Ahhhhh, the timeless tradition of cats knocking stuff over. It’s been happening for centuries.

Our Maine Coon, Ross, loves to knock stuff over. He’s gotten slightly better at not doing this as he’s gotten older, but it still happens from time to time. Especially when we slip up and leave something out that we usually don’t. Last night, we left our closet door open. He got on top of my jewelry cabinet and swept most of the items off the top. Yep. Serves me right.

There is actually science behind cats knocking things over. According to Bustle.com and How Stuff Works, cats knock things over as an effort to “play” with their prey. "Your cat's instincts tell her that paperweight or knickknack could turn out to be a mouse. Her poking paw would send it scurrying, giving her a good game (and possibly a good lunch)."

They also knock things over to get human attention. I know Ross definitely starts knocking things over if he feels like he needs to be fed. Even when it’s not feeding time, I cave into giving him food because his almost 21 pound body can do quite a bit of damage to our house!

Read more about this interesting cat behavior at Bustle.com by clicking this link.