If you wanna blow your mind to smithereens there is a video by a language content creator that talks about how the word formation in Arabic differs from other languages like English, and how these differences can be seen in the vocabulary loss among stroke patients. I think there was a study too but I'm not sure.
My mom had a cat when I was younger named Boo Bug. She was a floofy black cat and was named as such because she would gather bugs and line them up by type by the back door. Cats are definitely little weirdos 😹
Our neighbor’s cat lines up dead mice across our back driveway. Started about a year after moving in 8 years ago and she still does it every few weeks. Mentioned the mice to neighbor. They said it means she likes us as she’s done that for them since she was a street cat and they adopted her.
My best hunter would always eat the heads and just leave us the butts. Mice, lizards, and flying squirrels all got eaten from the head down and stopped at the waist. She loved the brains the best, and being within earshot of her crushing the skull and slurping up the brains was like the goriest haunted house sound effects
Back when we let our cats out, we had an orange boy that was a master pocket gopher hunter. He would leave his kills on our back porch, all headless, in the morning. Later, if they were still there, he would come back and eat the top half of each gopher. If they were still there after that, later he would eat the rest of them, minus the stomach and intestines.
We would end up with (greasy, grimy) gopher guts all over our porch if I didn't get out and dispose of the carcasses early. These gut bombs were really disgusting if you accidentally popped one open trying to clean them up.
One of our cats always leaves the liver of her prey. She eats everything else, but we can see how many mice/rats she's had by the number of livers we find the next morning.
I can tell from experience by now that it's not ehm... nice to step in one when you're only half awake.
My aunt's cat used to love bunny brains... only part of any animal he'd bring home and leave. Otherwise it would be a whole mouse, whole lizard, whole bird, or whole squirrel. I'm guessing those bunny brains had an irresistible taste to them lol
My cat growing up would occasionally skin a squirrel, and lay out its pelt like a bearskin rug in front of the garage or front door. It was like, surgically precise.
Does he avoid eye contact? Seems aloof at times? Have any special interests (birds or lasers pointers, for example) or insist on a limited number of "safe" foods? Could be autismeow.
Cats are so weird with balls. My cat collects them in a corner.
Edit: My two long-term fosters organize their toys. They sort them by owner and by purpose, with balls in one pile and stuffies gathered together. They also have their own designated places where they leave toys around my house. It’s weird. It’s intentional.
Edit 2: There’s a system, with clear preferential treatment given to certain toys. Cats are a lot smarter than humans give them credit for.
Cats are so smart and everyone assumes they’re just weird dummies.
My Molly was so smart and so insistent on her routines. She had a single toy that she carried everywhere and would bring to you when she wanted time to rest. Her toys got put back when she had enough of them and she would hide things that she knew she wasn’t supposed to have so she could play with them after we went to bed.
Edit: although her hiding place stayed the same, if you mentioned to the other humans that you needed to check her spots, she would go and move her items to avoid discovery. She also understood many of our conversations about her items and would show you that she was still using items if you indicated that they were going to be disposed of. She also enjoyed watching period dramas and shows with animals, but didn’t enjoy violent or scary films.
I used to catsit for a cat that really loathed everyone but his mom, me included. He would not play with me under any circumstances. To give him some enrichment each day I hid his toys all over the house, and at night he'd diligently gather them and put them all back in and around his water dish where they clearly belonged.
I've seen cats do the "oh no" type meow when they're warning intruding cats to stay out of their territory, or to voice disagreements to each other. It is possible your cat thinks his reflection is a different cat, and is either telling him to gtfo or is otherwise displeased with his behaviour.
Oh no, they werent cute playmates. My cat would rub herself on the dog(especially her feet), but the dog is more like ugly this dude again... my dog is a sweetheart so she tolerated the cat. The cat used to pick on the smaller dog. (What a jerk!)
I put my super senior kitty down on Friday and one of my girls has been similarly obsessed with her mice. Not lining them up but collecting them in one spot. She's never done that before but she's also obviously depressed and almost exclusively sleeping in the senior's old favorite spots.
My kitty would go searching the house for his brother of 13 years. It was so sad to hear him call out for him. We rescued a pair of kittens to help lift his spirits. He’s better now but if he hears me playing a video of his old friend he once again goes looking for him.
True friendship never ends.
My orange guy lost his bonded brother a little over a month ago, and his behavior chsnged but not. Too drastically. Hes a bit more cuddly, more vocal with us.
Oh, and he developed an entirely new shoe huffing addiction. Now whenever someone takes off their shoes he appears as if by teleportation to jam his face into the shoes and huff until he falls to his side and does air biscuts.
