Conference misery::feline

    Huh?
    

    Mary, it's when a cat decides (for some unknown reason) to just act up
    and go nuts and run around the house in circles, over furniture, etc,
    etc, at full speed.  Very similar to how some humans react to being
    cooped up from five days of rain!

    
    
    	I call them "the rips"......
    

    I call them 'ballastics'
    
    Cheryl

    Hey "spaz attacks", nice to know mine are the only nuts that do it.
    
    Kim

      Ya oughta see three cats, 2 Beagles and a mixed-breed terrier all
    bouncing off the walls simultaneously!! It's amazing....no set order,
    sometimes it'll be a cat followed by a Beagle, followed by the mix,
    followed by a 3-legged cat, followed by another Beagle and the third
    cat acting as "tail-end Charlie"....through the hall, up the stairs,
    over the bed, under the bed, down the stairs, into the kitchen and
    WIPEOUT on the tile floor....into a heap of fur... I SWEAR that
    sometimes they all are grinning when the pick themselves up....
    
    JMcD

Well, I think the official medical term is "the rips"....we suffered an
outbreak at 4:00 this morning.....

I'm still sleepy...

    Yep....we call it "Wigging out"  (;
    
    Lynne

    ....yeah but.... does anyone know what causes a cat to undergo one of
    these episodes of craziness?  there must be something "upstairs" that
    triggers it.  hmmm, maybe i'll call my vet and ask her about it.  i'm
    sure she'll wonder what the cats have been up to now.  :^)

    I'm glad to have several names for this disorder.  Sojou's favorite
    demonstration of this act is to FLY through the apartment without ever
    touching ground.  Somehow, scads of paper, clothes, furniture, etc. get
    thrown around.  I think he just takes off and touches down on
    whatever's in his way - but doesn't feel the need to step around
    anything.  Drives me NUTS!
    
    Sarah

    My favorite is when they run full speed towards a wall, run half way up
    it, and back down at full speed across the room, or chasing another
    cat. I think they do it cause we can't!
    
    Cheryl

         Mine do it too, but usually only after having a bowel movement. 
    We call it "kitty celebration", as if they're so proud they were able
    to do it ;^) !
    
    					- Andrea

    Yes, after a "bm" they go mad. I suppose we should feel and act so well
    after! Our Rex likes to spin in circles and leap into the air at the
    same time.  Very amusing!!!

    Have you ever noticed that they going into these "spaz attacks" at the
    drop of a hat, and the person sitting in the chair that just HAPPENS to
    be in the middle of chaos is the one person in the room who ABSOLUTELY
    POSITIVELY HATES cats.  I swear as soon as my stepfather sits down,
    they starting planning the ambush.
    
    I love the half way up the wall and then they look at you like "see
    wasn't that easy".  It's a good thing they're cute!
    
    Kim

    
    I too experience it on a daily basis, last night was Spike's turn. 
    Whenever I tried to pet him he bolted to the other room...up the
    stairs....down the stairs.  Best part was when he finally relaxed in
    front of the sliding glass door and Cleo snuck up behind him, he jumped
    at least 2'..and then bolted to the kitchen!
                                            
    I'll have to see if it's bm related ;-))
    
    I call it "goin' hoopy"
    
    ..Rania
    

    Taja has the rips at least twice a day, both morning and evening.
    
    His latest trick is performing on the narrow ledge of the loft as if
    he's an acrobat.  He'll walk across the ledge, which is narrower than
    the balance beam gymnasts perform on, and then decide to hang upside
    down by two paws, climb back up, pirouette, lose his balance, grab the
    ledge by his two front paws and pull himself to safety.  All this while
    I sit there and cringe and wonder if I should rush downstairs to the
    living room with my mini-trampoline to break his fall, should be fall,
    which of course he NEVER does!
    
    Talk about high blood pressure!!
    
    -Roberta
     

    Lately, Rusty has taken to sneaking up on objects he doesn't
    recognize (you know, that "oh my goodness, what's that?" slow
    nervous crawl on tippy toes) and I'm such a meany that I goose
    him from behind, and he jumps about 3 feet in the air....giggle
    
    Last night, it was a pair of pantyhose I had just removed and
    left on the bedroom floor...
    
    L

    We used to have a cat that would race down the hall, up the side of the
    couch, and continue up the wall right up to the ceiling!  His name was
    Speedy Racer!! :^)
    
    My five month old kittens are just starting this craziness, and, of
    course, they have to do it in the middle of the night!!!

