Alex and His Strange Obsession: Nighttime Kitty Antics – Nirantara

Have you ever ever ever woken up within the midst of the night time time and thought, “what the heck is that noise?” What am I saying, actually you’ve acquired; you’ve acquired cats. I’m sure you’re all conscious of the sound of your favorite feline about to violently eject their dinner onto your bedspread, which, if they might do at 7am in its place of 2am, would actually be helpful. Nevertheless as I lay awake one night time time, listening to this new, unfamiliar sound, I knew it wasn’t the audio accompaniment to an impending upchuck; it was one factor fully totally different.

The problem with attempting to work out the place inside the darkness an alien sound is coming from is that as shortly as you start making an attempt, the noise invariably stops, so it took me a variety of nights to search out the wrongdoer. My four-year-old ginger cat, Alex, vigorously licking a plastic bag.

Why?

This can be a excellent question, and one which I nonetheless don’t actually really feel like I’ve answered to my satisfaction. Initially, I assumed that it was merely that actual plastic bag; it might want to have contained one factor delicious, or had one factor spilled or sprayed on it. Nevertheless no, it appears that evidently Alex’s type in plastic is approach from discerning.

If there could also be any plastic bag left inside his attain, he’ll seemingly be there, licking away. He doesn’t do it by way of the day, and he doesn’t lick totally different plastic receptacles. Buying baggage, bin baggage, and notably submit baggage have change into Alex’s nocturnal obsession.

No matter having been a vet for correctly over a decade, this was not a habits I had encountered sooner than, nevertheless as a result of it appears, Alex simply isn’t alone. Really, there are a variety of theories to make clear this express feline fetish, none of which will probably be definitively confirmed.

Is it the…

• Texture? Is it the sensation of powerful tongue in opposition to this simple ground that appeals? Nevertheless it must be one factor about the way in which during which that the bag strikes, as totally different plastic objects merely don’t scale back it.
• Style? I admit, this isn’t one factor I’ve examined myself, nevertheless it’s onerous to consider {{that a}} plastic bag could possibly be considerably mouthwatering. Plus, we’ve acquired spherical 20 events further type buds than cats; definitely they aren’t detecting one factor we aren’t.
• Odor? That’s the place cats have us beat. 200 million olfactory receptors vs. our paltry 5 million, and this sense moreover contributes to how points type.
• Chemical compounds? Everyone knows that plastic baggage are horrible for the environment, they normally’re not too good for us each. Chemicals like phenols and phthalates have been found to have some properties that mimic or block human hormones like estrogens. Perhaps that’s what attracts a cat.
• Sound? The rustling sound the plastic makes whereas being licked could very effectively be a component, although one would anticipate that this is ready to encourage them to play with the bag pretty than treat it like a popsicle.

There’s one different threat that I can’t ignore, and that’s that Alex could possibly be a sandwich wanting a picnic. Nevertheless in his safety, aside from a few little eccentricities equal to his “somersault of happiness”, the way in which during which he always crosses his entrance legs as soon as they’re not splayed out in uncommon angles, and his weekly habits of sitting on the kitchen counter prepared for his teaspoon of milk, he sometimes seems to be of pretty sound ideas!

Am I Frightened?

Look, there could also be always the possibility that Alex would possibly swallow, inhale, or choke all through his late-night licking, nevertheless I’ve certainly not seen, or seen proof of, him biting or chewing the plastic. Merely the tender, significantly obsessive, licking.

The reality is, he’s most likely at far bigger hazard of being buffeted inside the head by the cushion I ship flying in route of him at 3am. I’ve found to hold out a nightly reconnaissance to make sure that any baggage have been fastidiously stashed away or disposed of; possibly Alex has merely been attempting to get me to tidy up a bit further!

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We should all the time all be using a lot much less plastic, and if one in every of many unintended benefits of seeing a reduction in its use is that I’m a lot much less extra more likely to be woken by the lick, lick, lick of Alex’s uncommon preoccupation, then that’s merely one more reason to get on board. In spite of everything, with 5 cats and 5 canines, thought of one in every of them’s positive to do one factor to keep up me awake!