After I have used my bath towel following a shower, my cat, Gabriel, loves the smell of it. He loves to roll around in it and is pleased to be covered by it.
From my understanding of the domestic cat, the reason is because my scent is embedded into the fabric of the towel. Because it is damp the water in it evaporates. When it evaporates the water molecules carry the scent molecules into the atmosphere where they can be smelled more intensely by Gabriel. As the smell of objects and of us is very important to cats and plays a major role in a cat’s life, Gabriel finds that being amongst the scent is enjoyable. He revels in it. He is able to let my scent attach to his fur and to deposit his scent onto the towel. I’d call this a version of scent exchange, a way of making the environment more friendly for the domestic cat.
Does your cat like your recently used bath towel? If so why do you think he/she likes it so much?
We have a cat named Marco who loves my wife’s dirty washcloths that have dried / almost dry. He rolls around on the floor with it like a sea otter with a baby while my wife gets ready in the morning. We have started to refer to it as his “binky”. Cats love routine and ours are no different.
He’s like my cat then. They love that scent and, as you say, the routine.
i’m glad i’m not the only one because my cat likes to sleep on damp towels, he started doing it when he was around 5 yrs old, i will get out the shower and he will follow me up stairs and wait for me to drop my towel then he will snuggle into it and go to sleep … infact he wont even sleep in his bed without a towel.
How sweet Elisha. He loves you and likes to be surrounded by your scent. Thanks for commenting.
I have 2 cats, female and male, spayed and neutered. One of them has just started wetting on my damp bath towel. Not sure which one as I haven’t caught either one doing this yet, but the odor is def urine. The other thing is my female has to sit or lie down on me constantly(kneading then falling asleep) if I’m on the couch or in bed for the night. She’s never done this before. She will be 3 in May and I’m just not sure what’s going on. No change noticed in my male unless he’s the bath towel culprit.
Hi Diane. Has something changed in your life or the lives of others in the household? Your cat is urinating on something which strongly contains your scent. For me this is a sign of some stress or anxiety building up in your cat. Is he/she alone more than normal? Any change could cause this or there might be something going on between the cats causing the more submissive one to feel stress. I’d check those things out and remove the cause of stress. The same cat is probably the one who is kneading you a lot. She feels insecure in my opinion. Try and find ways to make her feel more secure and see if you can isolate the cause (if I am correct!). I have never tried it by Feliway might help. Nice photo by the way. Very cute.
Thank you for your kind response. The only household change was my military son being home with his 2 English Mastiff pups for awhile but they left in January and actually both cats did not mind the dogs at all. Since then it’s been the same old routine day in and day out. That’s what has me baffled. They are both indoor only, fed well, clean litter box and plenty of “treats” n toys and TLC. They both sleep with me at night and when Zoey kneads me I generally pet or sometime brush her until she’s out cold. I will be sure to investigate more, perhaps it was because I accidentally left the towel on the floor then headed out to work. I don’t believe either one has a UTI as their “output” so to speak has not changed meaning they are not using the litter box anymore (or less) than they have in the past.
I have just ordered the Feliway and will let you know if that helps solves the problem. The orange tabby is Zoey and the one below is Kojo. Thanks for your advice.
Lol looks exactly like my cat whose doing that now its new. I caught him on camera hes rolling around rubbing his nose over it like he loves it hahah
Thanks for commenting Ang.
Loved reading this Sarah.
By any chance, you don’t have a cat named Damon?
My Damon is that sort of thief and worse. He keeps 3 hoarding piles of my stuff that smell like me. Granted, some are really rank.
Anymore, I don’t disturb his piles, so I know where to get a hair tie, kitchen towel, or sock.
I don’t! Haha, my sock/underwear theifs name is Cait Sith (named after popular Final Fantasy *video game* Character) as she looks just like him! My hair tye, and bottle lid theifs name is Nollie. She’s the wet or dry towel cat (she also just adores butt cheek pats and tail pulls). My animals are all so strange and different from each other! Such fun personalities like little furry humans! ?
I have 4 cats, of the 4, 2 love the smell of freshly washed towels. Almost as soon as I can fold it, they cry for me to spread it out for them to lay on. As well as just bleached sheets, t-shirts and socks. They love a slight bleach smell, I have always wondered why. They also love when it’s just been used and is damp. One more than the other. I also have a cat, not included in the towel bunch, who loves to murder our dirty socks. Sometimes even underwear. She will dig a dirty sock out of the bin and proceed to prance through the house moanjnf and crying loudly. Carrying the dirty sock in her mouth. Until she finds you and drops it at your feet. She will not leave or stop crying until you say good girl, pick the sock up and smell it, then give her a kiss. Once she is satisfied you like the gift, she throws herself on her side and cleans herself to sleep.
I assume the dirty sock to an inside cat is the equivalent of an outside cat bringing you a dead animals. Either way she is very proud of herself. And loves the admiration she gets from sharing her dirty sock kill.
Life would be so boring without curious cats.
I enjoyed reading your comment Sarah. I agree with your conclusion.
Sweet picture! My cat never comes into my bathroom, ever. And doesn’t roll around in my clothes at all.
🙂 I guess this confirms yet again that all cats have their own personalities. I believe though that in general cats like damp towels that have been recently used by the cat’s caretaker.
I have noticed this, and also that some love the “slight” smell of bleach. I sometimes use a spray cleaner that has a little bleach in it. I’m going to try a four towel experiment, and I am mindful and reiterate the fact that bleach is an extremely caustic and potentially permanently damaging product to come in contact with any living tissue – especially mucosal, olfactory, optical and respiratory, and I also point out not to use it in fountains or anything they can drink. To keep those things relatively clean and moss-free you can use a little distilled white vinegar then flush it out.
That’s interesting Albert about the slight smell of bleach. I have not experienced that but that maybe because I don’t use on surfaces et cetera. I watch out for that.