Carrying toy and yowling?

[obapplepie]

Iffy has very recently started the habit of blood curdling yowls multiple times a night. She doesnt sleep in our room (usually wants out right away and has always seemed fine away from us by herself). Everytime I've checked on her I find her proudly surveying a 'kill' or carrying something in her mouth. I recently bought this small dog toy rabbit and she has fallen in love with it. She snuggles it,licks it, gnaws on its neck. And yea... howls like the dickens over it. Im glad other people have this happen, her yowls sound like shes getting HERSELF killed more than shes killing something.

 

[triciarich]

My Cookie does that as well.  She has 2 favorite pillow toys and she'll carry them upstairs doing that yeowl.  First time I thought something was wrong, but then I learned what she was doing.

Now I just let her meow.  Kind of cute.  But she stops as soon as I call out to her and she runs into my room.

 

[jezahb]

I have seen mother cats do this when teaching their kittens how to kill prey, they will catch a mouse/lizard and carry it back to their kittens while meowing to get their attention. She will then release the injured prey in order to show the kittens how to catch/kill with a slowed prey item. So I wonder if when our cats do this they are imitating that behavior, I have heard many times that our cats see us as helpless kittens...so it seems to make sense. Darn cute either way!

 

[kittyfluffybutt]

I agree it's a motherly thing. s/he is bringing prey and enticing you to interact which is probably why they go quiet as soon as you look in their direction as it's almost an "ok, ok I think my hooman has got the gist... yes, she is approaching the food...so proud of my hooman". My Poppy will experiment with different yowls and she's very clever with it!  If I shout a response up the stairs the tone changes and ends up a drawn out meow. It's really strange - like she's testing which one gets the best reaction! And next time, she goes for the one I answered last!  Usually the cute one.

 

[mingking]

That's interesting that it's a motherly thing. My cat will have a toy in his mouth and as soon as I see him, he'll drop it and walk towards me (sometimes). Most of the time, it sounds like what has been described above. 

 

[kittyeatlayke]

My boy does this every night, has done since he was a kitten!

I think I've learned to sleep through the wailing now but I always wake to find the same toy at the end of my bed every morning

 

[mnm]

ha, I don't know how many times I ran to see what possibly could be the matter with Minnie when she startied wailing like that..only to find her favorite "hair band" in her mouth. You'd think I would have learned..but man, it sounds like they're in such distress! lol

 

[patocat]

My 9 year old boy Pato does this every night - normally the same sort of time and always with one of two toys.
One is a fluffy red snake on a stick - you can hear the stick hitting each step as he comes downstairs.
He keeps shouting until you acknowledge him and say well done then he skips round for praise.
He is a very vocal boy anyway but this is when he is at his shoutyist!!!

 

[mirandak]

My 15 year old Maine Coon Dolly does this a few times a day. I caught her the first time because I thought she was in distress. She was running around in circles with her toy ball in her mouth meowing very loudly. As soon as she saw me, she dropped the ball and ran away. She used to do this on the floor. Now she does this on the top step. She is upping her skill level I guess. I think she is training to be in the circus or something. I wish I could catch her on film, but as soon as she hears someone coming, I hear the ball drop and her running down the stairs. It's nice to see so many others have cats that do the same thing. I thought I was the only one with a crazy cat. lol

 

[athegaylouise]

My darling Blair Louise seems to do this when she wants my attention. 6am is definitely her favorite time to try and get me out of bed to play with her and her toys. Luckily with the new addition of a high energy kitten she is able to go wrestle around with Dallas until I wake up. 

 

[SG108]

I have a 5-yr old male cat, Julius. I got him from a rescue shelter when he was 3 yrs old. He absolutely did NOT know how to play with toys. I've tried battery toys where something pops in and out of holes or a "mouse" would run in circles, feather toys, catnip toys. NOTHING! Then I bought some orange ping pong balls. He really likes that, but now I don't know where they are. So, I got him some more today at the store. He liked those, until I couldn't find them.
Back in Feb, I bought some new toy. I just got them delivered yesterday. It's a little opaque ball with a VERY wiggly tail. He went bonkers over it! He started picking it up vocalizing In the same way that a very famous internet cat, Maru, who is also a male, does it. I have NEVER seen Julius like that, but he had that strange meowing. He brought it over to me, at my feet. I praised him and praised him, telling him "what a good boy he is!" I threw it a little ways and he went after it. I'm glad I finally found a toy he likes. I love hearing that meow that he did.

 

[basscat]

Mine does that with new toys. But he won't drop it for me. Rather he'll do what he can to take an arm off if you try to take it away

 

[IndyJones]

My cats will carry a toy and howel if they want me to throw it for them.