Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Star and Quentin have a habit or "ritual" they go through. As I'm getting their breakfast and fresh water, the cats sit near their feeding area and slap each other. There is no noise or hissing; they just quietly hit at each other until their breakfast is ready. As soon as I put the bowls down, the fighting is forgotten and food takes priority. It's so funny to watch the cats. I can't figure out what the point of all this is. I've noticed that they do the same thing almost every morning.
Do any of your cats have crazy habits like that?

Ellen

Well, mine don't seem to have any interacting rituals but at night Octavia, who's the one who sleeps with us, will go to bed with us. She's generally lying on DH's chest. A while later, when we settle in and turn over to go to sleep, she gets down and leaves for ten to fifteen minutes. We laugh that she's checking the doors and making sure all the other cats are tucked in their beds. Then she comes back and paws to get under the covers and curls up with her head on my arm. Happens every night, without fail. Katc

My boys are very predictable with set routines/habits. Stanley is a morning cat and we have a morning "get ready" routine. Pookey has an evening routine with me.

The most unusual is Pookey's... Every night when I get ready for bed, I check the front door to make sure it is locked. He pretty much knocks me over, thundering past me, to get to it first. He then promptly rolls over and shows me his tummy, purring and chirping very loudly. It has become a major petting session vs. a lock check for years now. He will not let me check the lock without being there with me. He will shoot out of the litter box half finished and drop food from his mouth at the food dish and run to the door if he thinks I am checking the front door lock without him.

When he had his leg amputation surgery three years ago (wow, three years already next month!), the first day home he was very drugged up and out of it (24 hours after surgery)... The second day home, without thinking, I went to check the door at bedtime and he pulled himself off the couch and drug himself over to the door growling, groaning, and hissing the whole way and lay flat by the front door. I gently pet him and told him what a good boy he was -- he groaned the whole time... It did give me a great look at the stitches as he showed me his tummy, but it broke my heart. I carried him back to his cat bed and avoided checking the lock at bedtime the first week until he was up and around again...
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey

Stink is usually waiting in the nursery doorway for me when I get up in the morning. Since she is fed a different diet, she eats last, but no matter what is going on, after breakfast it's to the big front window to check out the world. And it's a rare, rare day she isn't waiting for me when I get out of the shower no matter what time of the day or night.

Funny, but the other two have habits and schedules, but nothing I would call a ritual.

oh yes, Franci has a morning ritual. Soon as im up she races for the bathroom and plants herself right in front of the toilet. A first thing petting session is a must for her...then its off for breakfast
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PHTessie