Why Cats Poop on Your Bed and Other Odd Pet Behaviors
Our furred and feathered companions do some mystifying things—here are some we can misinterpret.
When reader Hilary Brown’s cat, Wasabi, left a holiday gift that looked a lot like a lump of coal on her bed, we figured that was one mad kitty.
But was it?
Cats mark their territories by leaving various scents, often via defecation—a phenomenon called middening, says Nick Dodman, author of Pets on the Couch: Neurotic Dogs, Compulsive Cats, Anxious Birds and the New Science of Animal Psychiatry.
So Wasabi's pooping in the bed wasn't an angry statement—more likely, he was anxious because Brown had recently been traveling, Dodman says. (Read surprising things you never knew about your cat.)
Wasabi went to where his owner's scent is strong and left his feces, a gesture that essentially says, "I want to
