Yowling.
That’s the only word I can think to describe it.
Meowing is close, but it doesn’t have the right edge, the sharpness.
Dog friends: This one’s about cats. Read on if you’d like to learn about a funny cat-ism or, if you want to read something dog today, I highly recommend this post on social skills for introverted dogs and their humans.
Anyway, the yowling.
Or, maybe it’s more of a mournful holler?
Regardless: Every single night without fail for about six weeks now, Newtie yowls. She goes upstairs while we’re downstairs–it’s only ever if we’re on separate levels–and she yowls. Then she picks up a cat toy in her mouth while still vocalizing, carries the cat toy somewhere else, drops it, and yowls some more.
It took us a while to connect the toy moving to the yowling since she will never, ever, ever do this when we’re nearby, but once we put the pieces together, it reminded me of her relationship with Teddy. Do you guys remember Teddy?
The main difference is that she chatted with Teddy. It was conversational. Chirpy.
And it was when she was transitioning to life with dogs.
Which made me wonder: Is this behavior related to transition in some way? Now that Violet’s here and Violet’s become insanely mobile / terrifying, is Newt going through a similar stress period? Or is it not stress and something else entirely?
And what do we do when we wonder something? We look it up! (Sorry, sorry, sorry… Sesame Street on the brain…)
Turns out, “cat meowing while carrying toy” is a hugely popular Google search! Nearly 5 million pieces of content about cats carrying toys and yowling.
{{Aside: At first we thought she was upset, so we’d yell upstairs, “It’s OK, Newtie! Come down and get a treat!” Or we’d go up to visit with her. Of course, the behavior would immediately stop. See pic above. That’s her looking over the stairs at us like, “What?” Now that we know she’s not upset, I really want to get video of this because it’s actually pretty funny and VERY LOUD for such a tiny cat, but it’s a conundrum because if she thinks we’re around she won’t do it.}}
Does your cat do this?
The gist from my info-gathering is that cats mostly vocalize when hunting or moving kittens.
I found this super old Q&A that resonated with me (beyond the utterly endearing way folks in the UK spell “miaowing”):
Pet cats will sometimes show a modified version of this behaviour, carrying around toys and perhaps hiding them. Some female cats will also keep collections of toys that they regularly move around as if shifting a litter of kittens.
You could look at this and think that it is sad because the cat is clearly trying to compensate for something that she is missing, but it is more likely that these are just inbuilt patterns of behaviour that some cats get a bit confused about and carry out in slightly inappropriate situations.
And build off of that, I found another interesting article that took the “inappropriate” part of that previous point to a more positive place (play):
Mother cats will often teach their kittens to hunt by catching prey and bringing it back to their kittens, giving the kittens something to practice hunting on. When kitty makes a big fuss to having a toy in their mouth, they want you to pay attention to it. Making a fuss over toys isn’t a cats only part of cat play. … This sort of play teaches your cat to show off their treasures through meows and other noises and provides your cat with mental and physical stimulation. Play is a huge part of why cats meow with their treasures as well as wanting your attention to notice them and the toy in their mouth. The meow sounds like the cat is in distress but they are actually quite the opposite and want you to notice what they are doing.
I’m dismissing the idea of an invitation to play only because she immediately drops the toy and stops when we come upstairs to check on her. She does the cat equivalent of a shoulder shrug.
OK, so that leaves two working theories:
- Newt wants to teach Ripley how to hunt. (Or maybe Violet?)
- Newtie was a street cat picked up after sexual maturity so mayyyyybe she had kittens? And still has that instinct to move kittens and per that first quote is “a bit confused.”
I’m not sure the answer, of course. Newt won’t divulge either! Well, actually, she’s clearly trying to, and I’m the dimwitted human who can’t figure out what she’s trying so hard to tell me…
Have you ever had a cat who meows with a toy in her mouth? From my Googling, it’s clear Newt’s not the only cat walking around yowling and carrying a toy, so if your cat has ever done this, what do you think? What was she or he trying to tell you? I’d love to learn more about this behavior!
She’s so loud when she does that. And the toy is different every night and some are quite surprising!
