Help! I think my cat is turning into a trainspotter!

[annavc]

I've recently moved house and there is a train line at the back of the new house - its raised up on an embankment and you can see the trains go past. We've been there about 6 weeks and my cat, in the last 3 or so weeks had started to show a, frankly, unhealthy interest in the trains - whenever one is approaching he runs either to the upstairs back bedroom or the kitchen and looks out of the window to watch it - he can be in the middle of eating and does it.

I'm sure I'm going to come home one day and catch him wearing an anorak and a pair of thick glasses, holding a notepad and pencil and jotting down the number of the trains!

Does anyone else have an animal with nerdy hobbies like this?!

[mccfluff]

Lol, got a fantastic mental image now, mine sits on the roof, or back window ledge and watches the narrow boats go by

[warpig1]

My old cat Rigsby (God rest him) used to love watching snooker. Whenever a player potted a ball he used to look underneath the tv to try and find the ball, bless.

[wolf63]

annavc - you could tell that he is a male by his weird hobby alone!

That's a brilliant story. I saw an advert for cat food in a magazine a couple of weeks ago and the cat was wearing a hoodie. So I am sure that you could get him a little anorak.

Really cheered me up! Thanks

[annavc]

mccfluff and warpig - glad to know my Sam is not the only mad cat out there!

wolf63 it is very tempting to get him a little anorak. He's a large long-haired ginger and white tabby with very long white whiskers & very fluffy feet so I think it would suit him. Maybe a little train driver's hat too to complete the outfit!

Glad it cheered you up!

[poppyk]

we live near to an army base and get a lot of low flying aircrafts normal cats would run away not mine she watches them till they are out of sight her favourite is the hellicopter with the two blades i think they call them chinooks

[The Big Gill]

Perhaps you should start making him sandwiches.

Mine's still quite young, so he hasn't yet taken up more mature pastimes. Instead, he'll wait 'til bedtime to race us up the stairs to bed, or occasionally play hide-and-seek. The latter is started by a little paw-tap on the heel. He'll then zoom back off into the dark (the lights having been turned off downstairs). He then hunkers down until you're almost on top of him to squirt over to the other side of the room. This goes on until he gets you totally out of position, whereupon he can run up the stairs and wait for you on the landing with a victorious chirp.

[wolf63]

annavc - if only I known about your cat earlier. I sold two of my late father's BR hats on Ebay. I have a couple of mugs and some ties if he wants them!

This is as funny as the story last week about the cat lugging the squirrel home, over a seven foot fence and through a cat flap.

All my late angel ever did was sleep, eat and attack me.

[mccfluff]

well scrap the barge watching just went upstairs to find murph sitting in the middle of my sewing basket, everything every where and quite a complex cats cradle wrapped around her, thank god the needles pins etc are in a tin she couldn't open, little cowbag

[divegirl]

lol@ mccluff's cat...

[divegirl]

opps mccfluff...

[mccfluff]

no worries divegirl, took me ages to detangle her, i wish i'd taken a pic now, the best bit was her sitting in the middle of it all trrying to look innocent the look on her face, a classic

[LaLa1705]

Hey annavc you have one strange cat bless him,maybe you'll have to get him one of those model train sets so he can indulge in his new hobby 24/7 wearing his outfit.... my cat Otis thinks he's a dog,he comes with me in the car with my 4 dogs for rides and when he goes to my brother s house to visit he leaps on his 2 dogs and starts chewing their ears and stuff. Problem is they are guard dogs and were cat haters all their lives until Otis leapt on them, thank god they don't seem to realise he is actually a cat!

[annavc]

LaLa1705 - that's such a good idea - he should have a train set. I can just see him sitting next to it pouncing on the train every time it came round!

He certainly is a strange cat! He's got extra toes on all 4 feet and looks like he actually has thumbs on his front feet so I think he knows he's bit different and does what he can to enforce that view! I've only had him a year but he really does have more personality than any other cat I've ever known!

Yesterday evening he was sitting in the middle of the lawn staring at the trains as they went past and miaowing at them occassionally too - the nutter!

[wolf63]

annavc - at least you know what to do for his birthday. Take him on a trip on the train.

Railway stations used to have cats, some might still, maybe he comes from a long line of railway cats.

Does he do any cat things - killing, fighting, sleeping and procreating?

He sounds like a lovely cat.

[annavc]

Hi wolf63 - I rehomed him from a rescue centre last year and he came in there as a stray so I have no idea what his background is - maybe he was a station cat.

As for doing the usual cat things - not much, although he is extremely good at sleeping. The only things he kills are spiders and I think that is done by simply standing on them with his great big feet. He's the biggest softie ever - his attempts at scratching me (when I'm brushing him and get a tangle) are not so much scratching as stroking - it doesn't seem to occur to him to stick his claws out! If he ever did get into a fight I think he'd just try to stroke his opponent to death!

I certainly think he's lovely - but then I am biased! Even when he wakes me up wanting attention in the middle of night I can't get mad at him because he wakes me up by lying down next to my head and tapping my face with his paw and then squeeking at me!!

Basically he's a complete nutter!

[wolf63]

We are going to have to start an answerbank cat society. I really am a dog person. But after adopting a psycopath from the Cats Protection five years ago I also like cats. The fiend died in May.

We could all relate our 'horror stories', and try and work out why we put up with it (although I once tried to swipe out at George and accidently got him by the throat. As he had woken me up and I was grumpy all I could think was "if I strangled him nobody would know, I could bury him in the park." Then I remembered the microchip and let him go, he screamed at kissed my cheek, then he started pestering me again).

I am going to get a couple of cats when I eventually get my house renovations finished. Not kittens - they are tornados with teeth and claws.

Susan
who misses her psychopath