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Why Cats Knock Stuff Over (2023)
Why do cats like to push stuff over edges and then curiously watch the fallen object? I suggest that they are play-hunting, and are testing the ‘prey’ for liveness & playing-dead, similarly to tossing or poking it with claws.
What I noticed watching him was that he started by gingerly, delicately prodding it (as if it might scald or bite him) repeatedly with his claws off the table, eventually escalating to batting it off the moment I put it down. He would capture and bring them in to play with them; and when they stopped moving, he would gently prod them with claws to provoke a reaction, escalating if they didn’t react, and with an apparently dead animal like a vole or mouse, might scoop it up or fling it around. We can contrast this with similar behavior in humans, which does go away: infants gleefully knock over glasses or dishes to watch them fall & shatter, and it is highly novel to them because they don’t understand the world at all; but as they get older, ‘push that glass off the table’ becomes boring, and teenagers must thrill themselves with more advanced forms of destruction (like jumping off roofs or posting on social media).
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