Why do domestic cats 'chatter' when looking at a bird through a closed window?

The infographic provides my answer to the question in the title. I don't think that you will see a better answer to this much asked question. If you have some thoughts please comment. Thanks.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

13 super-short amusing cat behaviour stories

The picture is free to use under a Creative Commons license.

Cats are known for their quirky and unpredictable behaviour, and there are plenty of amusing cat stories out there. Here are a few that might make you smile:

1. Armpit Licker: One cat owner shared that their feline friend, Earl, has a peculiar habit of licking their husband’s armpits while he’s sleeping. Quite the unexpected wake-up call! 😸

2. Anti-Reading Marv: Another cat, Marv, apparently despises when their owner reads aloud. Marv resorts to desperate measures, like climbing on top of the book and biting their owner’s wrists in protest. Perhaps Marv prefers audiobooks? 📚

3. Art Critic Cat: A cat owner had a portrait of Jesus leaning against a wall, waiting to be wrapped as a Christmas gift. Their mischievous cat decided to drag the picture frame across the room. The cat’s artistic intentions remain a mystery! 🎨

4. Gassy Cat: Imagine a cat that farts like a grown man! Vanessa Ryan’s cat certainly does. It’s a talent, I suppose! 💨

5. Hair Dryer Enthusiast: One cat spends a solid 10 minutes every morning licking the hair dryer. Perhaps it’s a secret spa treatment? 💆‍♀️

6. Xbox Controller Sabotage: A crafty cat learned how to press the release disc button on an Xbox. Whenever their owner was playing, the cat would give them a knowing look and eject the game. Clever kitty! 🎮

7. Gas Stove Aficionado: A cat owner discovered their feline had turned on the gas stove and was huffing the fumes. Safety first, though—those stove knobs had to be removed! 🔥

8. Kisses on the Mouth: Some cats wake their owners up with gentle kisses. But this particular cat aims for the mouth, which can be quite surprising (and sometimes painful)! 😽

9. Plastic Wrap Connoisseur: Ever met a cat that exclusively nibbles on plastic wrap from loaf bread? This cat has a unique taste preference! 🍞

10. Anti-French Anthem: Sing the French national anthem anywhere in the house, and this cat will find you and launch an attack. Clearly, it’s not a fan! 🇫🇷

11. Thumbtack Collector: A sneaky cat steals thumbtacks from corkboards and deposits them into shoes. Shoe surprises, anyone? 👠

12. Proclaimers Fan: Whenever the song “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers plays, this cat rushes to the stereo and stands on its hind legs. Musical taste, perhaps? 🎶

13. Fireplace Stare-Down: All three of Katyna Singleton’s cats stare into the fireplace when the flue is open—even when there’s no fire. Spooky! 👀

These delightful cat tales prove that our feline friends are full of surprises. Sources: Buzzfeed, British Newspaper Archive and Floppy Cats.

RELATED: Weird cat behavior explained (video and words)

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cat's hind leg has a mind of its own forcing the cat to fight back

This video is scarcely believable because what we see is a cat losing control of his right hind leg to the point where the hind leg in question has a mind of its own and starts to attack the cat. The cat then fights back. That's what it looks like and it is incredibly odd.

My brief thoughts about this strange video is that the right hind leg was scratching the cat's neck which is very typical cat behaviour. And my theory is that this scratching process is an automated, instinctive process perhaps partially governed by the autonomic nervous system which is the nervous system which runs the beat of the heart and the breathing.

And therefore, the hind leg takes on a mentality of its own almost which in this instance annoyed the cat so he or she fought back.

That's just a thought but you have to try and understand what's going on and there does seem to be a fight between the hind leg and the cat who owns the hind leg! But it ends up in play-fighting. Cool. This cat does not need a caregiver or another cat to play with!

Sometimes cats do something similar with their tails.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hind leg fights back! Screen grab from video above.

Why do cats seem to like uncomfortable positions?

Obviously, the question has been asked by a human with human perceptions. That I think is the point. To humans, cats can seem to enjoy snoozing and resting in uncomfortable positions and in uncomfortable ways and on uncomfortable substances. But to the cat they are not uncomfortable otherwise they wouldn't do it.

Here is a famous picture now in the public domain of a cat seemingly in an uncomfortable position where he is fully asleep! It is on an associated website - click here to see it.

I believe his name is Tigar.

So, cats are more tolerant of these so-called uncomfortable positions or they might even find them comfortable. In fact, that is likely in many instances because if a cat is sleeping and resting in what appears to be an uncomfortable position to a human it has to be comfortable to them. If it wasn't they'd get up and change their position.

For example, initially it surprised me that my cat, Gabriel, likes to sleep across cables that are on my duvet. The duvet is very comfortable for him. It keeps him warm and it's soft but if there is cabling for my computer on the duvet he will sleep over the cabling and not select a part where there is no cabling. Very strange. Or is it? He just doesn't feel it or care about it.

One obvious factor is that the fur on a domestic cat creates a nice buffer or barrier between irregular surfaces and their skin. This must help to iron out any wrinkles on the surface which makes them less noticeable.

