My new kitten comes from an abusive situation, so I’m cutting her serious slack. But this morning I woke up to find her kneading my neck and sucking on my ear.
Slurp, slurp, slurp went tiny little kitten noises. Tiny little kitten claws digging into my neck. And deep-throated kitten purrs coming from her throat.
I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit that the entire experience was so lulling that I promptly fell back to sleep.
I had a kitten years ago who was an ear-sucker. She sucked so hard that first she gave me a hickey on my earlobe, and later actually broke the skin. So I know that this is a Very Bad Habit that can only lead to heartache, and she must be broken of it eventually.
But little kitten purrs! Kitten slurping sounds! Who wouldn’t love that?
*crossposted at Super Babymama
My cat just sucks her own paw. Sometimes it’s so loud she wakes us.
Thats so adorable! My littlest (well not so little anymore) kitty used to suckle on fingertips, he kept at it until his teeth got too big and it became impossible for him to do it. He’s over 2 now and when he’s cuddling with me he still tries to do it.
EEEEEEEEE!! happy new kitten!!
We have a cat who still sucks on earlobes at age almost-7. We consider it sweet, despite the drool. There are much worse habits a cat could have.
Belle, she was a surprise Christmas present for my old, set-in-his-ways adult cat, Mooshie. And she’s the prettiest, most delicate long-haired tuxedo cat who chirps instead of meows and tries to attack the curser on the laptop. I am Charmed By Her, to say the least.
Her name is supposedly Luna, but I call her either Molly or Little Sister.
I haven’t had a new cat in the house in almost 10 years. And a kitten to boot!
the kitten i had that did that turned out to be the same cat who gave birth to kittens on me whilst i gently slept…they still recognize me today…even when i go almost a year w/o seeing the family that have them now…
happy new kitten!
Awww. We got a new kitten a few months ago after our oldest cat died (long story, on my blog, don’t want to talk about it). The poor little girl got bounced around quite a bit before she came to us, so she’s still not 100% sure that we’re trustworthy, but when she wants her dinner petting*, she will come find us and lead us to the bowl. She’s not ready for lap sitting, but if you’re on the couch she’ll come up and flop next to you so you can pet her. The first time she did it with G., he called it her “flop of faith” because she eyeballed him for a few minutes to check that he was trustworthy.
* Dinner petting = wants to be petted while she eats. Not just wants, but demands.
My “kitten” (who is now a year old and weighs 12 pounds) likes to pretend to suckle on my fluffy bathrobe. She kneads it and puts her lips up to the fabric without actually opening her mouth. It’s very cute but a little sad at the same time.
You’re right. It is a Very Bad habit. They grow up and those jaws get larger and those claws more powerful. One of my kitties has habits I’m sure his former people thought were so cute as a kitten but that now make me very nervous when he approaches me at certain times of the day. He’s a boob biter. Yes, you read that right, a boob biter.
My youngest kitty’s name is Luna, but her naughty kitten habits involves biting everything you put in front of her or that moves (hands and toes included) and playing with her water dish. Her cute habit is when she curls up on my chest and tucks her head under my chin and snores. Sigh…want to be home. Or go on http://www.icanhascheezburger.com
My neutered boy cat has decided that my bathrobe and other articles of clothing that smell strongly like me are his girlfriends. Basically, he masturbates with them, complete with pelvic thrusts, which is kinda freaky since he’s NEUTERED.
I know, TMI. I suspect that it’s because our new(ish) cat is a (spayed) female, so he has a dim instinct that he’s supposed to be doing something, but he’s not quite sure what it is. He’s not spraying, at least.
My cat’s weirdo habit is to take his food and scoop it out of his bowl with his paw, then lick it from between his claws. Right after he’s used the box.
yeah.
And sometimes he’ll groom my hair right after I’ve buzzed it, which I know I should put an end to, but I just don’t have the heart.
We’ve had a couple of kittens that did that. One was seriously messed up and kind of bipolar, the other was a stray we rescued. Both had lost their mothers pretty early, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.
The second ear-sucking kitten we had hopped on our bed one afternoon while my girlfriend and I were relaxing post-gettin’-it-on. A look of pure joy washed over it’s little face, and you could practically hear it thinking, “oh my god! so that’s where they are!”, as it leapt onto my girlfriend’s chest and latched on to her nipple before she could stop it. Poor thing looked so sad and confused when she pulled her off.
