Speaking of cats…
Pandora, my old cat, is a little strange. She’s lying under my feet, with a wadded up wash cloth between her front paws.
Pandora has two odd habits. First she compulsively washes anyone who pets her. I’m allergic to cat saliva, so whenever she sneaks in a stealth lick, I break out in red bumps. She also washes Rory. He doesn’t mind. In fact, he sometimes hunts her down and makes her wash his face and ears.
Second, she carries bits of paper and cloth around the house. I have no idea why she does it. During the night, she gets into the trash and the laundry hamper and digs out wash cloths, socks, and bits paper. Every morning, I wake up with a pile of her thievings outside my bedroom door. She doesn’t always bring them to me, though. Sometimes she sleeps on top of them. Sometimes she plays with them. And sometimes she just carries them around the house, trying to meow.[1] Because her mouth is stuffed full, what little sound there is comes out muffled and garbled. At that point, about all I can do is point and laugh. Luckily, she’s weird in many ways, and is one of those rare cats who enjoys being a clown. She’s totally okay with being pointed and laughed at.
I would worry that the fabric/paper fetish was a sign of an age related cognitive disorder, except she’s been doing it for more than ten years. The same with the compulsive people licking. They’re odd behaviors, but they’re normal for Pandora.
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1. Pandora has never been able to meow properly. Instead, she makes a little chirping noise or a whispered “mah.” When she was a kitten, my roommate had one of her littermates. The only way we were able to tell the kittens apart was that Pandora would open her mouth and no noise would come out. Luckily, Pan has an excellent sense of humor and doesn’t mind in the least being laughed at. I’ve known cats who were mortified when they were laughed at, but not Pan. She’s a ham.
red paper boat 