My cat invented water basketball

[Taomeow]

His favorite toy is a simple rubber band, and after he is done chasing it and hunting it and propelling it this way and that, I invariably find it in his bowl of water. If I give him two, three, four, etc., rubber bands, eventually they all are neatly deposited into that bowl. But so far I have never been able to see the actual moment of throwing them in. He keeps the technique secret. I don't know if he uses his paws or his teeth, and whether he throws it from afar or just dunks it in. He does it every day, but the secret has never been revealed. Maybe I'll install a camera to find out...

[Brian]

My wife had a cat who LOVED twist-ties, and would always leave them carefully wrapped around a chair-leg in the kitchen. The secret lives of our feline friends...

[Green Tiger]

I'm allergic to cats, so I'm glad the internet is here to constantly update me on their insane behavior.

[soaring crane]

Haha yes! They internet has proven to be a boon to cat allergics worldwide. My guess on TM 's Tom is that he's just dunking them in the bowl when he goes for a drink. But maybe he's something more spectacular than that... hidden camera sounds good

 

We had remove the wastebasket from the bathroom because one of our cats is obsessed with cotton swabs and tops the can over looking for them...

[soaring crane]

*tips

[joeblast]

perhaps meow knows that the water dish cleans his spit off of there, which tends to make the rubber bands a bit crusty (and I'd imagine they collect dust from all over, too, though I cant imagine yours having that much to be picked up by rubber bands )

Edited December 10, 2013 by joeblast

[Brian]

We had a friend with a very bright cocker spaniel (not a cat but...)

 

She had several animal-shaped squeaky toys which she would move from place to place. The most touching thing was that she would, one at a time, put them in her food bowl and then move them to her water bowl and then put them in bed.

 

Animals can be the nicest people.

[Nungali]

Had a friend that had a bull mastiff. They adopted a sick puppy that got put in a doggy basket next to the mastiff with a little toy off the girls bed. Puppy died and doll was removed back to the girls bed every day the mastiff put the soft toy back in the basket and the girl would put it back on her bed ... until one day the girls bed had the toy gone and back in the basket and a dog piss right in the middle of her bed - the mastiff had never done that before ... the toy stayed in the empty dog basket after that.

[Taomeow]

 

Green Tiger,

 

cats are not insane, there's a method to their madness. Sometimes it takes a very bright human mind in its highest gear to understand what they mean... but they always mean something.

 

I once had a cat (or as the song goes, "she once had me") who would, on occasion, get in the bath tub, stand on her hind legs and scratch the side of the tub with her front claws, with this hoeowrrrrrible screeching sound that makes all the little hairs on your body stand on end, and meow very low then very high, and very loud, with urgency and despair and perhaps a bit of threat in the tone of voice. I couldn't figure out what this meant for a long time.

 

Then one day I realized that she does it whenever she thinks her litter box needs changing. She couldn't show it with the litter box directly though because we kept it in the basement, so she extended the idea of "cat cleanliness" to "human cleanliness," which she figured was accomplished in the bath tub, and was trying to impress the symbolic meaning of her behavior (the idea of cleanliness!) on the two-legged creatures, using the props she hoped they would understand (the bath tub, and causing their awareness to focus on it and contemplate it till they get it). Who'd have guessed that cats can form complex symbolic, metaphoric contexts? -- and then figure out a way to make the message strong and annoying enough for the humans to be unable to simply ignore it? And offer a deal while at it?! -- the meowing and scratching in the bath tub stopped once I changed her litter to fresh, and if I never wanted to hear it again, all I needed to do was stay on top of it so it's always fresh. Which was a fair trade-off.

[SonOfTheGods]

Those are rubber hairballs he is vomiting into his water bowl

[Nungali]

the meowing and scratching in the bath tub stopped once I changed her litter to fresh, and if I never wanted to hear it again, all I needed to do was stay on top of it so it's always fresh. Which was a fair trade-off.

Now you have done my head in .... all day I am going to have to be thinking what rubber bands in the water bowl is cat symbolism for ... ????

 

check your fan belt on the car , I can detect a slight worn noise. ???

