Cat Acting Weird After Waking Up

[Victorianxo]

Hello

So I've been googling this for hours and hoping I can get help here. Earlier today my cat was taking a nap in his cat tree. Normally when he wakes up he stretches and does his thing, plays with a toy, eats, watches the birds anything. Today his ears were kind of down and he looked tired and he was slowly moving. Like he was trying not to make a sound. He was staring at something in my bedroom like he was afraid of it. Scared the crap out of me so I went in and checked to see if anything was in there. There was a toy that was shaped like a bug so I picked it up and tried to see if he would play with it. He didn't even look at it which is odd. Normally he'd run and wait for me to throw it. He slowly and I mean slowly..Like he was trying not to make a sound, off of his cat tree and into my room. I tried to pet him and he would flinch. He's a cuddle bug so that was weird also. I gave him space to see if maybe he saw something I didn't. After about 5-10 mins he was normal again. Meowing for food and letting me pet him. It worried me that I called the vet and she told me he probably just had a bad dream. I was in the room with him while he was sleeping and I didn't see anything off about his sleeping. He's my baby and I want to make sure he's ok. Has this happened to anyone else's cat? He's acting more normal now. He has peed and I found a small clump of poop in his litter box. Not as big as normal but the night is still young lol just worried about my buddy. Thoughts?

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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V Victorianxo - Welcome to TCS. I don't know much about cats, but as early as 1959, Michel Jouvet's research concluded that cats do, indeed, dream, so your veterinarian might well be correct. Typically the staring behaviour accompanied by "slow motion" movement is precipitated by some sensory stimulus - a mouse scurrying in the walls, a wasp buzzing at the window, or a cat or dog outside the window. Cats' hearing is also a bit different than our own, and they require a different (higher) note to initiate the fear instinct. In Humans, it's about 14hz - a subsonic note - but for cats, the range is closer to 20hz-35hz, and a sound which we would dismiss as 'white noise' such as a commercial air conditioner can set off the fear instinct in cats.

As long as he's returned to normal, all's probably well that ends well.
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[Victorianxo]

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V Victorianxo - Welcome to TCS. I don't know much about cats, but as early as 1959, Michel Jouvet's research concluded that cats do, indeed, dream, so your veterinarian might well be correct. Typically the staring behaviour accompanied by "slow motion" movement is precipitated by some sensory stimulus - a mouse scurrying in the walls, a wasp buzzing at the window, or a cat or dog outside the window. Cats' hearing is also a bit different than our own, and they require a different (higher) note to initiate the fear instinct. In Humans, it's about 14hz - a subsonic note - but for cats, the range is closer to 20hz-35hz, and a sound which we would dismiss as 'white noise' such as a commercial air conditioner can set off the fear instinct in cats.

As long as he's returned to normal, all's probably well that ends well.
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Thank you! This makes me feel better!

 

[animallover07]

I can honestly say sometimes my cats do the exact same thing! They will ignore a pen on the table for days and it'll be sitting there then all of a sudden they zone in on that pen like they are going into attack mode ready to pounce and play. They will inch on it slowly because they are expecting it to move before they pounce and they are trying to be sneaky. For some reason when they do this, their senses are heightened so if you go to touch them to tell them it's okay they will jump because they aren't expecting anyone to be onto their 'hunting'. My cat will smack the pen and jump back like it's going to attack her. She does this a few times before she realizes the pen isn't a threat and isn't going to play back with her and she moves on and goes back to normal. Haha. I'm not quite sure why they sometimes do that but maybe he was fixated on the bug toy like that and was going to eventually pounce on it and play with it so when you touched him it kinda scared him off his 'game'. From what you have said it sounds like perfectly normal cat behavior when they are in a playful 'hunting' mood.

 

[DeweytheLion]

Cats see in ultraviolet too, so it's possible he was seeing something you weren't

 

[Victorianxo]

Thank you everyone! So glad I found this site and people are willing to help and ease any anxiety! I'm a first time cat owner. Grew up with dogs all my life, but when we had a few kittens pop up at my work, hungry, cold and getting attacked by hawks I couldnt just not take him in!