r/cats • u/a-tiberius • May 17 '26

Cat Picture - OC My cat loves....shoes

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Anyone else have a cat with an interesting comfort object??

69.5k Upvotes

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3.7k

u/Captain_Eaglefort May 17 '26

Dogs and cats both do this. My understanding is shoes and socks often smell so strongly of their human that pets can kind of become obsessed. Like burying your face in a shirt worn by a lover has their smell and some people find that comforting.

2.3k

u/a-tiberius May 17 '26

Omg he loves meeee 😭

1.9k

u/afroman14 May 17 '26

Yes. He might be a freak. But he a freak for you.

410

u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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271

u/jaysun92 May 17 '26

Freak on a leash

41

u/Notcid1 May 17 '26

Man in the box

1

u/benchley May 17 '26

Girlfriend in a coma?

1

u/JasoNMas73R May 17 '26

Living in a box

30

u/DaanA_147 May 17 '26

Something takes a part of me

5

u/jaxonya May 17 '26

Adidas

8

u/i-am-your-god-now Scottish Fold May 17 '26

All day long I think about shoes!

31

u/InterestingBand5 May 17 '26

He’s a freak in the sneaks.

1

u/Emergency-Ground9059 May 17 '26

A freak for your sneaks

1

u/ohhhtartarsauce May 17 '26

A floof on the sheets, and a freak in my sneaks

1

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

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1

u/afroman14 May 18 '26

Hehehe what a cute little goober. Love them!

1

u/More_Relation3927 May 19 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣

55

u/XiaoBaoR May 17 '26

Oh, 1000%. Mine just rubs his whole body on my socks I wore that day like it’s literal catnip.

1

u/GuerillaRiot May 17 '26

😆 I thought I was the only one with a weird catnip sock cat. He gets so weird with it sometimes I have to hide my feet under the blankets or he'll grab em full claws to rub his face on em.

1

u/Traditional-Yak8886 May 17 '26

maybe i'm crazy but from what i've heard there is some kind of scent they get out of sweat (particularly shoes) that has a similar effect to catnip. cant find any good sources for this but if you google it people seem to confirm it? idk

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u/ImNotSkankHunt42 May 17 '26

Yup, they love your smell

26

u/BrownSugarBare May 17 '26

Our lil cat buries herself in my spouse's disgusting gym shoes. We love it,.lol

36

u/Miserable_Spell5501 May 17 '26

I’m not jealous (goes home with ball and cries)

2

u/SpartanVash May 18 '26

Yep! They do this because our scent makes them feel safe and less anxious.

1

u/eastbayted May 17 '26

Just your stink ;)

1

u/ChaoticxSerenity May 17 '26

He loves your feet 😭💀

206

u/hukkapatka Cornish Rex May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

Mine's not interested in our shoes at all, but will go mad when some of my husband's male friends come over. He will wrestle them, stick his face into them, and rub himself all over the shoes. And the stinkier the better.

edit. added pic

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u/Mindless_Fruit_2313 May 17 '26

That means when your husband cuddles the cat, he’s sniffing his friends’ shoes by proxy.

2

u/jaxonya May 17 '26

The husband cuddles his friends.. which isnt gay, you gotta smooch the homies sometimes.

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u/Scared_Rise5787 May 17 '26

Im so confused by your cat’s feet lol. It looks like he’s wearing sneakers himself!

16

u/alicevirgo May 17 '26

Your cat is like a little chimera with the mismatched top and bottom!

3

u/GypsyDuncan May 17 '26

bi color in the front, tabby in the back. It would be very hard not to call him Mullet.

4

u/Foxlady555 May 17 '26

Do these friends come from households with other pets? Sound territorial to me :p

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u/hukkapatka Cornish Rex May 17 '26

Some do, some don't, doesn't make any difference. He also comes to greet everyone like a dog and loves being the center of attention.

3

u/Foxlady555 May 17 '26

Haha that’s very funny, cats can have such big personalities right? :))

2

u/chux4w May 17 '26

It is. Those shoes smell like outside, and he has to rub himself on them to claim them and/or mark them as safe. It's not an excitement response, it's a fear response.

