The other night, Cleo Carrington Smith reacted in a strange
way to something my partner Robert did.

As a back story, I have a "flying carpet" that I sit on to watch TV,
as I don't like sitting in chairs.  I am a "floor dweller" and
Cleo Carrington Smith has got quite used to me doing this and we
in fact share sitting on the carpet together quite a lot.   I stretch
out and she lies beside me, often leaning on me.

Anyway, Rob usually sits in a chair, but he decided to do my trick
and flop onto the flying carpet just for a change, which is something
he has never done before.

Cleo immediately went into 100% full on brushtail mode, and started
dancing on her toes in a very defensive manner.  Rob didn't believe
me until he turned around and looked, then Cleo starting making
meow sounds she has never made before.  She would not relax until Rob
got off the floor and it took 20 minutes for her brushy tail
to be settled down.

The only thing I can think of was that Cleo thought Rob was "invading
her turf" or becoming very defensive in any case, in spite of their
close relationship and the fact that Rob has laid on the floor
in other parts of the house with Cleo before.

It was very strange and quite interesting behaviour - I wonder if anyone
else has had a cat do something like this?

rachel