I love these stories! I think that perhaps one must have a cat or better yet, cats, to understand and appreciate how totally weird and hilarious they are.

When I was growing up we had a Siamese cat named Sultan. One day my mother called from the main bathroom for my father and me to assemble there. We walked in and my mom was pointing into the toilet. In it was one neat, very small brown object. "Who forgot to flush?" asked my mother. We looked at each other and my dad said that his were much larger. The three of us peered into bowl and then I said "It's got to be Sultan." And it was. Usually the toilet lid was closed, but often when it was left open, someone would discover one of Sultan's deposits, although we never caught him in the act. Sometimes if the lid had been closed we found a deposit sitting neatly on the bathtub drain. Somehow this clever Siamese kitty had concluded that his way was so much tidier! Of course, we always checked the bathroom when guests were expected.

I have a few friends who are getting older and are alone and lonely, and when I suggest that they get a cat or two, they remark that "it's too much trouble", and I feel sorry for them.

the fur-children keep us young!

I miss those antics. I had a cat who would come investigate when I was at the sewing machine. She would sit opposite me close to the machine and poke her little face between the arm and the bottom plate to watch what I was doing. If I stopped the machine she would start batting at the thread or the fabric.

Sable, I had a cat who leave a deposit in the bathtub when he was sick. Otherwise he always used the litter box. But using the tub was brilliant: it was noticeable, but easily cleaned up. Then I'd call the vet.

Our cat Pop will come running to the sound of the tape measure. It is very difficult when trying to measure the floor or something that is near the ground as he'll grab the end and pull it. We call him Pop Villa. He needs a tool belt.

BP, I don't know what she's thinking, but she is on the frame a LOT! She also likes to sleep in sinks.

Czarina and Delilah, we also had a cat who pounce on paper coming out of the printer, and another one would help me sew like that!

When I was a kid one of our cats loved turkey. Since the Thanksgiving leftovers got wrapped in foil, every time she heard foil she hoped she'd get turkey and would be in the kitchen like a shot.

Donna

I'm enjoying these stories!

I don't have a cat right now, I have a poodle. But, I've had a lot of cats in the past and their antics were so entertaining.

As a teenager, I had a cat who always nosed the shower curtain aside and sat at the back edge of the tub when I showered. His mother would often be found curled up inside my mother's white ceramic mixing bowl inside a lower kitchen cabinet. They seemed to be drawn to cool, white!

Another cat was so appreciative of special food treats. I had a cat door on the screened porch for this indoor/outdoor cat (lived on 16 acres in the woods, safe from traffic). Without fail, if I gave Theo a treat, the next day I'd find a dead mouse inside the screened porch, on the doormat waiting for me! This cat was also a buddy of our Australian Shepherd. The two walked together up the long drive up to our barn. They also chased each other around the yard, and it was usually Theo chasing the dog.

This dog mom is enjoying these cat stories very much. Keep 'em coming!

Our ginger cat, Willie, was spoiled by my DH...I heard water running and it was the bathtub faucet. DH said Willie liked drinking out of the faucet. Nice but didn't want to pay that water bill so DH got Willie a drinking fountain. Willie thinks it's okay but when he hears me running water in the sink to re-fill the drinking fountain he runs in the kitchen so he can drink the water as I'm pouring it into the fountain bowl. When he sits on your lap you must be stroking him, if you stop he reaches up and gently pats your face until you start stroking him again, his sister, Wynona, does that too. We have 4 inside cats and they all have different personalities .

When we moved, with our cat, the new-to-us house bathrooms had been remodeled along the same time we had done ours. Same or similar colors, vanities, sinks, faucets. Seriously, one bathroom has the same tile, another has the same tile but the colors are flipped (beige-on-white versus white-on-beige). So, almost the same. But the cat started something new in the new house: drinking from the kids' bathroom faucet. She'd yowl to have it turned on. But of course she wouldn't turn it off. We don't know where this new behavior came from!

We had a cat that would appear out of nowhere and sit in my father’s favorite chair a few minutes before my dad would get home. My dad’s schedule varied so he didn’t get home at the same time each night but somehow the cat knew he was coming and would sit and wait for him. It was a great warning system to the rest of us “Clean up! Daddy will be home soon.”

It's amazing how they can associate sounds. After we gave our cat Toby a little bit of Reddi Wip, he'd appear in the kitchen every time we shook the can. About a year later we bought another can and he came running into the kitchen when he heard us shaking it. How could he remember a can of Reddi Wip a year later but he couldn't remember that I just told him to get off the table?