What about this? Should make you smile. From Twitter X.

And I'm going to speculate and say that one reason why domestic cats don't care about sleeping on a regular surfaces is because they've inherited this trait from their wildcat ancestor. Wild cats must, by default, sleep on rough surfaces sometimes such as stones or twigs and rough ground. They have to accept it. They might have found a nice den which is safe but the ground is rough. They prioritise the safety of the den over the rough ground and accept it.

The domestic cat has inherited this trait I would argue. And another reason why cats appear to be in uncomfortable positions because they are inherently very flexible. This once again goes to their wildcat ancestor. The wildcat has to be flexible to be a good hunter which requires being highly manoeuvrable, a good climber, able to keep balance well and being able to wriggle around and over obstacles. Flexibility is built into the domestic cat so when they look as if they are distorting themselves in a very uncomfortable way, it isn't uncomfortable for them.

Perhaps another reason why cats might accept uncomfortable positions is because the place where they have taken up the uncomfortable position is particularly warm. For example, cats sometimes sleep on computer keyboards. The computer gives off heat and maybe the keyboard is not particularly comfortable for their head but they accept it. Cats are very tolerant actually of many things. There brain processes input information differently to humans.

Image in the public domain. He is perfectly comfortable than you very much.

I believe this is another factor in this discussion. The tolerance of the domestic cat. They tolerate cold very well and of course heat. Cats like it warmer than humans because their body temperature is higher than that of humans and once again, we have to refer to their wildcat ancestor, living in dry, arid conditions in North Africa.

Domestic cats are inherently inquisitive as well which is part of their hunting skills and mojo. When investigating things, they have to be flexible and agile. I'm back to agility and flexibility here which makes them more accepting of contorted positions.

All in all, cats don't mind being in uncomfortable positions as perceived by humans because they are not uncomfortable to the domestic cat.

This is about human perceptions. There are many instances where human perceptions can misguide the human about cat behaviour. And sometimes humans project onto their domestic cat companion their own thoughts and attempt to read their cat in a misguided way. This is all normal actually and to be expected. Domestic cats are often a member of the human family and treated as an equal. It's no surprise that they are sometimes regarded as little humans resulting in expectations that they should behave like a human!

Grey cat manically eats dry cat food with left paw and stuffs the pellets into his mouth

Get this 😃. I have never seen a cat eat dry cat food pellets using their paw in such a manic manner. This cat looks starved to me. And there is no benefit to eating the pellets with his left paw. He would get them into his mouth faster if he ate in the conventional way. 

No matter. It makes for an interesting if slightly disturbing video. Eating with paws is not that unusual. It is just the crazed performance of this cat which is. 

People ask why cats sometimes use their paws to eat and drink. I think it is natural. It is easier to eat with the mouth directly but an alternative is to use a paw, usually the left incidentally which indicates that cats are generally left-handed and/or ambidextrous.

Grey cat manically eats dry cat food with left paw and stuffs the pellets into his mouth. Screenshot.

Humans use hands to eat sometimes. And humans eat direct from the plate using the mouth sometimes (rarely 😉). Anyway, to get the food into the mouth is the objective especially when starved. The same rules apply to the cat. Cat paws are pretty dextrous. They are good at grasping objects.

@dimsimcoco

♬ Oh no, oh no, oh no, no no - Hip Hop

Note: This is a video from another website which is embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Michelle Pfeiffer has just noticed that her cat uses her right paw to drink water

Hello Magazine tells us that Michelle Pfeiffer was stunned to discover that her cat drinks water using her paw. Specifically her right paw. It is as if the earth has moved off its orbit. The online newspaper paints the event as if it is the most shocking thing that has happened in history of humankind. But it's just something that is very normal. We see a lot of it.

Michelle Pfeiffer has just noticed that her cat uses her paws to drink water. This is her cute cat. She looks like a Ragdoll, perhaps. Her name is Bella .Screenshot from video by Michell Pfeiffer.

And a lot of people have thrown their hat into the ring to try and figure out why domestic cats like to do this. They want to give her their valuable advice. They say that Maine Coons in particular enjoy drinking water with their paw.

I am not sure that that is correct. Individual cats because of their character might use their paw from time to time when drinking water from a bowl. The habit is not necessary breed-specific.

Enjoy doing it - inquisitive

There might be a specific reason but often times I believe that they do it because they simply prefer to drink water that way. And why not? Humans do it. When humans drink from a stream they use their hands. Admittedly humans don't have feline tongues. The tongue of a cat is designed to "pick" water up using surface tension and inertia. They don't actually scoop up the water with their cupped tongue but employ some fancy physics to get it into their mouths.

When I've seen cats drink water with their paw, I've seen a cat that is entirely healthy and normal. There is no apparent reason why they're doing it. In that case, I would say they do it because they simply want to do it. It's a variation on the usual method. This may be borne out of boredom. It makes drinking water a bit more interesting.

