You know its true

Cats... they think they are in charge...  who am I to disagree!

Sometimes I would have to look after a cat belonging to my friend who would go to the US to visit her mother. Whenever she was just about finished packing, Pumpkin would walk along the fireplace mantel and very slowly pass pictures which she carefully knocked down by holding her tail stiff and out to the side as she walked. This happened in other areas with plants, leaning her whole body against the pot.

This extremely agile cat didn't knock things down on a regular basis, only when she was being left with me.

Then she would sharpen her claws on a leather coat that she knew was out-of-bounds. She would generally look at Deborah as she did this.

Dale Hodgins wrote: Pumpkin would walk along the fireplace mantel and very slowly pass pictures which she carefully knocked down by holding her tail stiff and out to the side as she walked. This happened in other areas with plants.

This extremely agile cat didn't knock things down on a regular basis, only when she was being left with me.

Then she would sharpen her claws on a leather coat that she knew who was out-of-bounds. She would generally look at Deborah as she did this stuff.

That's a cat communicating pretty clearly. :) It's hard to get things though the heads of people if you meow.
The sharpening bit is a territory thing, I assume it's Deborah's coat. A cat sharpens to leave their scent on a place, and say "this is mine, this person is mine, this area is mine." So sharpening on something she knows matters to her person is both A) I defy your rules when I feel the need to, I'm a cat and B) "this matters to you, you matter to me, you are mine."  If Deborah is taking the coat when she goes, that makes even more sense "This is my person, wherever she is, she's claimed, you cannot have her. Mine."

It's actually all less defiant than just expressing she doesn't want to be left.

She didn't do any of this stuff when being left on work days. Only when it involved suitcases and overnight.

She ignored me if it was just a weekend thing, but if it turned into more than that , she would eventually sit beside me and purr, which meant pet me.

Cats are smart people. :D

Dale Hodgins wrote:Pumpkin would walk along the fireplace mantel and very slowly pass pictures which she carefully knocked down by holding her tail stiff and out to the side as she walked. This happened in other areas with plants, leaning her whole body against the pot.

It's been said, if the world were flat, cats would have knocked everything off of it by now.

“When you feed a dog it thinks you’re God. When you feed a cat it thinks it’s God”.

Try owning a Russian Blue...it has every worse trait of every cat in existence. Its only saving grace is that it is exceptionally cute.

we loved this show! and Cat was a favorite....I forget exactly how the cat became human but here he is...

Judith Browning wrote:we loved this show! and Cat was a favorite....I forget exactly how the cat became human but here he is...

I loved RD too!  Cat is the descendent of the cat Lister had when he went into stasis for 3 million years.  Over that time the cats evolved into a humanoid form.  Didn't you always expect cats to ultimately take over?

I once wrote a children's book about "Pumpkin the Railroad Cat", based 100% on the real life story of Pumpkin, a cat we had at the railroad engine house where I used to work.

This thread is making me smile. Because it's all true! My one time cat, Bridgette (as in Bardeau, cuz, well... let's just say she lurrrrved to pose!), a gorgeous, long-haired calico, with a very fluffy coat, and all white tummy, chin, ear-insides, and all 4 paws. As soon as she'd see a camera (This was in the early - mid 80s), she'd strike a pose. If you actually aimed it at her, she'd strike pose after pose, looking directly at the camera, the whole time. I'm pretty sure the song 'I'm sexy, and I KNOW it!' was written about her...

And what a timely topic...

As of two minutes ago, we had to right the Christmas Tree from where our !@#$%^&UI cat tipped it over! And so the holiday fun begins.

Do they still worship us, child?

A cat came with the barn when we moved in.   It took almost 2 months for the cat to tolerate us though she never became friendly.

The reason we tolerated her was because on a Spring day, a few days after we moved in, my wife heard yowling and looked out the window.   The cat was hissing, arched back and making all the angry cat signs and noises.   She then chased off a black bear that ran away.

We have had 2 Livestock Guard Dogs since "Darnit" died, but none ever did as good a job as that cat.

Travis Johnson wrote:And what a timely topic...

As of two minutes ago, we had to right the Christmas Tree from where our !@#$%^&UI cat tipped it over! And so the holiday fun begins.

I have an ex who (against my advice) put his Christmas tree right near the floor to ceiling cat tree, the cats could leap from their tree onto his, and bring it over. He was livid. I put a hook in the ceiling and anchored his tree. End of brawl between him and the cats.

Those were the Manx kittens I got a flea market, abused, sick, I didn't know for sure they were Manx for a while, could have been their tails were chewed off, they were in that bad of shape. I had just lost my cat, told my BF I wasn't going to get another one, my business was booming, I didn't have time for a kitten. Saw these two, with a 10.00 each price tag on them, I screamed at the lady for cat abuse. She interrupted my tirade with "would you take care of them?" YES!! I took two very ill kittens to the vet that day. My BF laughed "don't have time for a kitten, so you take two sick ones!" Shut up. :P

Those two grew up to be very smart, fun, creative lunatics. I had a bunch of things in the house with touch sensors, they learned to work them. They'd turn on the living room lights at night when they wanted to play in there. One of them decided he hated the wake up music on the bedroom stereo I used as an alarm clock. He'd shut it off. Don't know what he had against Pink Floyd's "Echoes" first thing in the morning, but that's the only music he'd shut off. I LIKE Echoes as wake up music, I pay the bills, leave my music alone! Mrow!!  Sigh....

Travis Johnson wrote:And what a timely topic...

As of two minutes ago, we had to right the Christmas Tree from where our !@#$%^&UI cat tipped it over! And so the holiday fun begins.

We're getting an ex-pen to protect our tree, but I'm not sure that would help with your cat. I used to run fishing line from either the ceiling, or put the tree in a corner, and run the fishing line from the 2walls, and anchor it, that way. Some folks are hanging them upside down, lol!