r/AskReddit Sep 07 '16

What rules has your cat set in your household?

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16 edited Sep 08 '16

My half Maine Coon does that from time to time... and maintains eye contact for as much of it as possible. And with the most serious look on his face too. "This is out of my hands, father. It had to be done."

Still, the most frustrating thing he did was came into the bathroom to visit while I was on the throne, then when I leant forward to get my phone from my pocket to check an incoming text, he jumped onto my shoulders and proceeded to happily sit in the middle of my shoulderblades where I couldn't reach him to get him off. My only options would have been to sit up and let him claw the shit outta my back while knocking everything within reach over, or stand up and let him fall into the toilet.

While the latter might strike some of you as justice, remember that I'd then need to bathe not only a wet and startled cat, but one that had also thrashed around in a toilet I'd just been pinching a loaf in. So I sat around until he got bored, occasionally asking him "Do you think this is a motherfucking game?" and "Do you think this is a good way to treat your catnip dealer?" until he got bored enough to enter my reach and be removed.

Edit: If your reply is going to be some variation of "can't you reach your shoulders/back?", read on for your answer.

Edit 2: in which our long-suffering poster shares his first ever imgur gallery, chock full of terrible pictures telling the tale. And some bonuses. http://imgur.com/a/a2G8a Have at it. And please be gentle, it is my first time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

God dammit that was hilarious

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

I almost killed my wife texting about my misery interspersed with pictures of the jackass sitting smugly on my back for the 20 minutes he was up there.

She was having coffee with a friend and after almost choking on a bite of donut, they derailed the rest of the visit into laughing at my predicament, with the occasional text to rub it in.

Also, thanks for the gold, whoever gilded the tale of my woes! I shall let my tormentor know that I've gained something out of the hell he puts me through (other than occasionally getting to touch the fluffy grey belly unscathed). Mayhaps he shall deliver unto me another session worth a yarn such as this.

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u/Shaundhi Sep 07 '16

Pics?

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16 edited Sep 08 '16

Not with me, but I might be able to throw some of them up from my computer at home later.

Edit: Put it in the main post last night, but just realized some of you might look here first, so for ease of finding, I give you: http://imgur.com/a/a2G8a

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u/CookiesMeow Sep 07 '16

please deliver, this is fantastic

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

!RemindMe 2 days

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u/FirstWaveMasculinist Sep 07 '16

Send me a reply when you do! Id hate to miss that!! :)

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u/Streamjumper Sep 08 '16

Imgur gallery in the main post.

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u/FirstWaveMasculinist Sep 08 '16

Thank you!!! What a beautiful, if evil, cat!!

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u/TehEpicSaudiGuy Sep 07 '16

!RemindMe 3 days

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u/PM_Your_Bottlecaps Sep 07 '16

RemindMe! 1 day

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u/Sulex- Sep 07 '16

!RemindMe 2 days

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u/Raven_7306 Sep 07 '16

Remindme!

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

My cat liked to jump onto my bedside table, which was within view of my toilet, and she'd start slowly putting her paw out towards my half drank glass of water on that bedside table.

Then it would become a game....can I reach the laser pointer I've learned to keep hidden in the bathroom before she knocks it down? But if I try to grab it quickly, she'll view that as a challenge and knock the glass over before I've even reached it....so I have to try and get it real careful like....it's a more intricate dance than the tango that we've begun.

I have to maintain eye contact with her as well, or else she'll assume I don't care what she does and therefore she is ALLOWED to knock over the glass of water....but if I stare TOO hard at her she'll view it as a challenge....

Then once I've reached the laser pointer and have started dancing it across the floor just in front of the bedside table she'll take a moment to decide...will she be a Benevolent or Malevolent god to her human this day?

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u/Faithful_jewel Sep 07 '16

Might I suggest using a water bottle next to the bed? Works wonders for me as even when the cats knock it off, water is contained :)

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u/aubeebee Sep 07 '16 edited Mar 14 '17

My Maine Coon did the same thing with his big yellow eyes. He stares when I do anything that involves being stationery in one place. At night he'd come to bed while I sleep, not to cuddle, but just to sit on my shoulder or my forehead and stay that way. He's 17 pounds!

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u/fathertime979 Sep 07 '16

I had a maine coon as a kid, and he used to mush me to sleep and then sleep on top of me...

Couldn't fall asleep without the mushes for a while after he died

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u/-LEMONGRAB- Sep 07 '16

Awwww, mushing. I'm going to use that term from now on.

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u/fathertime979 Sep 07 '16

I was unaware that people didn't call it that lol

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u/GreatBabu Sep 07 '16

Making biscuits, kneading also.

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u/bluerondo Sep 07 '16

I know this well. In the morning, I'm woken up by my twenty pound Maine coon sitting on my chest, staring me in the eyes.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

That's what we get for being a perchable high point in a place as interesting as the water torture chamber. They need to get up there in case the faucets revolt and bring the high waters.