Well, our Maine Coon frequently does it after a bowel movement. Sort of like
having "a new lease on life" to quote an old laxative commercial.

Our Maine Coon and our other two cats, who get the crazies much less often than
he, seem to do it mostly at random times unrelated to any observable event. I
refer to it as "having new batteries".

I love the way when they get new batteries their tails curve up slightly from
their backs then back down with most of the tail sticking straight out. They
look like handles.

Larry

    
          That's funny, Ruby, my Coon used to run like the devil after
    using the box.
    
          Some of my kitties that I have now get the crazies, never had
    a name for it,  all I ever get time to say is "LOOK OUT!!" and
    then just get out of the way......
    
          Denise and the gang of 10

    All these replies and still not one response regarding what really
    causes them.  I do wonder if the crazies are triggered by something
    physical or psychological or what....  Next time Zelda goes off the
    wall we'll have to interview her.  :^)

    
    	re: Cheryl
    
    	I don't think we're allowed to know.  =)  It's one of their
    	secrets!
    
    	maybe because cats sleep 85% of the time they just have to let
    	loose once in a while..... =)
    
    	JJ
    

    I have found that the indoor/outdoor cats (TK and Nikki anyway),
    usually don't have all that extra energy to expend upon coming inside. 
    They get the crazies out of their system while outdoors.  In all the
    years I lived with them, never once did they jump on counters, wreck
    furniture, or get into trouble while inside.  All they wanted to do was
    be with their people or sleep.
    

    Nique, my barn cat, gets the crazies and does the "run around the
    back yard with tail curved like a handle" at least once a day.
    
    If I'm home, she sometimes does it while running to greet me!

	My indoor/outdoor cats do this outside.

	If they are inside, they leap from wherever they are (ouch my legs!)
	straight out the cat-flap, around the garden, and up and down their
	favourite tree.

	The big one may catch a garden worm or an elastic band the postman left,
	and the little one may catch a dried leaf.

	They don't come back in "till they've calmed down. They then make a 
	slow dignified entrance, drop their present, and go back to sleep.

	Heather

    Quite often when we have a new "visitor" to the house, they hear a
    thump from upstairs then a sound like a herd of elephants racing down
    the stairs.  "What's that?" they ask a few seconds before the "herd"
    comes racing in, over the chair, over the visitor, round the bay window
    amd then out again. Usually the visitor jumps up in terror, spilling
    tea etc all over the place.
    
    Sad really - people rarely come back for a second visit ;-) Probably
    can't afford the cleaning bills ;-)
    
    Lisa  plus PR&F.
    

    RE. .12 AND .13
    
    hahahahaha  I have tears......my POOKIE does that too....

    Ebony is the only one that "freaks out".  She'll just out of the blue
    decide to start tearing around the place, so I made a game out of it. 
    When she starts "freaking out",  I slap my hands on my thighs and then 
    run and hide.  Ebony slows down and starts kitty talking while she looks
    behind doors and in the shower.  When she finds me, we start all over 
    again...until she gets pooped out and collapses on the floor.  It's a
    lot of fun....for the both of us.  Boo Boo usually just hides under a
    chair until we are finished.  
    
    - Lauri
    

    Someone gave me a book "All I Need To Know I Learned From My Cat"
    (by Suzy Becker) and each page has drawings depicting cat
    behavior (with descriptions).
    
    This one page shows a kitchen - the sink and counter, window (with
    curtains blowing, a cat bowl with bits of food on the floor, another 
    bowl with water spilling on to the floor, a grocery bag is in mid-air
    (the cat having just run out of it), the area rug is floating 
    (having just been used as a runway) - with no cat in sight and the 
    caption reads:
    
    " ....everyone is entitled to an occasional mood swing"
    
    This book is so funny.  I've been sitting here, like a darn fool,
    laughing out loud at this woman's interpertation of cat behavior.
    She really captured life with the feline.
    
    

    The other day I was reading a back issue of Cat Fancy, and there was a
    letter to the cat psychologist or veterinarian column (I forget which)
    asking why cats get the crazies after a bm.  Basically, the answer was
    because their energy builds up leading to the bm, and after the bm they
    just have to get rid of that energy.

    We call it being pixellated.
    
    This morning all the babies decided to run over my chest, each of them
    landing on my left teat with all four paws.  How they can aim like that
    with me being under the covers is beyond me.  It's kind of like how
    they know that point you reach when you're asleep and just becoming
    aware that your bladder is full, so they jump up on the bed and land
    right in the middle of your tummy where your bladder is.  I know that
    they laugh, I've heard them....
    
    Candy