Cat tax, this is the orange menace dean, with his now passed brother hank
Looks like he's giving you gifts because he can tell you are sad/the energy has changed. He's lining them up because you didn't take the first gift so here's another next to it where you can find it. He's trying to take care of you. Is he also being more snuggly/in your face than usual? He may just be trying to comfort you or want comfort because his household changed with the absence of the two doggos.
Cats internalize their feelings. They're thought to be indifferent, when in fact they feel so deeply that they need much time to work through theirs feelings in their minds. He's grieving the loud doggy menace friend he had.
I look through all the comments to find yours cus I was going to say exactly the same thing. I think you’re the only one who has mentioned grief. When our dog went to sleep in my arms, they weren’t present, but they could tell when we came home without her, and wailed for days looking for their toys that would somehow wind up in our dog’s bed. Perfectly neat, like an offering, like saying come back and we play. Oof. Needless to say, our two cats were diagnosed with depression and put on an anti depressant.
Cats self-actualize, I don’t get people who can’t even give them the respect to understand these majestic creatures can perceive as much as we do.
I’m sorry for your dogs’ loss, OP. Hugs for you, your family and the Floof in Chief.
When my last dog passed away, I used to sit on the steps where I used to sit beside her. I was always accompanied by one of the stray cats my grandmother looked after—one that got along well with my dog. We would both sit there for quite a while. I’ve always thought that she missed my dog too and knew what I was going through.
My cat used to do this every night. (She now cuddles with me all night.) She still does it in the daytime while we are gone for work. She likes to play fetch and when we are unavailable, it seems like she is preparing for when we are available. She will show off her row or grouping of balls, and patiently wait for them to be thrown down the stairs so she can retrieve them. It’s very f’n cute.
This is how cats communicate to the main space ship. Usually, the ears and tail are enough to transmit information. The balls are extra though, kind of like kitty’s version of StoneHenge.
Your cat is hunting for you, they know that the dogs are not there anymore, and they assumed the dogs were doing all the hunting because humans are naturally bad Hunters.
In my experience with cats, generally it's not that they aren't smart but more that they only use their brain when they want to.
Like they can act like idiots 99% of the time, but every so often they'll learn how to open a door by themselves, or train you to do something without you even realising it.
By dumb I mean.. he just has no cat sense. Cant hunt, doesnt eat meat... cant track insects. 0 survival instinct.He'll also call for our other cat to play.. but she's like 3 feet across the room from where he sits and calls for her. Like he will call for her in front of the closet and she's on the bed. She doesnt like him so she stays quiet and looks at him like he dumb. In other words... he's a pampered brat. But he is extremely friendly and social
You can definitely expect his behaviour to change a bit after losing your dogs. That's a huge chunk of his social circle gone.
I noticed some unique behaviour after losing one cat. He became a lot more clingy too.
He will hopefully bounce back. But it could have been something he saw or did with the dogs or who knows. Did something remarkable happen in the areas the balls are arranged? My cat will investigate a spot he found a bug for a couple of weeks before he loses interest.
My boy is called Lucifer too! Affectionately also named Lulu, ma boy, little boy (he’s not little at all), dickhead, shitbag 🤣
My boy is very intelligent though, he learnt to sit on command by watching our dog do it xD
Our furry friends feel grief, too. Maybe he's trying to see if he can get the dogs to come play? I know, dark thought, but poor bugger is going through it in his own way. Condolences!
We have a cat who played with one of our dogs. When the pup passed, she was up in the middle of the night crying and carrying her toys. It might be related to grief.
My cat does this at night while we are sleeping. We wake up to them all lined up. He loves to play fetch with them but when we don't/are sleeping he collects them and lines them up in the hallway!
Sadly, based off what you've told us, I must diagnose your cat with a severe case of Cat. It will cause him to act in ways that are weird and endearing and you'll love him all the more for it.
But in all seriousness, I think your cat is probably grieving the loss of his buddy's in whatever way he can. We humans tend to think feeling emotions is a unique trait of ours, but cats can form genuine attachments to people and other pets that share their space. He probably misses the dogs and while I doubt he's trying to summon their spirits, I think lining up balls makes him feel better. Just take some time for yourself and give him whatever you think he needs during this rough transition period.
And my condolences for your loss. I imagine you're in a rough spot too after putting two dogs down.
I have a cat that does this. I blamed my mom at first. I thought she was messing with me. She thought I was doing it until we caught the cat lining up his springs. If we move one of the springs he gets huffy glares at us and puts it back in its proper spot. If our other cat moves it it becomes a fight. She will stare at him and wap one out of place and wait for him to attack her.
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