Friday, July 31, 2009

Cats drag out any clothing they can find when I am not home. What causes this behavior?

When ever the cats are left home for any lengh of time, they drag out any clothing they can find. Dirty or clean it does not matter to them. I have caught both at one time or another carrying around a sock or other item. It is very funny to see it when they are doing it, but can be embarrassing to bring someone in and not have a clue what they have dragged out! Does anyone know why they would be doing this?
Answers:
i have 2 house cats and they both do it, have since they were kittens. They miss you when you leave them alone all day, and your scent makes them feel safe and loved. Kind of embarrassing to come home to panties and socks drug aroung the house.Try putting a used pillow case in their cat bed, that seemed to help quite a bit for me. I have a doberman and a rottweiler that are house dogs, and they both do the same thing when left alone during the day. I think that all animals get lonesome and miss you, and if they can smell you that seems to make it better. I know it can be kinda embarrassing, but after a while you get use to it, and just spend 5 min running around with a laundry basket picking up when you get home. I guess they could have worse habits!! I'm sure I do things that make them wonder.
It's because they miss you and want to be near your smell.
kittens are like toddlers.if they can they will.they could be doing it to be near your smell, for fun, have anxiety about being alone..etc. the only thing i can suggest is the obvious..keep all dresser drawers, closets, baskets, etc closed, and get them some soft toys..maybe you could even wash them with a load of your laundry to add the "mom" smell.
They miss you and your smell is the next best thing to having you around. We may think that washing our clothes eliminates all natural odors and replaces them with a laundry fresh scent, but it's not the case. When I leave, my cat likes to sleep on my clothes. It frustrates the heck out of me because she sheds all over them, but she does it because she loves me.
Your cats are just being cats. If you want to stop this behavior then put clean clothes in drawers or closets and dirty clothes in hampers with lids or in washing machine. Just someplace they cant get into. Good Luck KG
They are preparing to burn you in effigy for leaving them alone for so long. lol.

No, seriously, they just miss you, and are attracted to your smell.
They just do those kind of things. My cat sleeps in the dirty clothes hamper sometimes. They also reach under the screen door and pull the welcome mat into the house.
It sounds like they are bored. Try making a few catnip type toys to keep them busy.Depending on the breed of the cat it may be partially inbreed behaviour. Keeping them busy with other things will probably help. Good luck!
Oh please I hope you get a good answer to this one! I've had cats my whole life and none of them have ever done this until I got my cat Tigger. It's SO BIZARRE! I've caught him taking my clean laundry out of the basket and dragging it from my room, all the way downstairs into my kitchen! I've never caught him doing it because he must know I'd scold him if I did! LOL! Maybe he was just trying to tell me to put my clothes away and stop being so lazy! Who knows!?
They probably want to smell your smell or have something they know is yours for comfort while you are gone. They also probably think its fun to carry your clothes around. I have a cat with a sock fetish. He finds a dirty sock by the laundry basket and he will take it away and suck on it. I think it reminds him of his mommy.
when you go out they are missing you so they get a sock with your scent on it and carry it around the house and they feel safe because of the scent of your clothing
thank you
my cat used to do this everyday when I'd come home from work, there would be clothes everywhere! my vet said he may be lonely during the day, so I started leaving the tv on, so maybe he would think someone was there with him, he stopped doing it after awhile, now he only does it when I leave for a few days. good luck! (and it is one of the cutest things ever isnt it?)

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