Wimsey has me confused again...anybody have ideas?

[badgerpup]

I tell ya, this kid is well named, my 'whimsical' cat...

Hoarding behavior.

Somebody gave him a 'mousie'...and he enjoyed playing with it...so much that it finally disintegrated. OK, cat toys aren't known for their durability. This is not an issue.

I went down to Petsmart and bought him a package of 12 mousies, figuring I'd give them to him one at a time.
I did so...but they seemed to disappear pretty quickly. Figured OK, he's really giving those mousies a workout.
Noticed a new behavior as well, lying in front of a chest of drawers, reaching under it.
Obviously, he'd batted something under it, but I wasn't in the mood to play Incredible Hulk and move furniture.

Comes the time he's run out of mousies, and I can't get to Petsmart anytime soon to replenish his supply...and the local Store Which Must Not Be Named doesn't carry them. On the off-chance that maybe there's one under the dresser, I move it and check.

ALL TWELVE MOUSIES ARE UNDER THE DRESSER. IN DAMN NEAR BRAND-NEW CONDITION.
:wtf:

OK, this obviously saves me a trip to Petsmart...but now I'm watching him...and damned if he doesn't start the cycle over again! He plays with the mousie for a few minutes, then stashes it in a place that is not accessible to him (THIS is the part I don't understand), then wants another mousie.
Rinse and repeat.
I just cleared his stash out again.

What is behind this? There doesn't seem to be a problem with jealousy and toy-hogging...and it's understood that Riktor gets first crack at all and any catnip that's put down.
There is NO catnip in the mousies.

Can somebody give me some sort of clue what's going on here?
Just I'm confoogled...and it's kind of painful to move the furniture.
Thanks...:pals:

[hobbit709]

1. He's got you trained

:rofl: And trained well, too.

[China_cat]

2. That's easy to answer.

HE'S A CAT.

[Betty88]

3. Manny does the same thing

but he likes to hide them under the TV, the more tangled in speaker wire and RCA cables the better. I rolled up an old towel to block the mouse from getting stuck to far back for his paw to reach. This worked for about an hour then I guess it became fun to pull the towel out and chew on that for a while. Next time I get a big cardboard box I am going to make another attempt to close off this area.

BTW are these the little mice that are made of rabbit hair and filled with something like crack?

[badgerpup]

4. Rabbit hair over cardboard and a leather (thin suede) tail...

...but not sure what you mean by crack.
"Kitty crack" aka catnip? Nope...in fact, they're hollow.

Absolutely no odor of catnip (my nose is pretty good for a human), and he doesn't react the same way with these critters as he does when I put the catnip down.

I give them the herb straight, and SOP for this is they eat some, roll in the rest, and act very silly for about 15 minutes. :bounce:
Toys that have catnip in them get majorly chewed on, batted and tossed around, and there is also rubbing/rolling behavior, mostly around the face.

The mousies invoke none of these sorts of antics.

Think I'm just gonna block the access for under the dresser with a rolled up towel.
I know, I'm mean, cruel and selfish...but I'm also much nicer to be around when my back isn't screwed up.
I'm really not supposed to be flingin' the furniture about by meself. :blush:

Just wish I knew why he feels the need to stash them....what's going through his furry little head?

It reminds me of a Mama Kitty hiding her babies in a safe place...except Wimsey is a neutered male, and the vet found no...er...anomalies when he went in for 'The Procedure'.:shrug:

[spooky3]

5. every kitten/cat I've ever known has done this!

they push little toys under anything handy, then can't get to it, and stop playing.

One possibility is that they aren't smart enough to realize they won't be able to reach it after giving themselves the fun challenge of putting it under something. Or, maybe there's some weird evolutionary thing I don't know about. But they all do this until they reach the age when they don't like to play as much.

Your only option is to try to block the space under the dresser--maybe push wadded up paper or something else that couldn't harm the pet in the open space, at least for awhile--maybe they will develop another way of playing if the dresser is blocked. Or get something like a yardstick that you can use to push or fish the toys out without having to move the dresser.

[badgerpup]

6. Thank you!

I'm limiting his access to his stashing place.

None of my other guys have exhibited this behavior...leaving their toys where they lay after they'd been 'vanquished' was more their speed...which was usually right in the middle of the floor.
Oh well, at least they were easy to find and file for future reference.

Some people think that you get a pass if you decide to raise cats and not human kids...
t'aint necessarily so, lemme tellya.
Cats have their needs and little quirks just the same as two-legged kids...
and teh kittehs come with a bag o' tricks that's uniquely their own. :hide::yoiks:

And I wouldn't trade my little monsters* for the world...even when they do exasperate me unto :banghead:


* It's a term of endearment, honest!

[spooky3]

7. Aren't they the best? You might like this old Steve Martin routine on YouTube:

can't believe I found it there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVN855yazyY

[badgerpup]

8. Oh, now that's a sweet baby cat!

:loveya:
Wonder what he was chasing...

Gotta respect those marmalade kitties. Male or female, they seem to be tougher and scrappier in general as a rule.

Maybe cos they're redheads? I respects them too! :hi:

[japple]

9. He just wants you to play with him. My kitten, Mildred, does

the same thing, only her mice are under the refrigerator. She gets really excited when I get out the yardstick and retrieve them from underneath. The good thing about it is that it keeps the mice away from Lady, the JRT, who likes to "skin" them. She eats off the tail and ears, then gums on the mice until the skin is soft and the little cardboard chunk comes out of the middle.

[Beaverhausen]

10. I have a kitty who did this with EVERYTHING when she was a baby

I found all sorts of toys and other under my bed. She would pick up anything that had fallen on the floor and stash it - including hair thingys, pencils, tissues and toys. It was so funny. She grew out of it though.

Is Whimsey an all-black kitty by any chance?

[badgerpup]

11. No...and it's funny you should ask!

He's all white- the only white kitty in a group of all-black kitties...and he was adopted and brought home by the youngest of the bunch.

I've asked them not to do this anymore. Like it will do any good...:shrug:

[demnan]

12. I just think of it as my incentive

to clean out under the sofa more often. Moving the sofa and removing the cat toys results in Christmas morning. They are so happy I retrieved their toys for them!

[Blue Gardener]

13. I have one kitty out of four

That likes to hide his mice. Under the dressers, refrigerator or microwave cart are his favorite places. I just keep a yardstick handy to dig them out.

[Dover]

14. My cat batted around her mousies as well, until all inevitably disappeared under furniture.

I spent more time retrieving them than she did playing with them. So my great solution was to get the mousies that come on an elastic string which is attached to grip device that clings to the molding above a door. Oh my gosh!!! She died all nine lives and went to heaven each time. It's become her very favorite thing to play with outside of a live mouse. :bounce:

And no more 'cat and mouse' hide and seek.

You can always just buy some thick elastic string and tie one end to something high and stable and the other to one of her mousies as well. Cheap to fix and/or replace.

Happy hunting!