Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, my cat has this wierd thing with socks and other...erm 'unmentionable' articles of clothing similar in size.
Now, she doesn't play with them or sleep on them, that would be TO normal. Instead, she DIGS through the laundry pile and sometimes squeezes into drawers to find socks then proceeds to start howling with them IN her mouth while she drags them around the house, typically looking for me. If a bedroom door gets left open, there will usually be about 6 to 12 socks dragged between myself and were she found them. She usually drops them as soon as she either sees me or I call her name.
I have NO clue whatsoever why she does this, it is SO odd!! And she doesn't do this occasionally, she does it everyday, several times a day!
Does anyone have a cat that does something similar or does anyone have an explenation of WHY she would be doing this??
BTW, she was a rescue animal from the SPCA and I have a feeling she was badly neglected, if that has anything to do with her sock issues :-D

~Cro

I don't know why she does this but the calico I live with does the exact same thing. I posted it about it a couple of summers ago!
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

...maybe it's a calico thing, because mines a calico too!!

~Cro

Some kitties just seem to want to adopt a "lovie". I've heard of this several times, especially the walking around and howling.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Well it sure is annoying when you can't find to socks that match! I think I yelled at Patches for about ten minutes this morning before I finally put on two different socks!
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

I have a black cat that does similar things. He is obsessed with my socks. He's obsessed with my feet for that matter!! He will lay on my legs and rub all over my feet and purr and lick them. It's weird...foot fetish cats....
He also steals my underwear. Cats are just weird I guess.

Cats are scent driven. This means that unlike humans, they recognize a person more by their scent than by their actual looks.

I've also read that cats adopt socks as their babies. These might have been females who were pregnant and then for some reason didn't fulfull their motherhood. Or perhaps, had kittens and they were separated from them at too early of an age. I really don't know the reasoning behind that but, whatever the reason, you just have to love them. They might think that we are silly for viewing them by looks rather than scent.
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Ruby and the Kitties
Simba, Samantha, Katrina & KatyKatt
Meow!! Meow!! Meow!! Meow!!

How wonderful to do nothing and then rest afterwards. Meow!

Well, at first I was thinking the scent thing, but she takes EVERYONES socks, not just mine. Clean or dirty, old and filled with holes or BRAND NEW straight out of the bag(she chewed her way through the bag to get to the socks).
I wonder if she is treating them like they're her 'babies' as she was adopted from the SPCA and spayed right before we got her(around two years old), so it is possible she was pregnant and something happened to the litter.
Though, the wandering around and meowing and lookng for me makes me wonder. That and the 2 dozen socks lying around the house when I finally do catch her and lock her out of the bedrooms :-D
I just always thought it was odd that she looks for me with a sock in her mouth. She never sleeps on them, plays with them or anything like that, really.
Doesn't bother me either way, she's one of the best kitties I've ever had, always follows me around the house and snuggles up under my neck every night when we go to bed! I was just wondering if anyone had any insight as to why she'd be doing this exactly, though none of the explenations are really fitting!

~Cro

Maybe she is bringing those socks to you as a present. I used to have a cat a LONG time ago that used to go out and bring me moles and look at me like "ISNT IT GREAT????". I had my kitten's mommy bring me a mouse she found in the barn and put it on my feet. So, maybe since she doesn't have access to things a typical cat would like as a "gift", she brings you socks! They're easy to carry, they're soft...
who knows!

Oh no, both of my cats are mousers and bring me LIVE mice anytime the mice get into our basement(though, more recently they've been killing them and bringing me lovely little dead mice), along with any insects that they doesn't eat before they get to me.
That, and she doesn't bring them to me completely, she usually drops then when either I call her name or she hears/sees me moving around.

That's why I thought this was SO odd, because it doesn't really fit any 'normal' cat behavior. I guess I'll just have to deal with the fact my cats are goofs and no where near normal for an explaination!! I still love 'em to death!

~Cro

I have a six month male seal point siamese. He has had a sock fetish his whole life. He too will dig through the laundry hamper to claim his smelly prize, and will parade through the house until he finds someone (me, my wife, or the other cats). Once he finds me, he walks up to my face, lays his ears back, growls, and runs away. I just figured that there is something in the dirty socks (not so much clean ones), that he likes the smell of. He treats it like a conquered prey. Totally normal, I think.

nate.