It's fun to watch them when they get going,isn't it? What always gets me is the noise their footsteps make, sound like much larger creatures (elephants?)

With the exception of kitchen and bathrooms, our whole hous is carpeted so my husband don't slip. When our cat is upset she stomps and I can hear it downstairs. I can't hear my husband walking overhead. So how can 8 lbs of cat make so much noise?

One of our cats was a feral,and after taming him we named him Ferrell. Anyway..he is a total joy and extremely affectionate,as are most marmalade tabbies.BUT..when it's time for him to eat he turns into an ogre and chases the other cat Rootie Kazootie all over the house and when he's through terrorizing him,then he goes after Digby the poodle..who usually runs to me.Then other times,the 3 of them are chasing each other around the house and it sounds like a herd of elephants. There are no carpets in our house,just rugs here and there and you can imagine what it looks like when the critters are through with their romping. I love it.

Most of ours are older and lazy now but Possum, the smallest, sleeps with us and runs over us in the middle of the night. Guess they really are nocturnal. She jumps on us and wakes us up just for grins and it is hard to believe she is not an elephant. We just acquired two more that belonged to Missy's best friend that passed on almost a year ago. Her daughter is moving into the house and has dogs that would not get along. They are just over 2 years old so will add some youth to the herd. We will see how they act like elephants as they get acclimated.

Meet-
Thelma
{{gwi:143962}}

and
Louise
{{gwi:143963}}Louise

Yes, elephants! Tibs, I can picture so clearly that scene. We have all wooden floors in the house except for an area rug in the livingroom. Often in the evenings while we watch tv we look at each other as the three elephants upstairs race around. A few years ago I picked up this upholstered desk chair with wooden arms, that was being thrown away, and brought it home for the cats. I have it up in the bedroom and little Sammie our oldest and smallest cat likes to jump it around. He gets on the back of it, it swivels, he balances back and forth then jumps to the dresser, making the chair roll. Then he'll jump back. Quite the game. Unfortunately, recently he's developed a jumping game that involves jumping from Christy's side table to her hip. Now he likes to sleep on our hips. He is barely 8 pounds but has the pointiest, heaviest feet ever. Those things can really poke in you as he tries to balance on your hip. He and the other two cats who live up in those two big adjoining rooms like to chase each other over the bed too, like Don's cats. Sammie will generally sleep between my legs, so when they're racing he comes and hunkers down between my legs as though it's the 'safe' spot in a kids game of tag. Seems to work for him.

Thelma and Louise are gorgeous Don. Are they the same coloring..it's hard to tell. Thelma has what looks to be large ears for her head..she's beautiful and looks almost oriental. Boy did those cats luck out.

Don, you got a couple of gorgeous ladies there!

Don, Thelma and Louise are gorgeous! My sister has "Thelma and Louise", also. They're sisters and snow-white; the only way to identify who is which is that one is slightly larger than the other. We have only Maggie, but she can pound the floor when she comes running to her food bowl, or when she hears the door being opened. She's an inside cat who wants to be outside! The descriptions of cats chasing each other up, down, and around are humorous and almost make me want another. But the way Maggie has wrapped her long, fluffy tail around us makes me hesitate. Our house isn't big enough for a "thundering herd"! :>)

My cats like to play Indy 500 every time they do #2 and come out of the litter box. I've read that a hormone is released by cats when they um, do their duty. The hormone actually causes them to go insane for about 15-30 seconds. The result? They tear around like...well...crazy cats until the hormones re-set. lol

So yeah. There's plenty of bouncing off beds, banging into vertical blinds, even a little caterwauling at Chez Karen. All related to a visit to the litter box. lol

Karen

Karen, some of mine do that race from the litter box and I never knew why! Not a problem except when they leap and run too soon and leave a little "present" somewhere between the exit from the litter box and the top of the basement steps.

We call that the run-around game. I yell at the cats as they run past (typically when I get home from work, after a frazzling day, never on the weekend!) "Murphy NO! We're not playing the run-around game!" and then I close the door to the last room he's run into. He quits. I know, I'm a wet blanket. Then, I wait until he's calm to encourage him to play with the fabric mouse dangling down on his scratchin' post and sa "Git that mouse!", and he attacks it with great fervor. He never learns that it'd be ok to cut straight to the mouse game. Silly boy.

tibs, here's a pet-sitter's tip from moi...

Turn the openings of your litter boxes toward the wall, leaving just enough room for kitties to climb in and out. This slows them down as they are blasting out, and increases the chance that whatever needs to be in the box, actually stays in the box. :o)

Karen

Karen, now why didn't I think of that? so simple. I am going down right now to turn them Dh has his "man cave" in the next room, I can hardly wait for his comment on this activity.

My brother took an extra large plastic storage box 18" by 3' by 18" high and cut a hole in the side. You can put a regular box inside or use the whole thing, the top pops off to clean. He has 3 indoor cats. We are going to put one in the outside cat house.

Thelma and Louise are gorgeous!

I enjoyed the descriptions of the chasing games. We love our three kitties, and they keep us entertained too.