Need advice: Nighttime yowling- maybe she lost kittens?

[christinemoon]

My cat (13+ yrs?) likes to play with small fluffy toys during the day. It is typical play- batting, carrying, tossing, etc. But late at night, she carries her toys to the staircase landing, drops them, and YOWLS LOUDLY over them. Occasionally she will carry them a few steps, drop them, and howl again. If she loses them, or we take them away, she will still sit on the stairs and cry for 2-3 nights after. If I try to call her, she ignores me. Of course, the landing has 3 walls, so it is a loud echoing meow at 2 a.m.

It started with just cat toys. She then started taking regular fluffy toys- doll pillows, pompon crafts, and finger puppets. When that those were lost, she went after crumpled paper towels, and has now started stealing rolled or crumpled socks. She doesn't play with those during the day, but at night it's the same behavior- carrying them to the landing and yowling from 1-3 in the morning.

This has been going on since her first fluffy toys, 5-6+ yrs ago- it is not anything new. Ive owned her for 8 yrs, but have no info to her life before that. I've never seen this behavior, nor found it online. I can only think she may have had kittens, and possibly had them taken from her, since this strikes me as trying to carry her babies to a central spot. Either way, the only way to control this is to keep her toys hidden for at least 3 days, and I don't want her to not have any toys over that. (And constantly having my socks stolen is a bit annoying as well). Can anyone explain this behavior?

 

[yayi]

Well, your cat is technically in her senior years (starts at 8+). Probably she gets disoriented at night. I don't think the toys and stuff have anything to do with it. It is common behavior for them to handle them that way.  

Just be sure this isn't a health issue. When was her last vet visit?

 

[christinemoon]

She saw the vet 6-7 months ago. She is fairly healthy, other than missing teeth (she didn't have them all when I got her). Her bloodwork came back fine. What would make her disoriented? The lights are still occasionally on at that point, so it's not darkness. I am still awake, so it's not loneliness. It only happens when she has a toy on the landing (or has played with one recently). Although now that I think about it, she will occasionally carry a toy upstairs and yowl over it. I'm positive it has something to do with the toys. If you can make any suggestions about helping if she's disoriented, I would appreciate it.

Thanks for the answer.

 

[molldee]

My family's cat, now deceased, started howling at night when she was 12. She lived till she was 19. She had a clean bill of health from the vet. We just figured it was because she loved being around people so much, that when everybody was in their own bedrooms sleeping, she was alone and started howling for attention. Or to find where we were. She couldn't navigate stairs in the dark so when it was bedtime, my parents would bring her upstairs and let her sleep with them. The howling stopped when she was with them but if she wandered downstairs or somewhere else, she'd start howling again.

Edit: oh I just read that you don't think it's loneliness. Maybe it is being possessive over her toys? She's protecting them?

 

[ak47]

My roomates 3 year old male did this as well and only at night in the dark. Very strange behaviour. Im very curious as to why they do this

 

[yayi]

.

Edit: oh I just read that you don't think it's loneliness. Maybe it is being possessive over her toys? She's protecting them?

You could be right. To ChristineMoon - try putting a box big enough for your cat and her toys. It will be like a nest for her and her treasure. 

 

[molldee]

 
You could be right. To ChristineMoon - try putting a box big enough for your cat and her toys. It will be like a nest for her and her treasure. 

I have three cats and one is possessive over his mouse. He hides his mouse in his little hut and if another cat starts playing with it, he attacks them, grabs it from them, then runs away to his hut. It's pretty funny. I don't know what it is about that mouse... I bought it for only a dollar!

I have this "toy box" for the tons of cat toys I give them. It looks like a flat fish bowl - it's pretty cute. I tried putting his mouse in this bowl, and he dragged it back out and gave me this funny look.

 

[mservant]

Stumped.  It sounds like a protective behaviour, or looking for some kind of security.  Have you ever gone out to her?  Or gone out and sat with her and touched her little nest?  (Assuming she is not trying to bring them to you as presents).

My cats also started to miaowl very loudly at  night as they got older, around 12 or 14,  and once I had just one and she was on her own and partially sighted she would do it if she was alone in a room.  Neither of them did it when they were younger like your girl.  They both had nests building instincts and would make themselves comfy spots out of chewed and ruffled up kitchen roll and toilet roll amongst other materials, in bowls and boxes, but didn't stash toys in them.  They were both spayed when they were pretty young and only one of them came in to heat which is when I took them to the vet.  It must be a lot harder to understand where some behaviours come from when you don't know what experiences your cat has had earlier in her life.  Would your vet be able to tell if she had kittenned when she was younger?

Hope you manage to make sense of it so you can all have some relaxing sleeps, including kitty. 

 

[alyseal]

I have a kitten, Elly Belly, well she is now a year old, who also does that.  I do think it is a maternal type behavior, but Elly has never had kittens.  (And she is spayed so she never will)  I think your kitty is pretending she killed something and calling for someone to come play with it with her. 

Try playing with her really thoroughly before you go to bed so she doesnt feel inclined to wake you up in the middle of the night with loud hints to come see what she has.   

 

[hocuspocus]

I had a cat named BooBoo who did this very thing. She 'stole' these furry cat figurines I had and she carried them around like kittens. At night she would yowl and mew while carrying them around the house. Once they got too banged up and raggedy I got rid of them and she started carrying around a shoelace...doing the exact same thing. I thought it was cute and the vet said it was just a comfort thing. She never had kittens. She was feral but spayed when we found her in our backyard bushes at the age of 6 months per the vet and it took 4 months for her to trust me enough to sit on my lap for pets and long talks before she became our indoor forever kitty. We had her until she was 10 yrs old. Until the last night of having her she did this. It was so cute how I used to catch her doing it in the dark..I'd turn on a light and she always dropped what was in her mouth and she'd come running to me like she was SO happy to see me and what she was doing was nothing out of the ordinary LOL. Gosh I miss her!!!