Like that GIANT one she was lugging around the other night?? It’s so funny! I wish we could set up a hidden camera… hmmm…. 🙂
my car yowls with string if he sees me he stops and drops the string. We yell for him to come to us, if we go to him he stops immediately. He only does at night!
I go t a Sophie when she was about 4 years old. I was looking four a second cat (one of
mine had just died) and the family needed to find a new home for her
She came complete with one of those toys which has a long furry tail on a rod. She would not play with me so I just left it on the floor.. sure enough every night she would carry it up the stairs while howling
She dropped it and then stopped howling when I got out of bed and looked at her
I got very tired of getting up every. Night after a year and by that time the rod was gone and only 1 foot of the tail remained
I hid it and she never howled again— fast forward 6 years. She is now doing the same thing with a 3 inch rubber ball (which she has been playing with for 2 years and no yowling)
She now carries it up at night yowling, then either pushes it back down the stairs or as I just witnessed, brought it back down, yowling. Cats, you just have to love them. You cannot explain them
One of our cats does this and it’s SO LOUD! Lol. He plays with this paper ball and the. Walks around with it In his mouth yowling at the top of his lungs. I think it’s because he wants us to play with him…and of course we oblige.
I have two cats, 15 yo littermates, one boy and one girl. They have both done this for their whole adult lives. The boy does it when he’s trying to get his sister to play with him. He’ll wander around with the toy in his mouth yowling his heart out in search of her. The girl only does it at night when no one else is around (and her brother is sleeping with me upstairs) while she fusses with her toy piles.
That is SO interesting! In everything I read, almost all of the articles were about female cats, so it’s great to get your perspective of both. Newt’s like your girl where she’ll only do it at night when no one is around.
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
My cat is male and he will do this also. It concerned me because the toy he carries is a little cat beanie baby that looks just like him. I was worried he thought it was a dead kitten or something. But the beanie baby will be in a different spot every day. He howls while its in his mouth and will usually drop it on a rug. We’re not sure what he’s thinking and if he’s nurturing what he thinks is a kitten or if he’s just being silly. Definitely yowling for sure.
My cat is a female, she is almost 2 now. She has had a beanie baby snail that she has had her whole life with us (since she was 5 weeks) I thought it was because she lost her mum so young. This is the only toy she does it with, she doesn’t play with it any other time, only when we go out it will usually be by the door when we get home or at night when we are quietly watching tv she will go get it off the chair we’re it always is. She sounds so sad when she has it in her mouth?She always carries it by the neck of the snail too, I hope she is just bringing us a gift?
I’ve had several cats who do this. Zelda usually does it in the middle of the night. She has “caught” a toy and brings it to me so I will praise her. KC goes downstairs and screams bloody murder. Our basement is like an echo chamber, and I’m afraid the neighbors think we are trying to kill him. But really he’s just downstairs playing. I had one cat who made this sound whenever she caught a real mouse. She would bring them home to me as gifts!
Oh, my goodness, Vicki! Imagining KC screaming like that… hilarious!!! You gotta wonder what’s going on in his mind, don’t you?
So far Newtie hasn’t brought us anything as “gift,” but maybe she’s working up to it like Zelda!
Thanks for sharing your expertise and experience!!
We have had two cats over the years who did this – both were originally strays from semi-feral colonies. I don’t think I ever googled this behavior, but I always assumed it had something to do with their life on the streets – like maybe they thought they were hunting and calling the other cats or their kittens to alert them of their catch. Glad to know my theory was some what accurate!
My cat MJ does the same thing. Her seargent Mau (a little green jingly mouse) gets carried around the house if I am at the other end of the house. My grandparents told me it happened when I left too. Once she knows I’m there she goes and sleeps. It’s a territory thing, like the kittens. She’s mine but really I’m her’s. As long as I’m in house, she’s cool.