 

stop leaving those damn rubber bands around everywhere. ?

 

why wont these stupid springy worms drown ?

[Taomeow]

Now you have done my head in .... all day I am going to have to be thinking what rubber bands in the water bowl is cat symbolism for ... ????

 

check your fan belt on the car , I can detect a slight worn noise. ???

 

stop leaving those damn rubber bands around everywhere. ?

 

why wont these stupid springy worms drown ?

 

LOL, you may be onto something...

 

but this one seems like pure recreational sport. I'll ask someone who understands these things to check the belt, but I doubt it's about that, the cat doesn't seem to have any auto mechanic's skills at all. I don't leave the rubber bands everywhere, he asks for them, so I give him one every time he does. He sometimes gets it himself from the drawer where they're kept, by pulling it out and fishing for the rubber band of his choice (I think green are his favorite). But he prefers to be served, so if he has to get one himself, he sort of snubs me for a while.

 

Sometimes I think the purpose of the game is to have me puzzled as to the technique of throwing one in the bowl, it's like a koan for me... Today, e.g., he was playing with a rubber band inches away from his food station/watering hole, and I got my camera ready to record the dunking moment. He kept going around and around though, playing part hockey, part soccer, but refusing to make that mysterious basketball move in front of me. He finally dunked his tail in his bowl of tuna, got very embarrassed for a second but then, as cats do so as not to lose face, pretended that he intended just that all along, that it was not an accident but a version of the game. So he abandoned the rubber band and attended to the tail instead.

[Nungali]

Thankyou for the extra info ... here is my take on it.

The rubber band is fun as it has unpredictable behaviour and it moves (double fun actually - it can spring and sproing and bounce back) ... like a ball, string, or small marsupial .

 

Cat equates it with food as well as fun. The food water area is together yeah ? So the band is taken there and in the process of squashing it sideways with paw, or rolling it so it twists up and releasing it, the band can at times spring back or jump. More fun.

Eventually it lands in the water bowl, now it doesn't behave the same way - boring. I want another one.

 

Why should cat bother to fish it out ... that's your job to clean the water and fill the food ... get to it! ... And while you are there get me a fresh dry rubber band .

 

Now set the camera up and see if I guessed right.

 

Any bets ... bets please ... place your bets ....

 

 

[it could also be to trick you, as you say; my sister has a bird that shoots hoops, she has a miniature half court for it. Sometimes it does a pathetic shot off court and table. But it always goes across the floor and under the lounge in the same spot. My sister who is fairly 'large' has to get up, cross the room, get down on knees and fish the ball out. Pepe goes over and watches from the end of the table ... I am sure he is smirking at it. .

Edited December 11, 2013 by Nungali

[SonOfTheGods]

 

 

 

[soaring crane]

Are those your cats, SoG? Nice

Here are ours, if I can get the pics to upload:

 

 

Linzi:

 

Melanie and Linzi, Mother and Daughter

 

 

 

Leni, the dog

 

 

There's Linzi, that cat who came to stay 8 years ago. She came from a nearby farm, sick, bedraggled, and pregnant, looking for a safe place to have her babies. She had five, we found homes for four of them and kept one, Melanie (the Q-Tip bandit).

 

Leni the (wonder)dog is from Kalamata, Greece (I wanted to name her 'Olive' or 'Olivia'). We adopted her through a rescue agency four years ago, when she was only four months old, and it's one of the greatest things we ever did!

Edited December 11, 2013 by soaring crane

[Taomeow]

Great animals!

[soaring crane]

haha I have to post this one ... A very young Leni after chasing ducks through a pool of muck:

 

 

It's not Photoshop

[hod]

I think the play toys in the water bowl has to do with hunting instinct. When cats play with things, it's very much part of their hunting instinct and dropping it in the water bowl is their way of putting it with the rest of their food to eat later. The reason for the water bowl, imo, has to do with cleaning it off. Our cats always dropped, fake or real mice into their water bowl when they are done playing with them. In terms of how they get in the bowl, I have watched my cats just drop them from their mouth into it.

 

This might be totally different from what you cat does, but just some observations from my cats.

