Have you ever had a pet that had emotional issues, or made very strange associations?
We always kept Smokie’s cat food up on a tall dresser in the laundry room to keep the dogs out of it. She’d jump on the washer, then onto the dresser. Then Smokie Cat got very old, 17, and was having trouble jumping that high so we moved her food to a much shorter dresser in the bathroom.
We got Milo several months ago. The only place he knew of to get food was in the bathroom. Somehow that crazy cat associated getting petted with eating and with people going to the bathroom. You’d go in the bathroom and Milo would come flying in from wherever he was. While you were preparing to sit down he’d jump up on the dresser and grab a mouthful of food, by which time you would be sitting down, then he’d jump down and start rubbing on your legs and reaching up your legs wanting to be scratched. Then he’d suddenly break away, jump up on the dresser and grab more food, then jump down and start rubbing on you again. He’d do that 3 or 4 times. He got FAT.
Then Smokers died. :( We moved the food back into the utility room….and Milo was devastated and confused. We had wrecked his lovins routine! He actually lost a BUNCH of weight very quickly.
Then he discovered something to replace the food part of his routine…toilet paper. He still takes his quickie breaks from getting petted…and munches on toilet paper. He literally chews it up and swallows it!
It is crazy….but very interesting in a way. Thankfully toilet paper doesn’t have many calories so he hasn’t gotten fat again.
I can’t seem to locate my pictures of Smokie….I’ve got some, just don’t know where.
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We had a sheltie who would go balistic when anyone sneezed. She would bark madly, then frantically find something to shake (typically a sock we left lying around for the purpose) and thrash the bejeezus out of it. My daughter had allergies, and sneezed a lot. The dog made the association between reaching for a Kleenex and an impending sneeze, so she would launch into her sneeze rage as soon as a hand made a move for a Kleenex, even if it was just to blow a nose.
Cats are very very fond of and attached to their little routines. They hate change of any sort. I don’t know that. what you’re describing is necessarily indicative of emotional problems as much as it is pretty typical cat behavior.
In order to reclaim your toilet paper, why not just put some food back up in his favorite spot but just far less of it? I see your concern about the weight gain but if there were only a bite or two of food there at any one time (with his regular food being in its new location,) he would still have the emotional satisfaction and his love routine and snacks but ust less of the snacks.
Poor confused kitty.
I don’t think that him eating paper is such a great idea. Check with your vet about That.
One of my cats, Chance, cries her head off every time I go to the bathroom for some reason. She’s fine if I go into any other room, but if I’m in the bathroom, she sits at the bottom of the stairs and meows very sadly (and loudly) until I come out. I can quiet her for a second or two by talking to her loudly, through a door and down a flight of steps, but she starts right back up again.
Awwww! Can’t she come to the bathroom with you?
@Dutchess_III She won’t! The kitten, Mouse, races us to the bathroom if she even thinks we’re headed in that direction. She loves to hang out in there on the bath mat, and keep us company. Chance is too lazy to run for it, I guess. She doesn’t even come upstairs to do her crying. It’s weird.
That’s funny! My Milo damn near gets in the shower with me.
I had a lovebird that fixated on my ex-husband. He hated high pitched noise so when the birds got noisy he would yell and sometimes throw his work gloves at the cage. After a while she started doing a mating dace every time he came in the room. I guess she was not just lonely but a bit of a masochist.
I call my girl dog a ‘canine stalker’. If she was human we would need to take legal action to prevent her from bothering my husband. Have you seen Wedding Crashers with Isla Fisher where she says Don’t ever leave me… cos I’ll find you! That’s Isabel. Sweetest little dog but just a little too in your face and attached to my husband.
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