Other reasons

You could theorise on a range of possibilities such as the domestic cat's wildcat ancestor occasionally drinks water this way in order to test it or to be cautious about a potential predator under the water. I've heard that said before.

The classic reason is that the bowl is too small and cats don't like their whiskers brushing against the side of the bowl because they are super-sensitive. Therefore they are forced to use their paw instead. This may, indeed, be a reason.

RELATED: Why is my cat not drinking?

Stimulation

Another thing that you might notice when you see a cat using their paw like this is that they look at the water falling off it. They look at what is going on inquisitively. They seem to be interested in the way the water falls off their paw. There may be something in that. It may provide us with a hint as to what is going on in their mind.

To me, it hints at a need for stimulation. They are injecting something different into their lives and trying to stimulate their brains. They make the world more interesting around them. This is the reason why cats knock an item off a mantelpiece or a table. This is not vandalism 😉. I think drinking water with their paw has the same underlying reason as knocking objects of tables and mantelpieces.

When they knock something of a mantelpiece they watch as the item falls to the floor and bounces. They are creating something which is animated and therefore interests them. I'm driven to conclude once again that this activity originates in boredom and a lack of stimulation.

Play

My message to Michelle Pfeiffer is to test out that theory by playing with her cat more if she has the time; to see whether her cat stops drinking water with her right paw.

Why does this cat chatter his teeth when he sees a fly on the window?

Normally you see this form of "vacuum activity" when a domestic cat sees a bird outside the window and the cat is normally a full-time indoor cat. In this instance, the same effect is seen when a young cat sees a fly on a window inside the home. There are many amusing videos of this on YouTube.

Young cat performs the vacuum activity teeth chattering practice bite when looking at a fly inside the home. Screenshot.

The same instinctive response takes place. The experts say that this form of, apparently, strange feline behaviour is a cat performing their highly specialised killing-bite as if they had the bird in their mouth already. This cat does not recognise the difference between a bird and a fly because the reaction is entirely instinctive.

Cats have a particular way of killing birds (normally). It brings about almost instantaneous death. A quick death is important in terms of avoiding injury. The cat crunches down with his long canine teeth aimed at the nape of the bird's neck. With a rapid juddering movement of the jaws, he inserts his canine teeth into the neck, slipping them between vertebrae to sever the spinal cord. 

This is what you see in this video when this young cat is 'chattering his teeth'. It's a bit like playing air guitar. There's no animal there to kill but as he can't get to the animal to kill, he perhaps, in frustration, does it all the same. My cat doesn't use this form of killing-bite on pigeons. He uses the neck bite which is a suffocating bite. This is exactly the same bite employed by the big cats when killing large prey animals. You have perhaps seen it on video. Basically, my cat suffocates pigeons which I think is horrible to see because he can do it right in front of me sometimes.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. If a link it left behind, please click on it to be taken to the video.

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Domestic cat likes to sit on his haunches. Why?

Why is this young tabby cat sitting on his haunches as we see humans do in Asia. They do it because it is a comfortable way to be in a restful position but you have to be flexible and therefore slender. It is impossible if you are overweight.

Domestic cat likes to sit on his haunches. Why? Video screenshot.

It is the first time I have seen a cat sit on his haunches like this and the cat's owner said that it makes her uncomfortable. She does no explain why. It's probably because she's worried that there is a health reason behind it.  But he looks relaxed, comfortable and healthy.

Comfortable

On the basis that I am correct in that assessment there is only one reason why he is squatting like this: it is comfortable for him (but see possible health issue below). This is very unusual but cats are individuals and this image on Twitter proves the point. Domestic cats vary tremendously in their likes and dislikes, their vocalisations and general behavior. There is a common thread of course because they are all felines but there is a lot of variation.

Men sitting on their haunches in Asia. They do it a lot in Asia but hardly ever in the West. Photo in the public domain.

Sore bum

There is one particular reason that I can think of which is health related. His bottom is touching a cool tiled floor. It looks like the kitchen or bathroom. 

It is conceivable that he likes the cooling sensation because his bum is in contact with the floor. If that is true it may be because he has discomfort in the area of his anus. This may be because his anal glands are inflammed because they are infected or his anus may be inflammed. As the latter would be noticeable it is more likely to be the former. It would be impossible to notice which is why the owner is uncomfortable. She is in the dark as to why her cat is behaving strangely as she sees it.

The video below may stop working over time because it is embedded here and the original which is on Twitter may be deleted. It that has happend I apologise.

"My cat keeps sitting like this and it makes me so uncomfortable." pic.twitter.com/tgMeXY1p9h

— Nature & Animals🌴 (@AnimalsWorId) February 21, 2021

All cat behavior is normal and correct. It is never deviant. There is always a good and logical reason behind it because cat behavior is  largely instinctively. They react to stimuli and conditions.

The sore bum theory is my currect favorite. As this is a Twitter feed I'll leave a comment and a link to this article. When cats have sore or messy bums they sometimes scoot. The scooting behaviour is a bit like this only the moves with their bum resting on the carpet or grass.