Got Wool?

Rascal, aptly named, has always been quite a handful. But he’s also one of those cats who just makes your heart melt – with all his snuggling, nose-butting, “kisses” and deafening purrs. Almost anything makes him purr – if you are eating chicken, just the smell of it apparently makes him happy. You can hear him from the next room.  He has a peculiar habit, however. He’s what’s known as a “wool-sucker”.

Although we all adore him, he has chosen me. I am the Chosen One. When I sit down, Rascal is there at my side. When I am on the computer, Rascal is there. The moment I lie down at night, before I can even pull the covers up – Rascal bounds up, drapes his body across me, and proceeds to suck on whatever material I happen to be wearing.

This behavior is called wool-sucking, as many cats that do this literally like to suck/chew on wool. I couldn’t tell you about Rascal, we don’t have anything wool here. It is usually a rather harmless habit, and resembles when kittens nurse on their mother. Often there seems to be a connection between having been weaned too early and developing this habit.

This could be the case with Rascal, but we’ll never know. He was a lone kitten when rescued; no one knows his story. Whatever the cause for him, it’s obviously a soothing behavior for him. He’ll do it (or try to) a few times during the day, and definitely at night just before sleep.

Considered a compulsive disorder, it is usually harmless.  There are situations where this behavior can become hazardous, though.  Depending on what they suck or chew on, cats can end up

• sick from ingesting something that isn’t good for them,
• have dietary deficiencies from eating too much of non-nutritional items,
• or even worse – suffer a blockage or damage in their system from the material. It is not uncommon in such situations for complete blockage to occur; or in the case of thread or string-like materials ingested, for the intestines to become entangled.

These can be life-threatening situations, and require emergency veterinary care.

In Rascal’s case, he preferred human skin when he was little. He would suck on our fingers, our noses, our toes…in fact for a long time, the first thing he did when I laid down to sleep was to go by my feet, and BITE! There were times I’d wake up in the middle of the night to another bite, too. Not pleasant. I couldn’t understand the fetish. But now he just prefers my clothes, and no matter what I’m wearing it suits him fine. Whether I mind it is apparently inconsequential.

Different cats will take up different forms of this habit. We fostered another little wool-sucker kitten once that preferred earlobes. Seriously – just earlobes. He would nestle himself against your chest and shoulder, then proceed to suck on your ear, with highly audible sloshing sounds. The sounds seemed magnified – that little slosher mouth was so close to your ear!

And there have been a couple who just didn’t seem to have any preferences, they just bit or sucked on whatever they could get their little mouths on. Fortunately, wool-sucking is a behavior that is often outgrown as they get older. Rascal, however, doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo.

These days, Rascal just “sucks” on my clothes. It’s not a true suckle; it’s more of a grab-it-by-your-teeth, and then do-this-crazy-thing with mouth part-way open and tongue almost licking, kind of thing.

He doesn’t ingest anything, but sometimes he bites down hard and I have to scold him to stop. If I try to remove his jaws, he only bites harder. Remember his name.

This is what he does every single night, crawling up on me and sucking. After a couple of minutes, he will curl up against me in a warm fuzzy ball and go to sleep, purring (loudly). It’s our nightly ritual. I have no choice. Ask Chester, I really don’t.

So you can often find me with a big ol’ wet spot somewhere on me. Nope, I didn’t spill anything. I just have a wonderful, goofy little sucker kitty named Rascal.

photo source:  freedigitalphotos.net