I have a 7-lb gray tabby with a slight, long, pointy-faced kind of build.
She is very polite and cautious, but seeks us out for "boneless cat" kind of
affection and conquers her rubber snake several times a day with great
fanfare. This is a "thinking cat." The kind who gives you a little inquiring
"meeeyyu?" when approaching, just so she doesn't take you by surprise. The
kind who knew me for three months before she threw her lanky leg back and
asked for a tummy rub. The kind who never puts her claws out when a human is
touching her. She really does have impeccable manners. But she has an outlet
for those pent-up housecat frustrations. She has a way of blowing off steam.

I had my first inkling of it when I was cleaning a guest room and found a
foam board I had used for a presentation (the kind that folds in three, and
you mount things on the inside and set it up on a table, pre-powerpoint
style) that had hundreds of little chunks chewed out of it. It was clear to
me that she had been slinking away and tearing into the thing for a while,
but I never saw her in action until the other morning.

I was in that place where our cats love us the best--in the bathroom, on the
toilet. She was of course in there with me. I reached for a loose roll of
toilet paper, it had maybe half an inch of paper on it, and knocked it onto
the floor. I watched as a strange, obsessive look came upon my usually mild
and pleasant little girlycat. She hunched over the tp roll, wedging it
against her back feet. She sat up a little. She never looked at me once. It
was as though she had forgotten I was there. Then she proceeded, with a slow
and steady rhythm, to tear great huge mouthfuls of tp from the roll,
spitting them out afterward. Her actions had a reverent, ritualistic pace
and feel. Stunned, I watched the pile of shredded paper grow. If any stuck
to her mouth, she shook her head until it fell away and then "ripppppp"
dispatched another great mouthful. She did not look up until she hit
cardboard, then she looked me right in the eye, like she was coming out of a
trance.

Still stunned, I gave her a half-hearted "no?" and she darted off.

Happily, I had a tp backup in place.