He'd be fast asleep on our lap while we watched TV at night, and as soon as we clicked the remote to turn it off, he'd jump down. He knew that meant bedtime.

My childhood cat, Bootsie, would go out hunting at night and proudly bring us...sticks. (Way better than dead mice!) One night he brought home a toothbrush. My mom would collect the sticks from the door mat and put them in a pile on the side of the house. One time we caught Boots retrieving a stick from the pile and putting it on the doormat!

Our current cat George likes water in the bathroom sink. (Fortunately he doesn't want it running from the faucet!)

Oh, and if you have a cat, you should never have a touch screen computer. Ask me how I know...

This is my sister's cat, Tally, sitting in the pasta bowl.

Donna

Yeah, as soon as we rustle the deli turkey bag, they come running.

Our previous little kitty used to understand that there was no more food when we put up our hands, and he would go away. He was super smart and very communicative.

Having had many cats over the years I have many stories. Two of our goofy cat stories involved human food.

Poof, a gorgeous puffy tuxedo cat loved pancakes. When I'd make them for breakfast he'd come running and the kids would indulge him with his own plate, complete with maple syrup.

He also would go crazy over angel food cake. I bought a package and it was in the grocery bag. I was unloading the groceries into the house and walked in to see the bag with the cake ripped open and Poof on the ground tearing open the package so he could get at that cake.

Another cat, Bob, loved corn nuts. One of the kids had left an open bag on the desk next to the answering machine. While playing the messages that evening we were greeting to the sound of Bob crunching away at corn nuts. He'd somehow pushed the record button on the machine while munching on his snack.

Currently, Butrous-a loud mouthed Himilayan-will scream loudly until the food in his dish is freshly replenished. He goes nuts when I give the dogs their medicine in a pill pocket and he won't shut up because he thinks they're getting a treat. So instead of giving him treats too, I pick up a few kibbles of his food, place them in my hand and he goes nuts-acts like he's getting the sweetest morsels.

Lately he refuses to eat unless I put his food in my hand. I think I'm being played.

What is it with cats and turkey? They love it! My cat is very sad that we are out of the packing-school-lunches stage; she'd jump up on the chair closest to the peninsula and wait for turkey morsels while I made sandwiches. She toes come running when she hears the meat drawer open at lunchtime, though.

Another cat once watched carefully as I sliced and set aside leftovers from a big turkey. When I turned to cut another slice he was in the air, snatched a slice off the plate, and was out of the room before I knew what had happened! Another time--not a turkey story, though-- I was eating at the coffee table, and while my attention was turned the same cat slipped the meat out from between the buns of my hamburger.

Neetsiepie, we had a cat who loved marshmallows, and also any ground coffee that might get spilled from the canister in hype morning. Weird. But angel food cake? Corn nuts? That's definitely "special" lol

I once trained (who am I kidding, who trained whom?) two cats to enjoy going in the car. I would often take them with me to the Wendy's drive-through and get two Frosties, one for me and one for them. I know, it's not good for them, it was just an occasional treat. And I'd give them some meat from my burger, too (ah, see the story about the hamburglar above)

So they thought going in the car was a fine thing, so going to the vet was okay, too.

Coming home from the vet, though, was another story: they'd usually leave a "present" in the car or carrier to show me how they really felt.

I have two cat "survival" stories -- a father and daughter, in fact.

Again, when I was a teenager, we had a male cat named Butch. When my family moved from our house in the city to the farm in the country, he went with us, but soon disappeared. My mother was convinced he was alive. Sure enough, weeks later, he showed up at the old house, skinny and with worn-out paws. It was five miles.

I took one of the kittens of his with me when I went to college (lived in an apartment at first). Rerun was with me for years, including after we moved to a rental farm in the country (horse owners, too). One day, she disappeared. We looked everywhere for a week, but we were booked for flying to Albuquerque for a horse show. While we were gone, she showed up back at our farm -- just like her dad, she was skinny with worn-out paws, but wouldn't come out for the feeder until we got home.

We think she had been sleeping in the camper in the back of the pickup truck when my husband had taken the garbage to the county waste and recycling center, and had gotten out there. That's all we could think of to explain her absence.

It's amazing that they both had the will and instincts to find their way home.

Dyh, so interesting that they could find their way to the old home, yet not stay with the family. Those stories always amaze me.

