Hey everyone, I wanted to see if anyone else here has come across/could pore some light into a strange behavior my cat has recently picked up.
Meet Celeste:
Celeste is my little two year old, spayed female buddy. Recently she has taken on a rather strange habit that I haven't seen in the few other cats that I have kept/known well. I started working from home recently, and two weeks ago I moved to a new apartment with a dedicated office space. I took three stuffed animals that I have kept at my work desk for half a century and set them up by my computer in my home, two little mice and a kitty. Celeste, recently, has begun to carry around the stuffed cat in what I can only explain as a "friendly" fashion. She will carry it around with her, sometimes, and it will "show up" in many of her various hang-out spaces.
The strange part is that it appears she doesn't "play" with this stuffed cat like she "plays" with the rest of her toys. I can give her plush mice/toys and she'll rip 'em to shreds, often very quickly. With this stuffed cat I can find no evidence that she attacks, claws or bites. In fact, I can't really see any of the usual indications that it is a "toy" for her as she seems to treat it so very differently.
It makes sense to me that this stuffed animal may be "company" or a maternal instinct for her, as I tend to travel a lot for work and it seems that days that I'm gone from the house or overnight are most often when I find the stuffed animal has been moved.
Part of this is also, specifically, that in the next six months she'll most likely be introduced to a new cat who will come live with us. I'm wondering if this may be a sign that she's lonely, especially when I'm out of town or sleeping? Any insight is welcome!
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I'm guessing this stuffed cat of yours functions more as an imaginary friend then a lonliness bandage tho. It's a also a really good sign that she should be friendly to a new cat but don't count on it; cats rarely are introduced with no troubles unless they're both kittens.
I'm not sure why he does it, but I don't think you should take it as a sign either way of how your cat will react to a newcomer. Even as a kitten, Loki was extremely aggressive to other cats to the point of hurting himself trying to get through the window if a cat came through the yard, and if I've been in another house with a cat in it he'll act grumpy until I shower the other cat's smell off myself.
I'm mostly just puzzled because this seems to be a new thing for her. She has never, in the year and a half I've had her, done anything close to this. I did some google searching and found a similar list of stories as shared here by everyone.
My questions are really simple in that I'm wondering if it's a loneliness thing (I spend multiple days out of the house frequently) or just "normal cat" behavior (and "normal" for a cat is almost always weird).
I am planning on introducing her to a new cat who is also a spayed female, and I was wondering if this behavior is a desire for companionship or similar. I doubt it would make the actual introduction any simpler/easier, but it would make me hopeful that she would accept companionship a touch easier. There's probably no real way to know. Thanks!
No worries.
(dawwwwww)
No worries.
(dawwwwww)
My previous cat had a stuffed bear for this purpose as well, but he would get on there and make some pretty disturbing noises.
Long story short, I stopped getting larger stuffed animals for cats. My youngest one is pretty attached to a tiny stuffed pink lobster though, so I imagine this is pretty normal.
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In short, I have nothing helpful to tell you about that behavior, I guess.
Also got her a couple toys, she ain't give a fuck. But drop a flex tie on the ground, she goes nuts trying to kill it.
Then we got him his very own little bro, and he did the same thing with him until he was old enough to wrasle with. It's probably a loneliness thing, imo. But I am not a cat, so it's hard to say.