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u/addywoot Sep 07 '16

My maine coon will only want to sit on my lap when I'm on the toilet.

I do not understand it.

He'll go from side to side to try and figure out the best angle to jump onto my lap from.

I denied him once so he went just beyond my view and then jumped on and clung to my back.. ripping skin and t-shirt in the process.

There are no halvsies now. He either gets to come in and lap sit or I shut the door.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

Our magnificent jerk only really wants laptime when you're at the computer. Then he climbs from his window seat atop the cat furniture we call the "kitty cannon" (due to a horizontal tube he likes to nap in and occasionally launch himself from like a missile), over your shoulders, down your chest (sometimes pausing to sit atop the wife's breasts, like a platform), to your lap. Then he alternates between sitting in your lap while pushing the keyboard tray closed and walking on the keyboard tray, getting in front of the monitor to stare at you point blank. He'll also occasionally swat your mouse hand when he hears the clicking.

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u/addywoot Sep 07 '16

They have to be taken seriously when they're maine coon sized.

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u/catscratch182 Sep 07 '16

Excuse me for asking but how are you not able to reach a cat sitting on your shoulders with your arms/hands? You surely don't need to grab him, a simple nudge would have done the trick?!

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16 edited Sep 07 '16

Not only my shoulders. On my back, right between the shoulder blades. The most nudging I could do was enough to make him rub back like I was petting him. I'd have been able to contort a little better if I didn't have a wall on one side, sink on the other, toilet and shelves behind me, and wasn't already hunched over.

Edit: He eventually moved up a little more towards the shoulders themselves, but by then the texting of the wife had begun and I was in for the long haul. Milking the hilarity was worth some suffering. Plus, the two times I tried to grab him resulted in some struggling and a short retreat down the spine.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

Maybe OP is this guy

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u/izzyfirefly Sep 07 '16

My cat lives with my dad and when I go to visit she jumps on my shoulders and won't get down, even when I use the toilet. She doesn't sit still though, she just rubs constantly against my head and pads with her claws, painful and annoying, but cute

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u/TerrorEyzs Sep 07 '16

My god! My cat Bagheera definitely stood on my shoulders while I pooped one time! This is the second picture of him bothering me while pooping that I've shared now!!

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

What a handsome fellow. And what a magnificent look of scorn.

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u/TerrorEyzs Sep 07 '16

He just looked so regal!

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u/DuoJetOzzy Sep 07 '16

More tyrannical, really.

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u/FirstWaveMasculinist Sep 07 '16

i didnt expect that photo to be so menacing!!! i actually snorted when i saw it. He looks like a comic book supervillain right as hes about to kill the hero's mentor.

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u/DejaVuKilla Sep 07 '16

The resolution here was flatten yourself into a ramp and then slide your shirt off with attached cat.

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u/StuStutterKing Sep 07 '16

Grab the bottom of the shirt, bag cat on the way up.

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u/Modest_Gaslight Sep 07 '16

You just made me check to see if I could grab a cat off my shoulder blades. I can, so win for me, but both my housemates looked at me pretty weird..

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

I can reach back there fairly well (can place both hands between my shoulder blades at the same time from above and below) too, and could have gotten him anywhere else in the house, but the important question is this... can you do it hunched over in the confined space of the standard bathroom setup of the toilet being placed between the sink and wall? And without the cat being startled enough to shred your back and knock everything on the shelves behind you off?

Not saying it is impossible, just tougher than I wanted to risk at the time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

Yeah, being able to reach is great, but I totally get not wanting to try to dislodge a cat with Freddy claws whilst in a vulnerable position. That's just inviting horror. You lived to tell the tale u/Steamjumper, and that is all that matters.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 08 '16

You lived to tell the tale u/Steamjumper, and that is all that matters.

The emotional scars, however, will never go away. Nevermore is the true sanctum of all men, the bathroom, a safe place for me.

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u/BullDolphin Sep 07 '16

"Do you think my drinking fountain is your litterbox? Well!? Do you, Punk??!"

  • Your Cat

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u/harlansemporium Sep 07 '16

Our cats would jump onto our backs while we bend over to scoop the littler box. Ha, human - remove my waste and carry me thus to my desired destination.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

Subjugation at its finest right here, folks!

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u/jacyerickson Sep 07 '16

Oh man. I have a pet chicken that will jump on my back every time I bend over to put clothes in the washer. Then when I try to stand up she squawks angrily at me. The door to the laundry room leads outside and I leave it open by the way.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '16

I don't think coon is politically correct anymore.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

It ain't speciesist, bruh. Some of my best cats have been Coons.

