Baby Or Prey

[Judith Ann]

My two-year-old male neutered indoor cat has a strange behavior. There is this old stuffed toy from a previous cat, a stuffed mouse with a wool texture. Each night he carries it upstairs in his mouth all the while making a broken meowing sound. He sleeps with it on our bed and in the morning carries it back downstairs making the same meowing sounds. Otherwise he ignores the toy and never meows otherwise. He almost acts like it's his kitten except he's a male. Or perhaps he thinks it's prey he caught.

 

[susanm9006]

I think it is his best buddy. As he carries it around, perhaps he is telling it about his day or his dreams. When I adopted Willow the shelter sent her home with a catnip banana and for the next few years it went wherever she was sleeping. I think just like a child can attach to a teddy, they attach to their toy and it gives them companionship and comfort.

 

[fionasmom]

I have an elderly male GSD who has carried around the same orange chicken toy his whole life. He moves it from room to room and cries softly if he can't find the "right" spot for it to go to sleep. I believe he knows that he is ill, which is unfortunately true, because he will sometimes give it to me or put it next to my pillow to take care of for him.

Such an adorable picture of your cat with his baby.

 

[Purr-fect]

Greg will often gather up his toy mice, he has 3.

Nearly every night he brings one or more to bed with him.

 

[fionasmom]

Orlando apologizes for not being a cat.

 

[Tobermory]

Lily does the same thing with a small piece of fleece fabric. Every night, she drags it up the stairs, all the while making these weird "mroow, mroow" noises (somewhat muffled since her mouth is full of fleece ). It's the only time she makes that noise. She's puts "her" fleece next to her bed and goes to sleep. Every morning I put it back so it's ready for her in the evening. I think it's her comfort fleece, just like your cat has his comfort mouse!

TobiDaDog 's Reese has her friend "Teabag." Seems to be fairly common behavior for cats!

 

[Molly and Abby]

Adorable!

I've never had a cat do this before. I feel so bummed

 

[TobiDaDog]

Haha I've been there! It's so cute but so gross. Yep, Tobermory is right! Reese has a filthy scrap that she adores too. I think it's just like a kid getting attached to a toy.

Reese takes it to a whole new level though. She makes sure that Teabag is fed and watered appropriately.

 

[Sonatine]

Mischief has a few soft toys that are special to her. She ripped the little stuffed mice off of our cat tree and now they're her favorite. For one, they're the only toy she'll fetch. She'll bring them to me to play with. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and one of these toys is by my bed. I feel bad, because it either means that at some point she brought it to me to throw and I wasn't awake, or she put it in bed with me and it fell out.

She also has a hidey lair inside the lining of my mattress. She sometimes brings her favorite stuffed toys in there with her for bed.

 

[weebeasties]

Reese takes it to a whole new level though. She makes sure that Teabag is fed and watered appropriately.

Spike doesn't do it anymore, but for years she used to gather up toy mice from around the house and leave them in a water dish. Every morning I would wake up to a bowl of drowned mice.

 

[Purr-fect]

Haha I've been there! It's so cute but so gross. Yep, Tobermory is right! Reese has a filthy scrap that she adores too. I think it's just like a kid getting attached to a toy.

Reese takes it to a whole new level though. She makes sure that Teabag is fed and watered appropriately.

Reese is adorable.

Her toy in the food dish, reminds me of the time I found one of gregs electronic mice dropped into his water dish!

It made me laugh, and surprisingly it still sort of pathetically squeaked once it dried out.

 

[Purr-fect]

Spike doesn't do it anymore, but for years she used to gather up toy mice from around the house and leave them in a water dish. Every morning I would wake up to a bowl of drowned mice.

Greg did the same with his mouse!

 

[Kieka]

Link had a favorite small furry toy when he was a kitten. He carried that thing everywhere, including outside, and would hide it for a few days before having it reappear. It wasn't until he was a little over a year and mean old me made the mistake of washing it. In my defense it was caked in mud and twigs when I cleaned it.

After that, Link switched to his caterpillars, fuzzy tube stuffed toys about two inches long. To this day, he will pile caterpillars around doors, windows and on my bed. I swear I've bought six dozen of them but I only know where half of them are. He frequently will carry them from room to room meowing around them.

We've assumed that they are his buddies/guards/comfort toys.

 

[basscat]

It's his woobie.
Had a poodle that had a rubber squeaky mouse. Would have nothing to do with it if anybody was watching. But when we were gone, she took it everywhere with her.
There's not a toy made that'll make it 30 minutes with Gibsy. BUT, the one we made for him out of an old quilt when he was a kitten? He carries it around as gentle as possible when nobody is watching and sleeps with it.

 

[CatLover49]

My two-year-old male neutered indoor cat has a strange behavior. There is this old stuffed toy from a previous cat, a stuffed mouse with a wool texture. Each night he carries it upstairs in his mouth all the while making a broken meowing sound. He sleeps with it on our bed and in the morning carries it back downstairs making the same meowing sounds. Otherwise he ignores the toy and never meows otherwise. He almost acts like it's his kitten except he's a male. Or perhaps he thinks it's prey he caught.

View attachment 301009

So sweet

 

[CatLover49]

Haha I've been there! It's so cute but so gross. Yep, Tobermory is right! Reese has a filthy scrap that she adores too. I think it's just like a kid getting attached to a toy.

Reese takes it to a whole new level though. She makes sure that Teabag is fed and watered appropriately.

Cute