Why Does My Cat Follow Me Everywhere In The House


“why does my cat follow me everywhere in the house?”, we are pretty sure that this question raises upon your head several times. It is one of the typical behaviours that many cats tend to follow. However, did you ever found the reason behind this behaviour? If not, Here is the four main reasons that we found. The four reasons we found are;

  • They love you
  • Asking for food
  • Need to play, and
  • They seek safety

When we are going through the reasons for this behaviour, we found many sources indicating various type of possibilities. Companionship, affection, love, hunger, curiosity, vulnerability, safety, territory and boredom are some of them.

Even though there are several reasons, all these can go under for main topics as we mentioned earlier. Below explanations will give you more insights about them and hopefully improve the connection of your pet and you.

Simply, they love you

Title of this section says all. They love you, and they like to be with you.

Cats usually spend their time on their terms. However, they do enjoy the companionship of their human friend. They want to be with you and show you, love.

If your cat follows you everywhere you go in the house, like to the toilet, to the bedroom or else kitchen, then you may wonder what to do with it.

Well, all you need to do is showing your affection and love to your cat. The way of acknowledging love can depend on the unique behaviour of each cat. So it is your own experience that will guide you the way that your cat appreciates.

Sometimes, when your cat missed you, especially when you are going on a trip and came home, they want just to hang out and see you around.

The cat’s body language is a crucial point to understand them. When they follow you, give attention to their meow patterns and the way of hand out. Eventually, you will understand your own cats’ words from their behaviour.

There is another reason for the unusual affection that your cat shows for you. It is called imprinting. Typically, animals like birds and mammals are born with a natural gene code to be attached (imprint) onto their mother. This process causes them to show much love to their mother.

In some cases, little kittens can imprint on you as their mother. If it happens, they will not leave that affection even when they become adults.

Even your cat is not imprinted on you, some cats accept you as his/her family. If this happens, your cat will follow you everywhere. It will even catch birds and small animals as a food offering for you. Walk around your legs and sleep with you. This means you are one of fortunate cat owner who has a deep connection with your pet.

Sometimes they ask for food

When it comes to food, they do everything to get your attention. Following around you is very usual thing near the feeding time. If they hungry, they will meow a lot while following you.

Since cats are not that much patience with their food time, you may need to check their food and water to make sure there are good to go.

Moreover, if they have an unpleased food brand, then they will not eat at all and start roaming around you. So, be sure to feed the cat food brands that your cat prefers.

Cats are very playful animals. If you have an outdoor garden with trees, you may notice that your pet playing with things at certain times. It will try to catch birds or small insects, otherwise, play with small things in garden like a small kitten. They do these kinds of things just for fun, and sometimes it is referred to their hunter instinct.

If your cat living inside a house that does not have a garden, then it will limit the most of chances to play. However, their need for the playtime remain and there try other ways to fulfil that need.

One of the way that they try to achieve this is following you and try to play with you. If you have a good history with your cats’ playing activities, then it will remember it for future need. So, whenever they feel of playing games, they try to engage you with it by following and jumping or meowing around your legs.

However, some of our friends may not have that much free time in his/her schedule to play with the cat often. For this kind of situations, you can always buy few cat toys. There are pretty exciting toys out there, and most cats love them.

Anyway, there is another issue with playing cat. Some of cats do not like to be petted. Even they walk around you and shows very energetic actions; they will hesitate to be with you if you try to touch them.

There are two causes for this behaviour. One is mental and other one is a medical condition.

The mental cause is due to the trust issues that your cat has. If it has bad experiences with his/her previous owner, then those experiences will lead your cat to a state that not to trust too much. Further, some cats are genuinely having a little mental un-stability.

“Hyperesthesia” is a neurological disorder that particular cats can have. Due to this disorder, cats appear extra sensation toward touching and eventually becomes painful.

Or else it can be a safety issue

Sometimes, you may experience that street cats follow you while meowing. If you are new to this experience, it will surprise you.

There are several studies indicating that these kinds of behaviour happened due to a scent coming from you. Especially if you have a cat or cats in your home.

Street cats can smell the scent of their kind and address you as a safe person to ask for help.

Similar to this situation, some cats in household seek protection when they feel threaten.

For example, moving a new dog/cat to neighborhood can be a reason to stimulate the fear in your cat.

Final Thought

Your cat can follow you everywhere in the house due to four main reasons as we indicate above in our article. Understanding the right reason can help you to increase your bond between your cat and you.

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Amelia Kteylor

Amelia Kteylor, DVM, attended the University of Georgia. She is a cat expert with 20 years of experiences in field. She has a passion as a writer and editor for pet publishing industry too. Amelia contributes to numerous pet magazines in the areas of pet health and groom. Further, she volunteered in cat rescue centers in her leisure time.

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