Our last cat was a discovery. When my parents would be at their winter home, we'd stop by and check the house. One day a cat was curled up in the ground cover by the front door and meowed at us. I recognized it as the cat from next store so I carried her over and gave her to the husband. He looked kind of awkward and said "I'm not a cat person" and took it inside the house. Moments later he came trotting across the yard call that it ISN'T their cat, who was in the house already. (The two cats didn't look that much alike, just that both were white with black. Clearly he wasn't a cat person lol. His excuse: the cat belongs to their daughter.)

They live in a wooded area, houses far apart. We called the few families on the lane and across the field, but no one knew of a missing cat.

There are always Lost Cat signs on the telephone poles around town, so we drove around and called all the numbers. Not a match. We had an ad in the paper. Not a match. With permission we posted signs at the elementary school (it was conferences week, so we knew there'd be a lot of parents there). At every step we'd get a phone call, a description, and bring the cat over, only to see the people's faces fall -- and my kids' faces relax. They were getting quite attached.

That cat clearly belonged to a family who took good care of it. She was friendly, patient with the kids (including preschooler), well-fed, healthy, neutered, and front-declawed. The perfect pet. I'm sure they wondered what happened to her. And she was our perfect pet for years. When we moved and she started that weird drinking from the faucet thing, we thought it might be a throwback to her past life? Who knows?

msmeow - Tally is very perplexed: “Where’s the pasta?”

Let's hear more - these are all great!

We had a female cat from good-knows-where take up residence at our house. Never having had a cat, I didn't want one. She loved to stow away in vehicles so we warned all visitors to leave windows shut and inspect before driving away from our house. One morning, my husband got almost to work and a little head popped up in rear view mirror! It was a long distance for him to bring her home. Oh, she loved to ride in a car so I would occasionally take her on short trips when weather was suitable. Miss Kitty would stand on back seat gazing out the window and closely follow all activity she saw. There are many tales of her exploits and I miss her very much!

My old lady calico is pretty sedentary now. But when she was younger the favorite game was taking a toy or balled up paper wad into the (dry) bathtub and use it like a hockey arena, batting it around, hurling her body, sliding against the sides. She'd usually start the play in the middle of the night, of course.

I have an orange outdoor cat, Mr. Toes, that has gone walkabout three times. The first time he disappeared, we got a call that he was at a storage facility 3 miles away and had been wandering into a neighborhood quick mart to beg for food.

The second time was really crazy. I fed him in the morning at the house. In late afternoon I got a very confusing phone call.

"I found your cat a university village."

"What are you talking about? My cat's not missing, I fed his this morning"

"I have him here at University Village."

"That doesn't make any sense. Where is University Village? What city?"

"Albany."

Albany is nine miles north of my house.

Anyway, I retrieve the cat.

THEN I get a call from my then-husband. "Mr. Toes is in Albany."

"No he isn't."

"Yes he is. Our neighbor told me he saw him jump out of his truck after he drove to Albany."

"No, he isn't. He was in Albany, but someone found him and called. He's home already."

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Detecting a theme here? Toes likes to take naps in the back of people's trucks, so when he gets lost he really gets lost.

________________________

The third time he went missing was around July 4, and it's possible that he got spooked by fireworks and actually got lost rather than being transported, for a change. He was gone for a couple month.

I had given up on getting him back and adopted 2 kittens, when I got a call from someone who saw our missing cat notice at the animal shelter. She had been feeding him for a while (he's very socially manipulative, so I don't actually worry about him finding someone to feed him when he's missing--that's how we got him, and he has at least one other neighbor feeding him on a regular basis). So I went down (about a mile away this time) to see if it was him, and it was. He wasn't terribly happy to come home and find two interlopers in his space. He used to come inside on occasion, but doesn't any more.

If anyone is wondering why we didn't make him an indoor cat, the answer is that he HAAAAAAAAAAAAATES being forced to stay inside. He is miserable and makes everybody else miserable too with his stalking and yowling.

______________________________

The two kittens are now 7 years old and endlessly amusing. Texas is obsessed with styrofoam. I think he likes the way it feels on his teeth when he bites it. I have a foam roller in my closet and he knows it. The door doesn't close properly (too many coats of paint) so I just wedge it shut. I've seen him working on the door to get it open, and every once in a while he succeeds.