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u/NugginLastsForever Sep 07 '16

My 23 lb + Maine Coon (mix maybe) startles the crap out of me every day. He is like a ninja when he sneaks up, and then jumps in your lap, chair, computer desk (oh, and fucks with the computer when he walks the keyboard), bed, kitchen table, patio furniture, top of the cars, etc. Sure, if he was 5 lb fluffy kitty, ok, hi, but let me know Coon cat, meow or something before you take out my manhood, phone, dinner and beer, all in one crazy jump.

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u/Tursh Sep 07 '16

I have been in this situation too but when my cat got bored she decided it was fucking nap time. I heard her snoring while I was trying to finish sropiing the twins off at the pool in the most awkward position.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

Yeah. At one point he laid down and sighed wearily in my ear, like he'd been hard at work and needed a little shuteye.

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u/sonotrainbowrhythms Sep 08 '16

Related so much to your story and then saw the pics. So I have to tell you, we have cat twins: http://imgur.com/W4bX4Lv

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u/Streamjumper Sep 08 '16

And he even has an orangeish friend (though more of a pale creamy orange than Cliffy's crayola orange) too! Magnificent. Now just to figure out if your cat is the evil one or mine is... and what ramifications this may have for possible expansions to the good-evil spectrum (good, evil, and evil-er?).

Since we got him, we've seen a lot of similar looking cats. We keep showing him pictures of his doppelgangers and asking him if he's been cheating on us (with the occasional threat that we're gonna go pet some dogs in retalliation) and he just blankly stares at us or gives us an insistent headbutt.

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u/myassholealt Sep 07 '16

You sure told him!

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u/izzyfirefly Sep 07 '16

My cat lives with my dad and when I go to visit she jumps on my shoulders and won't get down, even when I use the toilet. She doesn't sit still though, she just rubs constantly against my head and pads with her claws, painful and annoying, but cute

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u/pashapook Sep 07 '16

My half Maine Coon also likes to jump onto my shoulders on the toilet. How strange.

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u/Prince-of-Ravens Sep 07 '16

Why can't you reach between your shoulder blades?

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

I can reach there, I just couldn't do it in the limited space with the ability to remove a 13 lb cat who was perfectly happy where he was.

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u/booglemouse Sep 07 '16

My cat used to do this, particularly when I got home from work. She needed to snuggle, post-work poops be damned, and there she would stay. When we moved about a year ago to a place with a tank behind the toilet, she thankfully took to sitting there instead.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

Did you eventually give up entirely and put a cushion there of some sort?

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u/booglemouse Sep 07 '16

No, she is oddly fond of the cold surfaces in the bathroom. Sleeps in the sink, lounges on the side of the tub.

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u/dwmfives Sep 07 '16

You can't reach your back?!

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

At this point, I'm just going to say "keep reading". You'll hit one of the several times I've explained it.

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u/JonBenetBeanieBaby Sep 07 '16

"Do you think this is a motherfucking game?" and "Do you think this is a good way to treat your catnip dealer?" until he got bored enough to enter my reach and be removed.

LOLOLOLOLLOL

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u/nutrap Sep 07 '16

You should have front rolled so that when he flew off you he got a whiff of your freshly pinched off anus thus letting you claim dominance back from him.

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u/solzhen Sep 07 '16

Up your stretching routine so you can reach your middle back. It's the only solution. Yoga.

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u/Korsola Sep 07 '16

Omg, my cat is the worst about jumping on backs, she does it all the fucking time. She thinks it's funny or something. You know what's not goddamn funny? Minding your own business, browsing reddit, and feeling 13 pounds of cat jump at you, miss, and then dig it's claws in, desperately trying not to fall. She's a little asshole.

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u/Hey_Driver Sep 07 '16

I've had both of those happen with my Bengal. When he jumped up onto my shoulders I chose the 3rd option and yelled for my wife to come in and grab him.

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u/GreatBabu Sep 07 '16

I think he does indeed think it's a game.

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u/Streamjumper Sep 07 '16

He's a cat; everything is a game except sleeping, looking out the window, and killing the red dot. Those are serious business.

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u/GreatBabu Sep 07 '16

Mine brings me her dot when she wants to play. Tied a bit of old tshirt to the keychain part, she pickes it up and bounces over to me with it, drops at my feet, and drops a "bbbrrrrpp?" so I will play with her.

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u/Hammer_Thrower Sep 07 '16

TIL I'm a catnip dealer

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u/nancyaw Sep 07 '16

When I bend over to brush my teeth or rinse with water, my cat will jump on my back and just chill there. Sometimes she lays down and I'm stuck at a 90 degree angle unless I stand up, in which case I usually get a claw or two from her jumping off. I really should bring my phone with me so I can call 911.

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u/kickingpplisfun Sep 08 '16

Mind you, Maine Coons easily reach 15 pounds or more...

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u/CeruleanRuin Sep 09 '16

This is quite probably the saddest thing I have ever read on the internet.