Read my cat's mind

November 22, 2021 2:30 PM

My cat has A Spot where she sits on a blanket on a loveseat. If the blanket is mussed she sits next to it and gives pointed looks until the blanket is fixed. Lately, even though it looks properly placed to me, she pulls up the edge and appears to check under the blanket. After a minute she gives this up and curls up. She is NOT trying to get under the blanket. She does not approve of being covered! What is she doing? Cat tax, shown on the blanket in question.
posted by Emmy Rae to Pets & Animals (24 answers total)

Could it have acquired a strange smell? New laundry detergent? Did another animal or person lay on it?
posted by Rock Steady at 2:50 PM on November 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

What a beauty! She requires you to praise her frequently for sitting on the blanket and not on the furniture. Obviously you must keep the blanket flat to reward her for this. When she pulls up the edge of the blanket, she wants you to reflatten it so you can demonstrate once again that you appreciate her excellent behavior.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:54 PM on November 22, 2021 [60 favorites]

What is she doing? She's being a cat. Cats are weird. Mere human mortals cannot understand the ways of the cat.
posted by cgg at 2:58 PM on November 22, 2021 [22 favorites]

She is lovely! I agree that there is likely something sus about the blanket now that was not sus before. Maybe you're folding it with less care and attention than her majesty requires, lately?

My housemate's cat has the same routine, but in our case, I am the blanket, and it's very clear I am mismanaging my limb placement in some dire fashion only he can comprehend. I am a constant disappointment in this matter.
posted by invincible summer at 2:59 PM on November 22, 2021 [22 favorites]

Best answer: Try washing the blanket. That tends to fix whatever is going on with my cat and her beds.
posted by nanook at 3:03 PM on November 22, 2021 [6 favorites]

Has the blanket ever slid off while she was on it? Because the way it is placed, it seems like a considerable amount of its mass is at peril of gravity.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:09 PM on November 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

She suspects you put a pea under there. How dare you presume she is not a real princess!
posted by corvine at 4:14 PM on November 22, 2021 [17 favorites]

I have no ideas I just needed to say your cat is beautiful!
posted by rogerroger at 4:27 PM on November 22, 2021 [3 favorites]

I don't have anything to say except that obviously she's a regal princess and a flat blanket is her due.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:36 PM on November 22, 2021 [4 favorites]

My cat does this too - he's very particular about the placement of his afghan and if not acceptable he will make it clear that the service is not up to par.
posted by leslies at 4:39 PM on November 22, 2021 [6 favorites]

I guess I was reading too fast and I misread corvine's as "She suspects you pee under there."
posted by Don Pepino at 4:41 PM on November 22, 2021 [6 favorites]

Best answer: She may have seen a bug go under there one time; and now it is forever in her mind that one time she saw a bug go under there and she should look for it again just in case.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:56 PM on November 22, 2021 [19 favorites]

Best answer: Your cat leaves a visual or scent on the blanket for territorial ownership of a particular spot. If you folded that blanket a certain way, the scent's obscured and she doesn't like it.

Also, I'm going to guess the spot is in front of the TV or window? Cat loves to look out a window, according to Jackson Galaxy, Internet's Cat Daddy, and if you provide a place for them to watch something of interest (birds, bird feeder, outside, aquarium, etc.) they'll go there. :)
posted by kschang at 5:10 PM on November 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Animals, like people, like things to be a certain way. We all have our familiar habits.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 5:12 PM on November 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's also possible there's something seasonal going on. My Buster (sorry, in a hurry, no tax for now) chooses to repose in what I call his Summer Palace (an uncomfortable box, with clunky electrical parts in it, on a shelf) and a couple of other places in warm weather, and now is avoiding those and choosing my bed, couch, and his majesty's pillow near the space heater in my office. So maybe the Summer Folding And Smoothing is now insufficient.
posted by Occula at 5:23 PM on November 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wow, that looks just like our older cat, who has A Favorite Place to Lay. The place changes from time to time in unpredictable fashion. For six months it was a large ceramic platter in the bay window. Currently it’s a particular quilt on the back of a particular couch, and the platter might as well be on the moon. I’m on team “that’s just cats.” But good luck sussing it out.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:45 PM on November 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

This question violates a very important rule about cats: They are inscrutable. Do not try to scrut them.
posted by jesourie at 6:08 PM on November 22, 2021 [21 favorites]

Based on your location: She is trying to figure out why the comfy spot is so much colder than it was a few months ago. (My cat is often disappointed with our imperfect control of the weather.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 6:27 PM on November 22, 2021 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Lots of good ideas. I will wash the blanket and see what happens. I kind of think maybe it is now too flat and needs to be refluffed?

The boxelder bugs around here are the only critter I have seen mess with the blanket but they are big!

I really thought someone was going to come through and explain that in the wild cats check under their pile of leaves for sleeping snakes or something like that.
posted by Emmy Rae at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2021 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: She's SO suspicious of the replacement blanket right now.
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:02 PM on November 22, 2021 [18 favorites]

She can't smell her scent on the replacement blanket.
posted by kschang at 8:52 PM on November 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

That replacement blanket might try to kill her. Or eat her food. You don't know.
posted by cooker girl at 6:02 AM on November 23, 2021 [8 favorites]

She suspects you put a pea under there. How dare you presume she is not a real princess!


I'm convinced that maybe a spring has sprung on the sofa under the cat's blanket. It's just not the same! There's a pea alright but you may never know what the pea is. (My cat actually loves NEW blankets/pillows/rugs/ottomans... he acts like he's 100% certain that it was purchased just for him.)
posted by BeeLIC at 7:13 AM on November 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

She will appreciate a warming pad under the blanket. Not too hot.
posted by conrad53 at 4:41 PM on November 27, 2021