I’ve had cats my whole life (and I’m almost 50) but never yet ran into a boob-biter. I did have a cat who would go after a rather largish mole on my leg. And I once had a cat who slept curled up inside a glass bowl on top of the cupboards.
Awww, poor little love kitty. I am reading this with my laptop balanced on my knees and a cat in my lap. She decided it was time for me to be sat upon. Internet be damned. This is why I have a small laptop. Both my cats knead and get in the zoned-out drooly state while they do it, but neither had tried to chew on anything. All my sweaters have pulled threads on the inside of the upper arm because of the snuggle beasts. Could you give the new kitty a toy to chew/suckle on while she kneads on you?
Squee KEETIN! And yay for you for rescuing her from an abusive situation.
My dear, departed Tabby Boy Monster liked to stick his face in my hair whilst purring and “making muffins.” Alas, he’d drool in my hair. Ew.
BTW, I’ve heard that cats with Siamese ancestry are more prone to be long-term “suckers.”
Judy, you mean I’ve had her only a day and already I’m a failure as a kitten mom?
And I thought it was hard raising humans :)
My kitty, who also came from an abusive or at least abandoned situation (and as a result really puts the cat in scaredy-cat–she’s the only cat I’ve ever met who is AFRAID OF THE DARK), has taken to crawling into bed with me, which in itself is no problem and also pretty adorable and kind of relaxing, and then crawling up to me, rubbing my nose with hers, and licking my lips. It’s more than a little weird being woken up by a cold, catfood-smelling kiss and staring into huge kitty eyes. I finally understand where the myth comes from that cats will suck your breath out while you sleep.
Mine insisted for a long time, back when her food was in our old basement (the one she was afraid of) on being watched while she ate. She’d meow and meow until one of us came over to her, then run halfway down the stairs, stop, turn and look at us expectantly while we caught up, run the rest of the way down the stairs, stop, turn and look at us expectantly, run to her food, stop, wait for us to arrive, and then and only then start to actually eat. We sort of suspect that when we weren’t home she starved herself. Eventually we moved the food, but she still wanted to be watched. Weirdly this doesn’t seem a problem in the new house.
Aren’t most cute things that kittens do like that?
I dunno…we had a kitten when I was a kid that was an earlobe sucker. He grew up to be an earlobe-sucking cat. He never broke any skin or hurt anyone, and if those who did not enjoy such schnannigans sent him away, he did not protest. I’m not sure it’s necessarily bad.
It IS necc. adorable.
My former street cat likes to lick fingertips, noses, and occasionally chins or knuckles. She’s never tried earlobes, though. I put up with it because it makes her happy, and the only drawbacks are her HORRIBLE breath and the occasional tender nose.
Our first kittles were pretty old (7 months or so) when their mom decided she’d had enough and told them to eff off. After that, none of my button-up shirts were safe. The cats would firmly latch themselves onto a button and start suckling. Some were worse than others. There was one “chosen” cat who was the momma’s favorite, and she took the rejection the hardest … so she was always going after my shirt buttons.
I think after a while they just got over it and found other pleasures in life. Like sitting on laptops.
Though as recently as a year ago, I can recall one of the younger set (we have two litters from the same mom) going up to the “chosen” cat, who had readily adopted the youngsters into the family, and trying to nurse off of her. Which … wasn’t received very well.
Oh, and one of the younger ones went to our hefty boy cat and tried to nurse off of HIM … ummm … they … didn’t find anything.
But I think they’re mostly over it … although they do love to knead. Especially crotches.
I dunno that earlobe sucking counts as a bad kitty habit. As long as she doesn’t hurt you…on the other hand, I had relatives who thought it would be cute to teach their kittens to ride around on peoples’ shoulders. Well, it was very cute. And very painful, since they wound up with 7- and 10-lb felines. Who naturally couldn’t distinguish the subtle difference between sweatshirts and tank tops….oww…sweet kitties, just short-sighted humans in that case.
My cat used to hump teddy bears. Yes, neutered guy cat.
i have this heart shaped pillow that i got at ikea post-valentines day a while back, and my giant (rescued, formerly abused) cat loves to knead it. except unlike my other cat, he kneads with all for paws, which makes it look a lot like he’s about to do his business.
I was woken up by my very adult cat the other day when he DROOLED ON MY FACE.
I always know my adult cat’s happy to be petted when he drools and farts. Yes, farts. And yet, I keep petting him.
I am eternally grateful that my semi-feral kitten’s bad habits don’t extend past trying to bail out the toilet if the lid is not secured, digging obsessively in her litter pan at 4 in the morning, and attempting to sample every morsel of human food she comes across to make sure that it isn’t really just kitten chow some careless person misplaced.
