our female cat has just been sick over my mum and dad's bed.

and all she kept doing while chucking up, was walking backwards

I've seen other cats do this aswell, why on earth do they walk backwards? I dont understand the logic in it??

wouldn't it be easier to be sick in 1 spot, rather than walk backwards?

Oh no, they like to spread the joy widely

I have always assumed they are trying to get away from the proceeds.

I have to run when ours pukes.If I don't get there first the dog noms it all.

Eeeewwww ! Dirty boy !

It is amazing isn't it?

The sick stays in the same place and the cat kind of reverses itself away from the contents of its stomach.

It's almost as though the sick rids itself of the cat, rather than the other way round

my ginger tom, throws upa nd walks backwards and then does the reverse and eats it all back up again!!

My old cat is sick a lot, and although she doesn't walk backwards, she likes to throw up a little bit in one place, then move on and throw up some more.... so I come home from work to several little piles of cat puke Nice!!

Thank god for wooden flooring!

Brilliant

WOW cats are rank! I have never seen anything like that... now I really want to just see it.

Poor kitty kats

It's the bliddy noise they make as well especially if they are sick somewhere in the house at night when you are all in bed and you then have to go and search for it. Yuk! There is nearly always a trail of it as well.

Oh my god tell me about it! My kitten was coughing up a furball yesterday and was sick too I honestly thought she was dying, I ran and got mum (I haven't had a kitten before..well, other than Misty but that's another story! )

yeah ours has done this too, disturbing

I believe its because they do it because they are trying to o get away from the unpleasent feeling that being sick gives them. In the cats mind it thinks that it can get away from a feeling by going in the opposite direction that it thinks the unpleasent feeling is coming from!

We used to have a cat that would look for the high ground such as the freezer or the fridge and even window sills. You can imagine the area that the gunk can cover but the joy in finding it three or four days after it has left the cat. At the moment one of our little kitties likes to use my daughter's bed so we have keep a spare duvet and cover ready at all times. I have tried saying "close the door" but then I am being nasty to the cats, oh well.

One of mine likes to projectile vomit from a high spot too - the fridge freezer and the top of a dresser are favourites. The splatter covers a very large area

Yes, my black boy likes to do it from a window sill - preferably the one in my bedroom. The only trouble is - my head has been directly underneath him on one occasion! Not a good way to be woken at three am!

Hmmm, the last three posts seem to back up my theory that the cat is trying to run away from the bad feeling that being sick gives them ie running to where a cat feels safer as in a high spot. My black and white female cat makes a really loud distressing meowing sound (even louder than when shes on heat) prior to it happening. Its horrible for me to listen to, but at least it gives me some warning so that I can put an old newspaper under her mouth. I have to hold her to stop her moving backwards, but at least I can comfort her during the process.

I tried that with the paper only for me to scare the cat so it scattered the contents if it belly over the entire stairs. Each step had something to remember. That noise is spooky when your watching a horror film on the telly.

My cat doesn't get up onto the high spot to be sick, he just happens to be there and is sick. He often sleeps on the fridge freezer and dresser, so not unusual for him to be there - just unpleasant

We have a rug in the lounge which only covers about a sixth of the floorspace - yet 9 times out of 10, they'll vomit on the rug!

Ours always avoid the wooden floors and head straight for the nearest rug.

hmmmm ... do dogs go backwards too? is it a four-legged thing?

I tried it with kitchen roll and tried to follow my Tom backwards while he was wailing then vomiting, but he ran away and did it on the dining room carpet! I was trying to treat him like a child and nearly got a bowl out for him!

They lurch forward suddenly.

Then they eat it all up

Our cat is booted straight out the door when she starts making that awful sicky gulping noise. Problem solved! and now she knows that's the consequence of gobbling all her food down too quick, she's much more careful at eating now

so it is not the backward movement that is a four-legged thing, it's the eating the sick afterwards that's a four-legged thing