 

Edit: The more I think about it, they drop the mice in their food bowl as often as the water bowl, so maybe they just don't care. They are just putting it by the rest of their food, to munch on later.

Edited December 12, 2013 by hod

[SonOfTheGods]

Are those your cats, SoG? Nice

 

Here are ours, if I can get the pics to upload:

 

 

Linzi:

 

21032009238.jpg

 

Melanie and Linzi, Mother and Daughter

 

 

 

Leni, the dog

 

Leni der Wunderhund.jpg

 

There's Linzi, that cat who came to stay 8 years ago. She came from a nearby farm, sick, bedraggled, and pregnant, looking for a safe place to have her babies. She had five, we found homes for four of them and kept one, Melanie (the Q-Tip bandit).

 

Leni the (wonder)dog is from Kalamata, Greece (I wanted to name her 'Olive' or 'Olivia'). We adopted her through a rescue agency four years ago, when she was only four months old, and it's one of the greatest things we ever did!

Nope don't own any cats. My cat passed away Nov 1 so I will wait awhile before getting a new one. I have 2 dogs though. Awesome furry friends you have under your care

[soaring crane]

oh, with the water basketball, I was thinking maybe he gives up when the rubber bands land in the bowl. Our cats (or, our feline residents) don't like water. But there are better ideas up there ^^

 

short anecdote: a cousin of mine recently posted a pic at facebook of a pile of colorful plastic caplocks from milk bottles. The got a new fridge and these were under the old one. They're from a cat that died a few years ago. She'd play with the things like crazy until they ended up under the fridge. It was actually quite an emotional moment when they found them all there ...

[Taomeow]

If we move furniture for whatever reason, I always find those multicolored plastic caplocks -- they are from kefir or lassi bottles, another one of Haomao's infatuations. I used to find rubber bands too, but maybe won't next time -- the basketball thing is a new invention, he's been doing this only for a few months, previously he would eventually lose them under the sofa or suchlike. Which is why I am not sure about the food connection. It looks like a sport, not like good housekeeping -- besides, cats don't stash away food for future reference (unlike dogs), they want everything fresh. Haomao doesn't like to have to finish any leftovers from his previous meal, and will meow till I give him something mew new.

[soaring crane]

'Haomao', sweet :-)

 

When Linzi had her babies, she spent all her time out hunting mice. She's an incredible, really almost magical, mouser. But her babies were still too little to eat them, so she kept stacking the carcasses under a hedge in front of the house. We didn't actually know what she'd been doing with them, or how many she'd been collecting, until autumn when we saw the mountain of dead mice, maybe a hundred? And had to shovel them out. But like you said, she wasn't eating them.

 

She sits on the windowsill and makes a clucking, clicking noise in the back of her throat. It's a bird lure. Outside, she sits under bushes and does it, waiting for a curious, unfortunate bird to hop over to investigate.

 

And oftentimes she leaps off the windowsill, runs to the door, yowls to get it opened, runs outside and snatches up a mouse that she'd seen from the window. Life on the farm taught her how to survive.

Edited December 12, 2013 by soaring crane

[Taomeow]

Ah, the real cat.

 

My grandmother had a cat who hunted, but she ate the mice (the cat did, not my grandmother), and birds too. The technique for catching a bird was indeed magical -- that cat could fly!

 

A friend of mine who is into cats AND birds trained her bird-hunting cat to walk on a leash like a dog for the specific purpose of protecting the birds. She swears that sometimes she has to use all her strength to restrain the cat when the bird is within reach. She's a heavy, muscular woman, who usually wins against men in judo and tennis, but she was unable to stop the cat on a couple of occasions.

[soaring crane]

Just in time for holiday shopping, I want one!

 

http://m.geeksaresexy.net/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geeksaresexy.net%2F2013%2F12%2F10%2Fcat-couch-cat-couch-cat-couch%2F&dm_redirected=true

 

Hope the link works, will fix later if not

Edited December 12, 2013 by soaring crane

[zanshin]

I had a cat who used to play fetch with ponytail bands and little foam balls. We'd snap them across the room and she'd chase them and bring them back.