Cats Knocking Stuff Over – YouTube. This is why cat owners can’t have nice things.
This is amusing but it doesn’t mean that cat owners can’t have nice things. We know that but just don’t put something nice on a mantelpiece! The video gives the impression that all cats are manically involved in knocking things over almost all of the time in a deliberately destructive way 😉 . They certainly aren’t.
In all the years I have lived with a cat, I can remember about half a dozen occasions when my cat has knocked something off a shelf. Cats often prod objects around the floor but that’s not the same. Have you lived with a cat obsessed with knocking things over? I’d bet she was a bit bored.
For a cat, it’s fun to prod stuff to see what happens! Cat owners encourage it by playing with their cat using small toys – or is it the cat encouraging the human to play with them with toys? I am never quite sure.
Humans have equivalent entertaining pastimes. What about kids’ games such as Hide and Seek and Treasure Hunt. These are simple forms of entertainment with the unexpected at the end. Isn’t that similar?
It is all about play and entertainment for the domestic cat. It goes back to their wild cat roots. You’ll see wild cats prodding small prey items. The serval lives off relatively small prey for a large to medium sized wild cat. They play with rodents during a kill just like your domestic tabby.
The experts say the reason is what it seems: entertainment. There may be an overlap here with “playing safe” with prey to avoid being bitten. Knocking prey about with the paws is safer for the cat than biting it. A bit can become infected and for a wild cat becoming even slightly ill could jeopardize survival.
I have always felt that when cats knock objects off high places, for them to fall to the ground, it is a way of animating the inanimate – bringing it to life. They want to create prey and an environment where prey scuttles around. This would apply more often for indoor cats.