Mysterious Feline Behavior: Why do They do That?

Cats have a reputation for their high degree of intelligence, curiosity and independence. I have shared my home many incredible felines over the years, but our lilac point Oriental, Hush Puppy, takes the cake for his obviously inquisitive and fertile mind when he is involved in performing scientific experiments with gravity.

His phenomenal talent and penchant for knocking things off our night stands, the sinks and countertops, the coffee table in our entertainment area, and . . . gasp . . . the dining room table, demonstrates that he is on a mission.

And while we have tried in ever so many ways to communicate with him that this is not acceptable, he obviously does not agree with us. We are at loggerheads over this issue for sure. So while contemplating Hush Puppy's possible motivation, my husband and I are starting to wonder what could be his uniquely valid reasons for continuing we consider being just annoying and frustrating behavior.

For example: We keep snack items on the coffee table while we are watching television, for our convenience. While Hush Puppy is not obviously interested in the snacks themselves, without fail he jumps on the table, checking out each item carefully, and then, with glimmering eyes , end of tail swishing to and fro, after gauging distances between the objects, he deftly pushes them with his paw, until they tumble onto the floor, scattered all over the place. Sucker me, I get up and replace them on the table, and once again, Hush Puppy gleefully gives them the heave -ho.

Then there is the pen and pencil experiment. Frequently when my husband is deeply involved doing important paperwork while seated at the dining room table, like a moth to a flame, Hush Puppy awakes from a cat nap and leaps onto the table with skill of which most world class athletes specializing in pole- vaulting, would be jealous.

This results in our repeated actions: pick up cat . . . place on floor, gently . . . adding a word of admonishment, "no", which of course is met with cat jumping back on table quickly repeating, with apparent delight, knocking off every pen and pencil in sight . . . we refer to it as his feline bungee jumping activity.

But the corker is when we are actually using the dining room table for a meal, Hush Puppy gently jumps onto my shoulder, snuggles up next to my face as close as possible, his purring motor loud enough to hear across the room, watching each and every particle of food on my fork as I am eating, yet never reaches out to grab it.

Is he "playing me" or is he measuring the time it takes for me to consume my food? Or is he requesting that I take him for a spin around the house on my power wheelchair? Now, mind you, we are not complaining about Hush Puppy's antics. We adore his communicative style most of the time, but we are curious about what he is thinking.

Do your cats behave in a similar manner? Please let me know in a comment, so we can more intelligently purrsue this mystery.