My cat, M.C. , does this too. We have had him for almost two years. He is our first cat ever. The day we met him I heard this yowling sound that sounded so melancholy. I opened the back door to see a white cat walking through our yard aimlessly and making the yowling sound. He came up to me and brushed up against me repeatedly continuing to make the sound. We ended up adopting him after 4 weeks and local advertising. We took him to the vet and found out that he was about 9 months old. We were intending on letting him be an indoor/outdoor cat but he had a bad altercation with the next door Jack Russell. When we made the decision for him to be an indoor only cat, it was an intensely difficult transition. He yowled every night and blinds were shredded in every room. This went on for a year. We decided to adopt another cat in hopes to keep MC company and it was the best decision. We adopted a female kitten from a local shelter. They bonded immediately. The next thing that we noticed is that when we were gone during the day we would come home to our kids stuffed animals strewn throughout the house. We were puzzled as to which kitty was doing it until I witnessed MC carrying a toy and yowling one day. I notice that he only does it when he thinks all of the humans are gone. My husband has begun to travel a lot and I now witness MC doing it directly after he leaves for a trip. It is so sad. I have googled but I can’t say that I completely agree that it isn’t mournful. It does seem to be an attention thing but it’s as if he is calling for someone he misses.
Just my opinion. I welcome any additional comments or feedback.
One of my two cats does this frequently, and so did the cat I had growing up. The Google wisdom of “attention-seeking behavior” doesn’t seem quite right because in both cases, like your cat, they only do it when no one is around and stop as soon as someone sees them, then they seem almost sheepish for being “caught”. I wish someone had a better answer for what’s going on here!
Yep Kaluah does it. She started after she had a litter of Kittens before we had her spayed. She only seems to do it in the middle of the night and we will find the toys outside of our bedroom door the next morning.
Old post, but I’ll comment anyways. I have an 11 month old and a 5 month old (cats 😛 ). The 11 month old is hard to figure out. She’ll seem like she’s distance and doesn’t want to do anything, but every once in a while she’ll get energetic.
I’ve had several little toys around the house so I know this has probably happened before and I just haven’t noticed. A couple of nights ago I heard her in the living room chirping and trilling (she sounds “odd.” She’s a rescue so who knows what she is) and then she walked in my “media room” (repurposed master bedroom) and dropped a big green hard plastic ball that you put treats in. It was mostly empty because putting treats in it hasn’t worked yet so she was holding it by the thing you twist and pull to open it.
Last night she surprised me more. I heard her doing it again so I slowly walked to where I could see the living room from the media room and saw her sitting in the middle of the room looking at me with my elastic knee brace sitting there. I don’t know how you’re supposed to treat it but I pet her and said “good girl” and took the knee brace back to my bedroom. I do not know where she got it from as I haven’t used it in a while. Today, when I came home from work, it was in the middle of the floor again. And tonight, a few minutes ago, I heard her going at it again and there it was. I wish I could put it in a drawer or something so it’s not just laying out, but I don’t want to take this away from her. haha
Also, one of my mom’s cats, for a good bit of the cat’s life, would carry around little foam soccer balls yowling at night. So cute and strange.
My cat Goku does this with his sparkle pom pom balls, and formally a small pink teddy bear. He also stops when I see him doing it, occasionally he will want me to play with it, but usually he just stops and looks at me like i am stupid.I caught him the other day, sneaking up on him taking a video of it. He was so embarrassed! He dropped it right away like he had nothing to do with it. it is so cute.
Lol that’s what my Sophie does! She’s 14 and this is new for the past 5-6 months. She’ll meow so loud and I’ll look and see she has her toy mouse. Once she knows I’m looking, she’ll drop it and walk away. Then minutes later she does it again. We’ve only been in this place for 9 months so I don’t know why she never did it before.
My cat is 11 and she’s never played with toys, only cob webs and dust lol I realized recently that she loves the pompoms and toys that are light and don’t make noise. We just moved to a much larger apartment and noticed that she now plays with the toys and does this yowling ! She’ll stop playing altogether if you get too near or the other cat tries to join (he plays too loud and fast lol) … I wonder if changing environment has anything to do with it or feeling comfortable in a space enough to be loud and express themselves?
We adopted 2 little brothers, 2 weeks apart in Feb 2020. We believed they are Russian Blue and they are both extremely lively and very intelligent. Life for them is just a big play pen. They constantly play with each other and do the weirdest moves and stunts! 🙂 They have several stuffed animals to entertain them both. The favorites are always the mice toys…. these get thrown around, get carried up and down the stairs, stashed in boxes, beat up and picked up again! All this happens while “yowling” at each other 🙂 Even if both cats have their own mouse, they will literally stand in front of each other and “yowl”. They do this every day, and are not shy about it…. so I don’t believe it is an “attention-seeking-behavior”… not from those two little boys anyway.
