Is my cat going crazy?

[caffeinebean]

I'm pretty sure she's losing her mind.

Sophie has taken to running like a madwoman up and down the hallway and around the couch. She then stares at the ceiling like she's terrified and lets out this horrible meow/howl and takes off back down the hallway.

She was running down the hallway and jumped on the couch and when I went to pet her, she bit me. Now she's all curled up next to me like nothing happened.

Please tell me she isn't losing her little kitty mind to old age.

Also, here's an adorable picture of her.

[polarbearfans]

Beautiful! If this is new behavior I would take her into the vet.

[caffeinebean]

It is new behavior. She only started doing it about two or three weeks ago. At first we laughed it off and started referring it to as Sohpie 'talking to ghosts'. Now she's started doing it so often and so loud that she'll wake FI and I up a few times a night.

[OHMBLEEGOHHHHH!]

Mice?

[frauschmindy]

It's possible she is hallucinating, or there is something triggering a fear reaction.

I watched an episode of My Cat From Hell where the cat was becoming hyper and aggressive when people picked him up a certain way, probably because someone was holding him in the same way when something traumatic happened (a loud noise, getting hurt, etc). Is there anything like that that might be consistently triggering her?

ETA: I also know somebody whose cat has what is basically kitty bipolar disorder, which causes the cat to act erratically and become stressed. She's on meds and doing well now though.

[sawyerthedestroyer]

She's so pretty! Does she have blue eyes? Is she Siamese mix? My cat is Siamese mix and she does this. I call it Ninja Mode.

[caffeinebean]

She's a Siamese/manx mix and yes, she has the craziest blue eyes.

I don't know if something traumatic had happened to her. She's 15 and we've only had her for about four months. She's really calm during the day, but for about two hours at night she pulls these shenanigans. The only time she flips out otherwise is when someone tries to pick her up and hold her.

[frauschmindy]

Oh, I thought you had her for her whole life and this was really new behavior, I guess this could be the "norm" for her is some sense.

I have a cat who is loud. Every night. He meows loudly for an hour, and he's done it since he was a kitten.

[angelaa73]

Laser pointer laser pointer!

[bonquiqui]

My cats do this, and they are just playing. They don't bite us, but they run around here like crazy and make weird noises, crouch, and pounce. Maybe they have always been crazy, but they love playing like this.

P.S. She is beautiful!

[bonquiqui]

BTW I LOVE that you adopted a 15 year old cat. props to you :Y:

[mamasaurus]

My aunt's cat would randomly do this. We had no idea why and one day noticed a cat outside when he started up with the crazy. He'd literally be climbing the walls, and we'd look out the window, and half the time, there'd be a cat out there. The other half, no clue. Is there maybe an animal outside freaking out your kitty?

Sorry you got bit and are full of worry. I hope she mellows out a little and is OK.

[verycontrary247]

I have 2 Siamese cats that randomly get what H refers to as the "zoomies." Basically they just run laps around the house meowing and acting crazy.

She's probably not getting enough exercise/mental stimulation during the day so all the pent up energy is just coming out at once. I second the recommendation for some laser pointer fun with kitty before you go to bed.

[sporklemotion]

One of my two cats also does this, and always has. I think it's pretty normal (if you Google it you'll see lots of descriptions of similar behaviors)- she'll tear across the room, jump up on a chair, and howl a bit. Then she runs upstairs like something's chasing her. I just keep a wide berth from her when she's doing it because I could see her trying to bite or scratch. Our other cat just watches her with amusement and slight disdain. After a couple of minutes, she calms down and is fine.

You could have her checked out by a vet, but I would guess that it's just normal play that you didn't see in the first few months of having her.

[mskitkat]

One of my cats does this randomly. He won't do it for months and months, then out of nowhere, he has his midnight madness for a couple days. It could be your can is finally comfortable with you. When we adopted Delilah, it took her about that long to let her real personality show.

[meadowlark]

My cat does that before bedtime. He's a biter too. Just bites me.

We've had a cat whisperer come over twice. The boy was seven when we adopted him. The cat whisperer says the cat doesn't *get* women because his previous owner was an elderly man.