Why do cats love to knock things off of tables,shelves,desks etc?

Because they’re just plain mean. But they’re also very cute. It’s like a meowing paradox of pain.

These look like indoor cats. They’re bored.

Cats love to create an effect. Do kids like to blow things up? It’s in any thinking creature’s genes.

Spoony loved to throw glasses off counters and tables and watch what happened. If she was thirsty and the glass was plastic, she would move heaven and hell to turn it over or slide it off what it was on and onto the floor to get the water in it.

@jonsblond Mine is an indoor/outdoor cat that spends more time outside. He still knocks shit over every chance he gets :P

@ETpro I love that your cat’s name is Spoony :P

Knocking shit over is kind of fun. go ahead, try it

Mine does it to get attention. He knocks pens off of the table all of the time, then looks at me.

In our house, they do it to feed the dogs. They only knock food off the counters.

One of them has a favorite place to watch the entire house, which involved jumping up on my desk shelves and knocking down anything I’m dumb enough to put there.

@YARNLADY Teaching the dogs, “Don’t bite the paw that feeds you,”

My cat actually does not knock things over. :/

She is 18 now and actually prefers to be nosey.

It has actually led her to an unsuccessful career in cat burglary.

She has excentric taste for shiny things.

She would never knock shiny things off a table or out of a purse. She will drag it away in her mouth.

She did that once, rooted through my friends purse and found a shiny ring my cat came and gave to me at first I thought it was cute cuz I thought she was trying to simulate how we played fetch with a tinfoil ball and she was bringing me cool stuff,
of course we gave it back, I couldn’t keep it when the cat plopped it right in front of the guest she stole it from O:-)

But then she started to bring me my jewelry every so often from my dresser. :-V

So I have to put that stuff away. lol.

She also likes to claim things….this mouse pad I’m using for the mouse, well the cat owns it not me.

Try writing a letter. Not likely, because the cat owns the paper too.

My cat throws a fit when she wants me to go to bed…

And then when I’m getting ready for bed she stalks me…I close the door she opens it, because she’s nosey and doors can’t be closed, but then she sits outside of it just quiet enough and long enough you think she found another place to sleep and sometimes she does and sometimes as soon as you lay down and fall asleep she gets in the bed and lays on my pillow and I wake up without it and with my allergies in full swing.

Oh. The cat owns me too. :-C

Cats are naturally mischievous, I think. Mine will paw bottle caps until they fall off the counter or table and then we have to pry them from the dog’s mouth. She’ll also do it with pens and I suspect she’s to blame for knocking the gum off the counter that ended up costing us a small fortune in vet bills when the dog devoured it. We now try to keep things picked up so they can’t be pushed by her tiny paws.

Clearly, we’re just putting shit in the wrong places.

Because they can.

Maybe to see if it’s dead? If it’s dead it’s not worth going after.

If I leave my glasses out in plain sight on my bedside table when I go to bed, my cat knocks them to the floor next morning when he’s ready for breakfast (usually long before I’m ready to wake up). He knows—I know he knows—that will get me up.

“He knows—I know he knows” That sums up a lot of the behavior of my cat lol.

Animals are curious by nature. In an enclosed environment like a house, there are plenty more stuff they can discover and play with, so they would occasionally knock over items.