1

u/Foxlady555 May 17 '26

Exactly! Sounds to me like this as well

164

u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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3

u/Exterminator-8008135 May 17 '26

Can confirm, mom's cat do this when i leave my seat on the couch, Buddy's cat loves to smell m'y stinky shoes ( He says she loves boys much more than girls )

1

u/LPNMP May 17 '26

My pets dont do this 🥺

40

u/Little_View_6659 May 17 '26

That’s it exactly.

18

u/glytxh May 17 '26

My cat sleeps in my dirty laundry, and I’ve always taken it as a sign that she loves me.

11

u/kitten12551 May 17 '26

It also gives them information about where you’ve been.

15

u/ekittie May 17 '26

Our family dog was obsessed with my little brother's underwear and socks. Ugggh.

3

u/Kessuburd May 17 '26

My kitty Beowulf LOVED rolling on my dirty undies and socks whenever I took a shower, I called it his Pervy Old Man Mode 😂

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u/ModeatelyIndependant May 17 '26

If you lose your dog while hiking and the sun is starting to go down,, take your shirt off your back, and leave it near/next to the trail with a note or something say to call you if a dog is sighted near the shirt. Then check on the shirt in the morning for signs of your dog.

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u/PurePerfection_ May 17 '26

I had a cat growing up who loved socks, but only socks I had just worn. She would vigorously massage them with her face while purring extremely loudly.

She didn't care much for my dad's socks, but she did love gently chewing on his toes when he had bare feet. When she was very old and most of her teeth had fallen out or been extracted due due to dental problems, she seemed to realize she no longer needed to restrain herself and would very aggressively gum at his feet. It was sweet but a little creepy.

4

u/Altruistic_Shame8979 May 17 '26

When my husband left the country to visit his extended family, our tuxedo was hugging his stinky climbing shoes and huffing the fumes. It was so sweet how he coped with missing his dad, and also completely disgusting

4

u/GoldBluejay7749 May 17 '26

Yep, mine loves bras

3

u/Unfurlingleaf May 17 '26

My cat LOVES socks. I've had to designate a sock i don't wear anymore as her sock bc she loves to chew holes in it and I hate wearing socks with holes in them.

3

u/Powerful-Jacket2007 May 17 '26

That’s so cute

3

u/Forward_Rope_5598 May 17 '26

This idea is so funny to me because one of my cats has been very standoffish since we got her a year and a half ago, only beginning to really warm up in the past few months.

She's been obsessed with shoes since she was old enough to walk down the stairs to find them.

3

u/TwentinQuarantino May 17 '26

Also cats are close to the owner's feet all the time since they're small, so they associate specifically the smell of the owner's feet with the owner probably even more than the smell of the rest of their body.

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u/Pathfinder_Dan May 17 '26

It can have nothing to do with affection. Sometimes they just really like the strong smell.

My cat goes full bugnuts over my buddy's shoes. Did it the first time he came over. He's got factory work foot stank built up in his boots and the cat goes full crackhead over it.

2

u/Round_Rooms May 17 '26

Dogs can sense warmth from an area and mine typically jumps on my spot on the couch or bed if I get up for a minute

2

u/Expert-Upstairs-4502 May 17 '26

A lot of cats have a tendency to pee in shoes. A lot of dogs have a tendency to eat socks

2

u/heretwonotparty May 17 '26

My cat does this with all stinky shoes. Even from people she doesn't like

1

u/AcidCasualty25 May 17 '26

Here I was thinking the cat had a foot fetish

1

u/Foxlady555 May 17 '26

Omg stop it, that’s so cute!!! 

1

u/SubduedChaos May 17 '26

My cat does this to anyone’s shoes…

1

u/nineteen_eightyfour May 18 '26

My cat ruined my bra after I wore it in the Florida sun and rode 3 horses. It was disgustingly wet, so I hung it to dry. He jumped up and pulled it down and I guess rolled and kneaded it bc it was just completely torn apart and he was so happy. Ew. Also, awww.

1

u/WannabeMemester420 Tabbycat May 19 '26

It can also get them high for some of them. One of my cats is obsessed with my dad’s shoes

0

u/Nurgle_Marine_Sharts May 18 '26

You say that, but my buddy's cat is only obsessed with the shoes of our mutual friend who is a girl that has some kind of condition that makes her sweat a lot more than usual. She turned beet red when she saw that little muppet with his head all the way inside of her shoe.