Our cat was just plain mad. She's neurotic and doesn't like any disruption in the daily schedule i.e. she hates when we go away for the weekend even when we have a housesitter. She developed a great big bald spot from the stress. No varmints during the reno, even when there were giant holes in the wall for window and door replacements.

I vote for varmints!!

Whenever our Princess Kitty sits and stares at the cabinet for hours at a time we KNOW she is trying to tell us about a critter. We found this out the hard way!

The first time she did this we looked through the cupboards she had been watching, found NOTHING and so didn't believe her. She continued her behavior for days and we just chalked it up to weird "cattitude". Sure enough, one evening just as I had gotten in to bed I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and there was Mr. Mouse scurrying under our bedroom door! I think Princess must have chased him out of the kitchen and he was looking for refuge in the bedroom. Eeek! Well, chaos ensued and we eventually got rid of the mouse but now any time Princess stares at any wall or cupboard.... We BELIEVE! :)

That's so funny. My cat was so freaked out by the demolition process. Now that work is in progress and there's plastic everywhere she is absolutely fascinated by it. I let her in the kitchen area yesterday and it was hard to get her out of there. She stared and sniffed at everything. Our house was built in the 20s and the kitchen hasn't been opened up since then. I imagine there must be all sorts of curious scents locked away in those walls!

Lol...animals, gotta love 'em! I opened up a wall in between my living room and kitchen/dining room and my dog won't go through it yet. She still insists on going the usual (long) way around. I did manage to get her to go through once so far with some coaxing, so I'm sure once the chaos of reno is done she'll adapt.

The cats are just having a field day exploring everything.

Mine eat cobwebs, hallucinate, and stare at the wall. They sit about an inch from the wall, and after a while they either start licking it or bash their heads into it.

They do this with the old plaster walls more than the new drywall in the kitchen. Maybe the plaster is cooler, and therefore more tasty?

I don't know. They're on drugs.

Our dogs, like MadLizard's cat, were very curious...as soon as we let them out of their kennel, they were all over the work area sniffing and nosing around! Thank goodness the workers were very good at cleaning up every day!

Never had one of them stare at an empty wall though. But I'll pay attention if they ever stare at cabinets, etc....taking my cue from TootiePugsMom!

Chris, aren't you just so tempted to remove that piece of drywall to see what the cats will do, or if there's something behind it?

Animals will react, either positively or negatively, to changes in their environment. Last Christmas, it was a classic comedic moment. We have a 2 year old rescue collie who adopted us last october (See the "New Family Member" thread on the conversations side), so this was his first Christmas with us. When my wife and I went to get the tree, my son brought the dog into his room with him, while we brought the tree in and set it up. I called to my son to let the dog out, and as he rounded the corner trotting into the living room, he stopped dead in his tracks and even took a couple of steps back with a growl, because he wasn't expecting that tree to be inside HIS house! It really was funny because it caught him so off guard. But thinking back over all the pets I've had, it's not really a surprise.

Well, the little buggers were correct - in an attempt to bond with my three lads (and prove them insane), I sat on the floor next to the bare wall, put my head against the drywall and listened for a couple of minutes.
Sure enough...scratch scratch scratch - someone's in there. Never doubt your critters.
:)

I'm sayin!!! ;)