Cats--or terriers??

by Natalie
(Saint Paul MN)

Hi Again!!
I had to start a new thread so I could show you a photo of one of our boys (his brother looks a lot like him, except his head is more triangular). At any rate, things are pretty settled in terms of the four cats getting along, but the boys have this odd habit of digging vigorously--anything from the litter box (where the litter is kicked on the floor) to the bed (yup, they sleep with us...sleep is a relative term when speaking of bedtime with the "gang."). When in bed with us, they start digging furiously into the blankets, pillows and into our sides, etc. They remind us of dogs digging for bones! The other two cats don't do this. The boys are also both very verbal and are able to open drawers and doors. Nice!

It might be hard to tell from the photo but one of our friends thought they might be part-Siamese base on the head shape (not to mention the constant vocalization!).
At any rate, we love them to bits, but they are both handfuls!! If you've ever run into this digging thing, we'd love to hear about it.

thanks again for all you do for us baffled cat parents!!!

RESPONSE:

Natalie:

LOVE the picture of Voltaire! You can just see the little wheels in his head spinning as he thinks up more mischief to get into! Hard to tell from the photo if he has Siamese in him but from what you say he probably does. We bet he and his brother will be a handful for a few years!

Regarding the "digging", it is unusual but not uncommon. We have a couple now that dig like they are burying a bone and have had other diggers in the past - all boys! The only explanation we have come up with is that it's fun! Have your boys discovered how much fun unrolling toilet paper is yet!

Cats, like the rest of us mammals, especially when young, often just do things because they find it fun. Some things seem to be even more fun for them if it makes their humans squeal! Explains why they like to dig in your sides!

Opening all the cupboards and drawers is apparently fun too. They especially love to pull stuff out of the drawers (all over the floor of course!)and even crawl back behind the drawer where they can't be seen. We are very careful about closing open drawers around here so we don't squish anyone! And they love to have us squeal in surprise when we open a cupboard and are surprised by a cat hiding in there! Sometimes, the things our cats do for fun practically give us a heart attack!

As to the bedtime situation - you are on your own there! Just try sleeping with 12 or 15 of the little buggers on the bed! The whole bed virtually vibrates from the purring! But, between the hair chewing, kneading, digging, grooming, etc., we haven't really slept in years! Turning over is next to impossible! And believe it or not, several of them actually steal the covers right off of us! But we wouldn't have it any other way!

We can help you with the litter box mess though. Get some 18 gallon storage totes and make litter boxes out of them. (You can read about how to do this in our section on litter boxes.) The sand can then be deep enough to allow them to dig to their hearts content yet still contain the majority of the mess. Way better than traditional litter boxes and easier to keep clean too!

Just enjoy your active, rambunctious little boys with their odd little quirks and try not to squeal too much! Like I said, we think they like to make us squeal!

Donna
House Full Cats Mom

Anybody else have cats that do odd things? Add your own comments and help Natalie feel a bit better about her rambunctious little boys!