Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my female cat is almost 3 yrs old. she has done this almost since i first got her more than 2 years ago. her favorite and first 'toy' is the string from my hooded sweatshirt. there are a couple of knots in it, it's kind of shredded, but she still loves it. i noticed that if i left it lieing across my bed, when i got home from work it had been dragged into the hallway. the same if i left it on a couch. it was dragged into another room. i took to throwing it high into her cat tree because she seems to like to 'fetch' it and move it. i can be in bed reading and she'll drag it into the room, drop it, and meow a few times. not a 'feed me' meow or there's 'another cat on my property' meow. any ideas what this is? is she presenting me with 'prey' or is this a maternal thing, as though she is moving her baby? any ideas?

Hi There,

A few of my cats do this with their favorite toys. I usually refer to the toy as their "babies", even though 2 of my cats that do this are males.......lol

Anyway, to me, it seems like the toy is kind of like a "security blanket" to them more than anything else. It's their favorite thing so they like to bring it to us as a "gift" or just carry it around with them. My boys that do this are very insecure, so this makes sense.

I think in some cats it can be a maternal thing though. It can seem very much like a mother kitty carring around a baby. My female that does this and one of the males lost their mothers when they were very young, about 4 weeks of age.

Regards,
PHKitkat