I have noticed cats do this when they are ready to ‘play’ with you (or fight from their perspective). Sometimes the cat is just sitting there, and I ‘antagonize

I have noticed cats do this when they are ready to ‘play’ with you (or fight from their perspective). Sometimes the cat is just sitting there, and I ‘antagonize’ it with a feather or string. It will jump to the couch and start scratching while looking at the feather. I think it’s just a natural reaction to fight back, babies or not.