My 14 y/o female has started the yowling at 5am every night – yowls 3 times in the hallway and that’s it. She never has a toy with her though…
Any ideas? Vet checked and her kidneys/thyroid are fine!
My adopted female cat does exactly this! It used to be that it only happened after I’d turned out the lights to sleep: a few minutes later, I’d hear this unearthly yowling. (The first couple of times it happened, I worried that she had become trapped or hurt herself.) In the morning, I’d find toys “relocated” — but, like you, it took me a while to connect these events because my cat would never, ever let me see her with the toy in her mouth. It turns out she was carrying the toys upstairs while making this noise.
Now, she very occasionally does this while I’m still awake, but almost always when we’re on different floors. And generally when I’m separated from her in some way — like in the bathroom. Like you, at first I worried that she was afraid or lonely, and needed reassurance. But that didn’t seem to be the case: if I turned on the lights and went to get her, she wouldn’t necessarily stay with me.
My male cat never did anything like this (nor did he carry toys around), so it totally took me by surprise! Glad to know I’m not the only one!
That describes Newt’s behavior exactly! You are definitely not the only one! 🙂
My cat Maybe (female, 4, was a stray, adopted 3 years ago) does this almost daily. She will walk around chirping and crying her heart out carrying small toys – one mouse on a wand, in particular is her favourite. It often happens after we’ve had a good play with a particular toy, and it’s like later that day or night she remembers and wants to play again. She will often drop them right at my feet. Sometimes she’ll drag a toy on a wand all the way through the house and up the stairs at night, waking everyone up. I always thank her and pet her profusely, and if I’m not sleeping, play with her for a bit. If I stop too soon, the routine starts again. The weird part is that sometimes it doesn’t seem to be just about the playtime. When she drags her favourite string and wand Behind her, she often starts to walk really funny and slowly, in nonsensical directions and circles. This has lasted Up to 10 minutes before. She’s spayed, but it almost seems sexual or as though she thinks it’s her baby or something? It makes me sad and also confused! I think it relates to her stray days, and I hope she did not have kittens taken away at any point.
My male cat Meowser does this but only with furry wand stick toys.
He carries it around the house yowling very loudly a couple times everyday, i have to put it away every night lol.
He used to do it when he was only 7 months old and desexed.
Hes never actually had babies
But he made the same yowl with kittens, (additions to the family) he liked to bring them giant cockroaches, mice and small birds. He also cleaned them. Being a male i thought that was so odd.
He hasn’t had a wand in a couple years so no yowling, until i bought one recently lol
He seems to just drag it to his favourite spots yowling, sometimes does some kneading with it in his mouth.
Seems quite happy about it, baffling as to why.
But im guessing an odd paternal instinct and hunt calls from his farm days.
The other cats just stare at him baffled too lol
Mine is 12 years old and just started doing this after we got a new kitten. He brings the toy downstairs and yowls. I was worried because it’s close to the nose he used to make right before he puked. Then I noticed it was always when he had a toy, so maybe it is either showing off his hunting skills to get my attention, or bragging to the kitten to get his attention??
One of my cats does this as well. He has a favorite beat up toy mouse that he only plays with that and only that. He carries it in his mouth and yowls and runs around and plays but only when I’m not watching. The moment he sees that I’m looking or if I move, he stops and kinda looks upset that I interrupted his play. At first I thought he’s yelling at me to come and play with him but after a while I realized he’s “talking to himself”. He’s a former street cat from a cat colony that I adopted.
My other cat that I got from a shelter doesnt do this. She plays with literally anything she sees and doesn’t vocalize like he does.
We have 2 male cats, 14yrs and 18yrs old. The older cat will pick up a small soft ” carrot ” toy in his mouth , and , only when we’re not around, carry it around in his mouth while yowling quite loudly. As soon as we are present, he drops the toy and stop yowling. We have been trying to creep up on him and video it , but he stops as soon as he knows we are around. He can sense us first every time. Great to know that other people are going through the same process.
