A cat can be your best friend, sit down with you and have a drink, be sad, celebrate New Year’s Eve, be happy, sometimes paw, and sometimes it can come out from under the seat and continue to sleep without caring. Because that’s the mood! It varies.
So why does a cat keep pushing everything down? Looking into your eyes, over and over again.
Cats who domesticated themselves became close friends with humans.
The period when cats first started to live together with humans coincides with 9500 years ago. This is the first thing that brought feral cats from the deserts to the villages, as people who started farming in the Middle East around this time suffered from rodents invading grain stores.
At this point, according to the assumptions of scientists, cats domesticated themselves during this period and became close to humans. So, have the cats in our homes as little, cute friends lost their instincts in this process?
Our domesticated friends never completely lost their hunting instincts.
The fact that instincts are not a feature that can suddenly disappear or be erased did not abolish the hunter-hunter instincts of cats, even if they were domesticated over time.
Coming from the instinctive practice of hunting and preying on cats—as well as being equipped to hunt for their food—the researchers united the researchers in the idea that cats’ knocking behavior might be a counterpart to that instinct. Do not underestimate, an object can be a great enemy!
At the same time, their instincts of testing, recognition and curiosity did not leave them alone on this path.
In addition, CABC’s Amy Shojai, certified animal behavior consultant (CABC) of the International Society of Animal Behavior Counselors and author of several books on many interesting behaviors of cats, explains that “Cats use their paws to test and explore objects, and the movement and sound of the object. “The touch or feel helps them understand what is safe and what is not,” he explains.
Based on this explanation, one of the reasons for this behavior is that cats push everything down with a small blow, perhaps just to recognize that object, explore it, and instinctively protect their own space – like a book being thrown on the floor right now – that is one of the reasons for this behavior.
However, their completely domesticated side made them want all the attention on them.
So, what do you do when you see a book that has just fallen over you or a cup of coffee that is about to fall from the counter to the floor? Probably a big plea and the shortest and fastest run in the world towards your cat. Your cat has reached its goal and has your attention! Maybe your cat, who stays alone at home all day, starts to push everything down by saying that even the worst attention is better than indifference and reaches its goal by getting a reaction from you.
Our cats’ desire for attention continues between you like an unwritten agreement. Researchers predict that if we do not react at such moments, we will be able to protect both ourselves and our cat from possible accidents. Of course, besides this, it would be best for all households not to leave objects that will break or damage them.
The cats kept attracting the attention and turned it into a pastime and kept pushing everything down.
What if it’s none of these? Research shows that the objects that cats drop to the ground with a small blow can be fun for them when they are tired of playing with a rope ball, pawing, jumping from seat to seat, attacking our feet.
Objects falling on the ground are not only a book or perfume, but also allow the paw pushing it to the ground to see the fall of the object, the speed of the fall, the effect it has on the ground, and as a result, reveal a behavior. This behavior can sometimes be to go on the object, sometimes to run away, and sometimes to be afraid. This may appear again as a result of the instincts that have been going on since the hunter-hunter situation we mentioned at the beginning of the article. But all things aside, “no reason, I just had fun!” they may say.
For those who push this article down as a pit;
Cats pushing objects down from the table, counter, cupboard, hunting instinct, desire to explore their environment, desire for attention and reaction, or just fun can explain this behavior. However, Adi Hovav, senior cat behavior consultant at the ASPCA Adoption Center, highlights that there may be unexplored and researched reasons behind this cat behavior.
In the light of this information, we tried to find answers to the behaviors of cats pushing objects. But let them now pat them downwards. Just a small caveat, keep the surroundings safe for both your cat and yourself and growl together.
- Sources: PETMD