feline foibles

[mellowtigger]

I have more photos from my Saturday trip to the Minnesota Zoo. I'm just not feeling very motivated to post them, though. Instead, I'm wondering what leads cats to do these two things...

T'Reese has never caught a mouse or bird that I know of, so I don't know if she'd leave it on my bed for me as a treat. She does, however, take her small toys and drop them into her water bowl for safe keeping. Why is that?

Whenever I've lost a hair tie, there's a 50/50 chance that it will at some point end up in the water bowl. Either I eventually find it on my own, or she finds it first and deposits it into her stash. Here's a photo with 3 of them in there already.

If they were living creatures, they'd just go rancid in the water and ruin her water supply. I'd think that evolution would have programmed her to avoid doing something like that. I have a hard time imagining what biological compulsion makes her do this with non-living items.

Over the years, I've seen different cats stick out their tongue while they sleep. I don't know what causes that effect either. And, sure enough, even the big cats do it too. I got this photo through some very dirty glass at the zoo.

I'd think that a dried out tongue would be a bad thing. So why do they get into this configuration while they sleep but not while they're awake?

Strange kitty.