cats able to resist the chase instinct?

I have owned only one cat (he is ubercat, however) and he loves to chase things but at certain random times and on his schedule.

On many occasions, I have watched him racket around at high speed and torment a mouse for several minutes and then lose interest.

On rare occasions and without any visible provocation he attacks my upper arm; it happens only when I am in bed and ready for sleep. The clear warning is his posture and the dilation of his pupils.

There is that period before they start chasing, when they’re staring intently, and want to pounce but don’t. Sometimes, they’ll make a false start, then just keep waiting. I guess that is resistance of a sort – what exactly are they waiting for, I wonder? Not for the string to slow down or get closer… because often those things make the cat lose interest. Maybe they just like to maximize their anticipation.

Yes, in my cat the chase instinct has been replaced by the “I’m-too-fat-and-lazy-so-I think-I’ll-just-lay-here-and-watch-you-make-an-ass-out-of-yourself-trying-to-get-me-to-play” instinct.

Some cats have more hunting instincts than others. I have one cat that can resist all string along toys. She, however, is the best fly hunter we have ;)

The other two love to play with feathers, string, boxes, bags, mice-etc. But neither of them can catch flies as well as the one that refuses to play. Both of the non fly-killers cats were once feral.

Before my cat was dead, she was super old and rickety. She didn’t do much running or chasing. One day, she was sleeping on the couch next to my mom who was knitting. The ball of yarn rolled to the cat, and just like that her kitten instincts kicked it and she jumped up and starting batting the ball around. So cute!

All our cats will chase the laser dot and a couple of them are old farts.
Last night I was in the recliner and one of them was behind the chair and jumped up and sunk his claws into both sides of my head from behind then ran like hell out of the room with that crazy cat tail that looks like an upside down “U”. It sort of left me speechless. Yeah you better run you little bastard.

@woodcutter one of them was behind the chair and jumped up and sunk his claws into both sides of my head from behind then ran like hell out of the room

Haha that conjures quite a funny image ;)

@FutureMemory If the whole thing could have been caught on video I would have laughed too, but at that time it wasn’t funny at all. There’s no telling what got into him but I hope he’s got it out of his system, Ha!

@woodcutter We call that the “pump handle” tail. Our eldest male cat used to have it after he went poop and was feeling “light & care-free”. If we saw the “pump handle” we’d clear the dogs out of the way. He was known to jump on their backs when he got like that

Further proof that cats are crazy

Yes! Most of my cats will play with anything, but I have a few cats who are utterly unimpressed by string, cat toys, or even insects.