Just had to smile at this one. In my case it was a kitten we finally decided to introduce to our male dog. Kitten took one look at his underside, just lit up and made a beeline for the dog, who very, very quickly backed off rather than have the kitten try to nurse on him.
I have a little cat that hates Marc Almond (of Soft Cell fame), or at least my version of Marc Almond songs. She takes drastic measures (face biting, etc) to shut me up.
She’s a beautiful cat but her sinuses are crap (we think she’s allergic to herself) so she snorts and grunts a lot, and like a ferret she enjoys snorting one’s entire face as a greeting.
omg kactus, you have a Mooshie too! my departed girlkitten was named Mooshi.
My boy Loki jumped up onto my back during sex once. Just sat there looking at my boyfriend, like, oh hai whatz going on here?
He also likes to sleep on your head. At first I thought he just liked my special foam pillow, but after swapping pillows, and eventually trying sleeping without one one morning, I concluded that he just really wants to be where my head is.
I have to get a kitten!
Years and years ago, we got a fully weaned (mother-weaned, my mom insisted that kittens had to be mother-weaned before we got them) kitten. We brought her into our house and introduced her to our 7-ish year old (unspayed, but had never had kittens) cat.
After all the initial posturing and hissing was over, the kitten started nursing on the older cat. The older cat let her get away with it for at least a year. I have no idea whether the older cat started producing milk (as I said, she was unspayed but never had kittens), but they both seemed to find it acceptable.
My 3 1/2 year old was feral when I trapped her. As she became accustomed to me when she was about 10 weeks old, I held her to my chest and she nestled into my neck/chin area. Well, folks., she’s a chin rubber! When she wants loving, she rubs and rubs, licks, and rubs some more against my chin. She is the sweetest (and sometimes the strangest) cat I have ever had!
My late cat Natasha liked to lie on my chest while I petted her. She would start drooling, feel the drool on her chin, and shake her head to get it off. Which meant, of course, that she would splatter my face with drool.
She eventually grew out of it.
When my SO and I moved in together, his one big requirement was that we keep the cats out of the bedroom. He’s not normally allergic, but Natasha (who was his buddy) decided that the most comfortable place to sleep was on his face and he kept waking up with clogged sinuses.
I only regret it in the winter when it’s nice to curl up in bed with a book and a cat.
My kitty is also a neutered boy.
When I started my anthropology major, I would go to Toys-R-Us occasionally and buy those stuffed monkeys with velcro on the hands, the ones that you can hang up. Once my gorilla fell to the floor, and Kashka promptly began to hump it. He loved that thing.
He doesn’t suck anything, but if you have stinky feet or have spilled something smelly on you somewhere, he will continually sniff it and then look up at you with this wrinkled-nose “Eew” face, as if to say, “Go wash, you monkey.” He will follow you around to do it until you go remove the offending smell. It is the most adorable thing ever.
My other kitten who got hit by a car a month and a half ago and died of internal injuries really loved to sleep on my face or behind my head. And he purred soooo loud it was really like having a giant vibrator behind my head. He also would lick anything that you stuck into his face but prefered skin. No matter where. I’ve had various body parts licked by him. I think he favored my toes the most though.
His sister who is still with us (on my lap of course) has taken up lying on my chest and trying to crawl under my chin. Sometimes she licks it but that tickles so much she doesnt get to do it for very often because I start laughing loudly and she doesnt like loud noises. Also when I’m sitting she will try to crawl under my chin so she kind of sits on my lap with her front on my chest. It’s very adorable.
The kittens we had before these (who had FIP and died within 6 months from when we got them) were suckers. They would suck anything. Like when my mom fell asleep on the sofa they would suck her shirt till there was a wet spot. The little boy kitty James, gave up sucking after 2 months but his sister Rachel, continued to suck right up until she died in May.
im writing this with one hand as my cat has decided that my arm is the place to sleep on, no matter where i move it. she does like to suck on anything nylon, lace or chiffon, and leaves huge drool spots on my(rather synthetic )dresses, ick! i cant wear them at home because i will look around and see her chewing the dress within 30 seconds. she also plays fetch, and whenever i have my drumsticks out(im a drummer) she grabs them in her mouth and carries them around for no apparent reason. she is so sweet, she likes to sleep inside the duvet covers, so no slamming myself into bed just in case of a hearing very disgruntled miaow!