Arizona is developmentally disabled. The runt of the litter, she couldn't jump well at all when she was young (better now, but still is very cautious and takes a lot of time gearing up for a jump). She's the one who meows at inanimate objects and can't read social cues (from people or other cats). But she can unerringly find the warmest spot in the house. She also picks up her cat dancer toy (fleece strip on a stick) and carries it around the house.

We got a third cat a couple years later who has been very slow to warm up. But once she decides something is safe (usually after a year or more of working up to it), she's good. She has now decided that sleeping on my lap is safe and won't leave me alone. I posted about her last summer when she finally decided that it was okay to chase the laser pointer (after a year of watching it not hurt Texas when he chased it).

We had a brown tabby named Jack. He was the best cat. He was a stray kitten we adopted when we lived in Oregon and then later moved back to California. Despite moving to several different houses, Jack always rolled with the punches.

We had been living in the country for about 5 years and then moved to town, 4 miles away. Right after the move, Jack went missing for a few days. I was heartsick because he should have turned up and he was my best boy. One day, on a hunch, my husband drove back to the old house, called Jack's name, and the old boy came running up to him. It's not like Jack was a dog we walked on a leash between the two places. He'd only been in a carrier in a car when we took him to the vet. Did he hail a cab? Or chart his path by the constellations? We never found out, and he never left our sides again.

We had a cat that use to play hockey. She would sit at the end of the U in the kitchen and wait. We would slide pennies along the floor and she would try to stop them with her paws. She was a really good goalie - the Canucks good do with her right about now.

One of our current cats has really good ears. They sleep down the hall in the family room but if I have to get up during the night I have to tip toe to the ensuite because the one who is in charge of getting the food will hear and coming running down the hall. He thinks I'm getting up to feed them.

Apparently he's in charge of meowing for breakfast and dinner while the other one is in charge of meowing to have the balcony door opened.

@linelle - We've had two sets of neighbours who have moved, not very far, and had their cats come back to their old homes. We would phone them and they would come and get their cats.

The neighbors' cat used to come over and sit on our front porch, gazing into the sidelights at our cats, who freaked out on there inside. The family eventually moved, and we considered holding the cat until after they'd gone. We didn't, but we did hope that she'd find her way back to our porch. She was a good cat.

Then there was my cat of meat-stealing fame, who would go to visit the neighbors at their first-floor condo. Apparently he'd hang out on their back patio staring in the French doors, until they let him in. He'd inspect the perimeter of the condo, then sit down in the middle of the living room until they fed him. Meanwhile, it's started sleeting outside and I'm calling for him. Hours later he arrives at my door, mysteriously dry and warm. I was relieved when my neighbor told me what was going on, that two-timer.

This is why cat videos are so popular! They are so silly and clever and enigmatic @ the same time, aren't they?

These stories make me think of the time Eureka 'played' my ukulele. I used to sit on the bed and practice, and once, when I left it on the bed and went out of the room for a few minutes, I suddenly heard "Boing, bong, boing, boing" and found her w/ her paw on the ukulele, plucking at the strings w/ her teeth.

Carol, that's amazing!

We have been adopted by a stray cat this year- my first cat ever. Kitty clearly didn’t come from another family, she had a litter in our shed (which is how we got adopted), but she adores my children. She curls up with the toddler and pets his head. She’s also become a member of our ‘pack’, she joins in when we take the dogs out and follows along on walks and she’s learned to climb the front door until her little face shows in the window to let us know she wants to come back in, just like both dogs put their paws on the window sill to be let back in. I’ve never wanted a cat before but this girl has changed my mind.

Aviastar, some cats are, for lack of a better term, dogs in cat fur. Sounds like you have one! I am a cat person, but even I recognize that some of my cats were actually dogs lol! (Equal time: some dogs are actually cats. Anybody ever have a long-haired miniature dachshund? Just a cat with a German accent.)

We kept a box of tissues on the radiator in the living room. Our new kitty fit perfectly inside the tissue box, she was toasty warm and in cushioned comfort. As she grew, she kept trying to fit inside the box. It got to the point, only her front paws were in the box. We replaced the tissue box with the cardboard tray from a case of beer. Fortunately, she didn’t outgrow that.

Another cat liked to sit on the back of the sofa, right behind my head, and we watched tv together. If I moved my head too much she would reach around and gently slap my face with her paw, clearly indicating “sit still!”