My husband and I are just discovering that our 1yo female cat Siobhan does this! She doesn’t do it at any particular time, but sometimes we will be watching TV and I hear her in the kitchen just meowing lightly to herself and then she walks into the living room still meowing but her toy is still in her mouth lol!
My babygirl that passed away two yrs ago use to carry small mice around and cry. I usually would say “bring it here” and she’d trot over and drop it on the floor. I use to think she was sad because she never had kittens but most of the time when she did it at night she’d cry then throw the mice against the wall. I think it was her way of having fun. After she passed (kidney failure at 18yrs old) a year later we rescued a male siamese. Sie (the humane society named him) does the same thing except he just cries and drops the toy.
My 8 year old half Russian blue does this 2-3 times a day. Always once in the middle of the night, and since im working from home, I noticed he does it during the day too.
His toy of choice is a blue Kong Cat Wubba Mouse Cat Toy. ONLY his blue one, I also bought him the purple one, and he never touches it.
The blue one was lost for 8-10 months, and he still never touched the purple one, nor did he carry any other toy around.
Once we found the blue one (under the couch, under the baseboard heater) he started it up again.
“Yowling” and caring it around the house.
I am not seeing anyone saying what I believe my cat to be doing…
My boyfriend and I call it his “sex” toy lol Im sure im not the only one to witness this? I don’t see anyone else commenting anything like what my cat does.
As someone mentioned above, if he ends up on a comfy spot with it, he will be kneading that soft “thing” with the toy in his mouth. But he also does his odd movement… also most like a twitch or a mild hump motion.
I have also often caught him “cleaning” his genitals after an episode.
If anyone else has experienced this please let me know im not alone, and let me know why you think he is doing this.. im guessing hes just…feeling “in the mood”.
After reading all the replies during my own research, it looks like it is a rather normal behavior for our cats, male or female and they don’t want us involved.
However, my male cat, roughly 12 years old was an indoor/outdoor cat, he was an amazing hunter who would regularly bring home his “gifts,” while eating the mice/moles he wanted to gobble up for several years. After we moved to another location, I was not comfortable with him going outdoors due to the potential risks, so he became an indoor cat for the time being. Then, my daughter brought home an additional kitty that became mine and my cats “adopted baby brother.” However, he treats him like a son, cleaning him, watching over him after he was neutered, an amazing care giver. It wasn’t until nearly a year after getting this new kitty in the home that my older kitty started to do this loud meowing while carrying around this very specific mouse toy and only at night time. The very first time, he came to my closed bedroom door making this loud meowing noise with this toy mouse in his mouth, clearly wanting me to let him inside. I let him in. It was as if he wanted to strut around in my room, show it off, play in front of me for a few moments and then leave my room. However, he continued to loudly meow with this toy mouse in his mouth for a substantial amount of time that night and it has continued. These two kitties had a substantial amount of toys but they both seem to share that one toy specifically, the younger kitty during the daytime hours and my older toy at night time making those crazy loud meows. You tell me? Like everyone else, if I follow him out to where he is with it as if to check on him, he stops and just doesn’t want to be bothered. Only if he comes to my bedroom door does he want to come in and that is the time he will continue the meows, play, & that’s that. I just don’t know what the fascination is with that one toy or the rational, but it doesn’t seem to be a big problem as long as the neighbors aren’t bothered and the household can sleep through it. Lol
I found my cat, AC Slater, as a young kitten on a farm. She was either abandoned by her mother, or she was in the middle of moving them, but the weather was terrible and this kitten was clearly sick. At the time, I had a young dog, and they both got along well- like brother and sister. While having them, they BOTH liked to go through my laundry, and dig out small items- gloves, hats, etc. At some point I had to get rid of the dog, I was working too much and being high energy it wasn’t fair to him. It wasn’t until some time after my cat started doing this. It started off being pretty rare occurrence, but now if I don’t take the time to put up her toys that she favors, she will do this every night! Her favorite toys are a stuffed animal bear, a fuzzy snowball, and a tinsel ball that she took off all the tinsel. I always wondered why she did this, and figured it was because she had some urge to take care of her “babies”
Our cat Lotti does this. It can be many times a day. It’s either a big fish or a small mouse. The interesting part is that during the day she brings them down to the lounge. At night, as we are preparing to go to bed, she brings them up and leave them by the bedroom door, always. Would love to find out what it means!
