My Kitchen is Under Surveillance

[NJCher]

I have a long galley-style kitchen. One exit faces a 9' terrace.

While cooking up some fresh garden veggies in my kitchen today, I looked out the door and I saw that my cat Oliver is keeping an eye on me:



This is a new perch for him.

This cat's biggest thing in life is surveilling the property. He is obsessive about it. If an interloper (another cat) comes around, he will not be satisfied until he chases it off. If he can't do it by himself, he will prevail upon me to help him. He considers every mole or mouse as his. Don't you dare think otherwise.

He has all kinds of perches and hidey holes where he just waits for a trespasser: under an elevated raised bed, under the deck, behind a bush.

This cat is not Oliver, but Oliver would do something like this:



He somehow senses the property lines and he will walk them every morning, afternoon, and night. We watch him from the windows and laugh.

[calimary]

1. My cats heartily approve!

[Ocelot II]

2. Our family cat, years ago, was a yard patroller.

My parents' house had a fairly large lawn that wasn't fenced in, but somehow she knew where the property line was. She would chase away other cats and some pretty large dogs - one of her favorite victims was a neighbor's Norwegian Elkhound - and her chases would always stop at the property line. I don't know how she knew where that was.

[wnylib]

3. This is classic outdoor cat behavior.

They establish their territory and patrol its boundaries. In areas where there are a lot of outdoor cats and territories, they will even establish right-of-way neutral passages through territories to get from one place to another. Usually, queens with a litter get free passes.

There are also neutral places where they can "hang out" together for socializing.

[NJCher]

5. that is really interesting

they will even establish right-of-way neutral passages through territories to get from one place to another. Usually, queens with a litter get free passes.


I didn't know about that.

Regarding neutral places where they hang out to socialize, I recall years ago someone put a camera around their cat's neck and then tracked where he went. What was so surprising is that he did indeed go to what would be one of those "neutral" spots. One could see on the camera footage that they just all sat around looking at each other. Communicating by cat telepathy, I think.

I'm glad I don't live on a street. I live back in a forested area quite a distance from any major streets. He seems to stay on the property because he is so protective of it.

It cracks me up to find him in one of his hidey-holes, trying to catch something. When I'm gardening, I will often leave a shed door partially open so I can retrieve my clippers and other tools quickly. Today I fully opened a partially opened door and there he was, on the floor of the shed just waiting for something to pass by. He thinks he's so clever.

[wnylib]

6. I read about cat territorial behavior

in a large book about the behavior and various breeds of domesticated cats. The term "domesticated" includes feral domestic cats, versus wild cats ( like bobcats, for example).

My cat is a strictly indoor cat since I live in a city apartment building in a busy part of town. But, I used to live in a suburban area (still kept my cat indoors) and used to watch my neighbor's cat patrol his yard. I had a good view from my den. It was amusing to see the cat patrol every inch of boundary lines. He had the same routine several times a day. He would walk on top of a fence for part of the way, then scamper up a tree to reach the garage roof and follow the length of that before dropping down to a ledge and then to the ground. He was fully alert and attentive the whole time.

My cat would watch from my window with me.

The way that yours hides suggests that he is not only watching for intruders, but perhaps also laying in wait for some prey. My indoor cat, who has never been outdoors, loves to play predatory ambush games with her toys and with me. She will actually position toys so that she can "hide" and then sneak up to pounce them. It's instinctual, hard-wired behavior. She has no experience at all with hunting.

[House of Roberts]

4. He's watching you cook, thinking,

MEAT, dammit, cook some damn meat for a change!

[wnylib]

7. My cat is indoors. When I cook, she likes to watch

from the top of the kitchen cupboards in the space right under the ceiling. If it looks or smells interesting to her, she leaps down to the counter, hoping to get some. Of course I will not give anything to her on the counter, so she has learned that when I say, "down," she will get some - if she complies.

Cats will learn words that serve their own interests. Mine learned the word " tuna" very quickly. No matter where she is in my apartment, as soon as I say the word tuna, she is in the kitchen. This is true before I open the can, before I even take it out of the cupboard.

[Marcuse]

8. Outdoor cat.

[FakeNoose]

9. My dog doesn't jump onto the counter

... but he regularly patrols the kitchen floor to see if I've dropped anything interesting. Also he frequently checks the floor under my computer desk, where I often take my late-hour snacks.

Ants aren't a problem in my house because my dog finds everything.