That cat would hear me wake up and stick her paw under my bedroom door, grab the door, and rattle it. “I hear you’re awake! Come out of there! Feed me!” That door opened out into the hall and every morning I’d have to say you need to move so I can open the door to feed you. She sat there and I had to slowly push the door against her weight and slide her along the wooden floor until I could leave the room. Cats do like routines, even silly ones.

Anybody else know about this?

Why do cats like boxes?

I have another cat story. This one is not so cute. We adopted a little tan/orange cat the weekend of Superstorm Sandy. We named him Sandy. Sandy was very curious and loved water. That fall we DYI'd an update to our kitchen.. removing the wall between the kitchen and DR and adding an island.

In February, we went to VT on a ski weekend. Left Sandy and our other older cat for 3 days with lots of food and water. Sandy jumped into the kitchen sink, pushed down on the drain stopper and when he jumped out, he hit the faucet handle which was in the hot water position. We know this because everything was knocked over near the sink.

The hot water ran in the sink for 2 days, spilling over. When we got home and opened the garage door, water ran out. The smoke alarms were going off. Water was pouring from the ceiling in the garage and in a river down the steps. All the windows were fogged and it was like a tropical rain forest in the house.

And Sandy was sitting on top of one of the end tables in the LR meowing at us. Our other cat was on the top floor where it was dry(but very humid!).

Our entire main floor had to be gutted. Cost about 85K which was totally covered by our homeowners insurance.

Oh, my, czarinalex, that should be in a Farmer's Insurance commercial (actually, they do have one, but the dog is the culprit. Maybe your Sandy was the inspiration!)

Once when my brother was cat sitting, he made fish for dinner and put the remains down the disposal, but didn't run it. The cats tore apart the rubber gasket to get at the fish. I'm glad neither bumped into the disposal switch on the wall!

My 13.5 year old Bailey, is my troublemaker ... Any one that comes to my house learns that ALL toilet paper is stored in drawers in the bathrooms. If the toilet paper is left out, he shreds it and then dumps it in the toilet bowl.

Same goes with Kleenex, all have to be hidden away.

He's also part dog, he sleeps with my 2 dogs and has decided that now that he's an elder, he wants to go outside with them! We lived on a farm for his first 11.5 years, and he never wanted to go outside. Now that we've moved to a suburb, he thinks he should go out into the fenced yard with his buddies the dogs. (It's not fenced well enough to keep a cat in.) In the morning, when I let the dogs out, he runs madly out the kitchen door, but luckily gets stuck in the back hall ... and doesn't get outside.

He's really quite a character!

Oh Bailey is a real beauty.

Oh my gosh, these stories are so funny! I love them all. As to moving with a cat or bringing a new cat home - we always carry our cats counter clockwise around the house seven times. Don't ask me why, but it seems to do the trick. Our last move was six blocks from our previous house and our cat never even tried to go back. Although she did stay in her crate with door open for a good part of the first few weeks.

As to where to sleep on hot nights? Dog in the bathtub; cat in the sink. Where else? So wishing I had pictures.

Sami on the quilt frame

Sami in the too-small box

Sami in the bathroom sink

Sami in the kitchen sink

msmeow - is Sami actually sleeping in the kitchen sink?

"A sink clean enought to sleep in!" instead of "you could eat off the kitchen floor!"

I like how Sami--or someone--pulled a comfy towel into the bathroom sink :)

Yes, she’s sleeping in the kitchen sink! And she pulled the towel into the other one.

Lest you think we only have one weird cat, here is George on the quilt frame, and in a desk drawer!

@msmeow ...that looks like james bond training! Hahaha!!!

czarinalex -- WOW! That's an expensive cat. What a nightmare to come home to!

Not my cat; my friend's cat. When friend and I are on the phone, cat will come running from wherever she was into the room with my friend and say, loud enough for me to hear, "Sue" although she pronounces it more like Sieu.

Brie asks, "Are we getting a kitty?" (Clipped yesterday and we just came home from errands, so she wants me to get off the computer.)

Is Brie a standard? She has delicious eyes! And yes, she wants a kitty.

Brie is a miniature. 16 lbs. When I travel, she manages to talk her sitter and her husband into letting her sleep in their bed -- with their cat, too!

We had a cat who was very odd. She’d jump on top of doors and lay across the top of the door. She jumped in the tub as soon as we turned off the shower. She loved water.

One weekend, DH and I went somewhere overnight. When we came home, we could hear voices in our apartment. When we opened the door, we found the cat sitting on the sofa next to the remote, and the TV on.