Our cat is a male black in color he has a long shoe string he drags around at night meowing after reading comment on here I see that he just wants us to notice it and play with him.
I found those well googling about my cat dragging around her stuff toy and yowling. My little Domino was found at one week of age abandoned in a warehouse and very sick. A woman with a local rescue bottle-fed her and nursed her back to health for four months. When we adopted her, she came with a white stuffed seal. She carries that all around the house, loudly yowling. Once she drops it the behavior stops. She’s been doing this for four years and I don’t see her ever stopping.
We have two older female cats who both go through phases of this (not both at the same time thankfully) Always after we have gone to bed, and always on the stairs for some reason.
The sound is heavy vibrato “brrrrrrrorouw” usually repeated around half a dozen times and seems to be directed at a favourite toy ,although as several others have mentioned, the noise stops if the cats are approached, and the classic feline “human, can you not see I am on important cat business?”
facial expression is displayed.
my family cat does this. his name is milo and im pretty sure hes either 3 or 4 years old…i cant remember lol. anyway, he does this when my mom is getting ready for bed or when me, my sister and our mom are all getting ready for bed (my dad and brother already asleep lol). milo also does this sometimes when my family is eating at the dinner table. he carries this small stuffed animal bunny around with him and cries and yowls like its the end of the world. if i catch him with the bunny in his mouth he drops it and runs away. then when i move away or go back into my bedroom he picks it back up and does it all over again. it usually stops i think when my mom finally gets in bed? im just like “WOULD YOU SHHH ITS ALMOST MIDNIGHT, YOUR GONNA WAKE UP THE WHOLE HOUSE” but he just dismisses me. im not really sure what makes him do this. OH! i also forgot to mention, he also goes around yowling around the house whenever my mom leaves the house. it lasts for like..5 mins i think? im pretty sure my cat has seperation anxiety… iv done alot of research on this so maybe all our cats have seperation anxiety with their owner?
My 3 year old cat, Zoey, has a stuffed animal. We call it her baby. She carries it around by the scruff and grooms it. She is now sitting beside me and looking at me while yelling, hovering over her “baby” and protecting it.
We have a rescued female that will walk around with one of those balls with the bell in it. Sc he does the same thing. I have noticed it is usually when she is playing.
When my cat does it she will do it for a while and I think it’s because she was 2 weeks away from having kittens and then my parents got her fixed because we couldn’t afford any more cats….. ? So it’s like I’m her only kitten left ? and I think that’s why she does it tell me if I’m wrong
When my cat does it she will do it for a while and I think it’s because she was 2 weeks away from having kittens and then my parents got her fixed because we couldn’t afford any more cats….. So it’s like I’m her only kitten left…. and I think that’s why she does it tell me if I’m wrong
My cat moby used to do it at night around the house and went upstairs howling. My other cat Tia who is still with us never yowled. She has been carrying not only her toy mouse but mobys too. She moves them from room to room and the sounds she’s made are more like words. She used to bring live mice in for moby, now the toy mice into our bedroom, they are for us. I caught her a couple of times with one in her mouth. The vocals are hello, I’m here, it’s here. The yowls are in syllables with a different tone and type of sound. She’s definitely talking and wants us to hear her. This is a cat that has learned some human language., they don’t want us to know that tho. I love my cat but she’s sleeping on my pillow behind my head and talking to me at night.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
She’s nearly 15, still playing like a kitten and still suckling a fluffy cushion. Also she hates other cats but loves people. This is Tia
My cat Myles looks just like yours! He does the same thing, with the same toy every night. As soon as we go to bed he starts yowling! If I go try to take the toy to play with him he just looks at me confused. I’m not sure what he’s doing since he’s male? I got him from a shelter as a kitten and he’s done this ever since. I used to think he was looking for me but then I’d find his toy. It’s a blue stuffed sheep.
I am visiting my son and every night chubz woild meow so loudly I would go check on her and she’d stop. There was a sneaker or two in my room in the morning,well I caught her in the act with shoe hanging out of her mouth,it’s the funniest sight ,wish I could have got it on video.. so I had to look it up and came across your blog! Just glad it’s something cats do!