Cardboard Boxes are Cats' Security Blankets

By Anna Muggiati

If you are still looking for a Valentine's treat to give to your feline friend, look no further! It will cost close to nothing and it might be right before your eyes!

Mine or yours? (Tigre and Pantera)

Mine is better (Juju and Panda)

Pantera, guess who is going to peek-a-boo you?

There are situations in life that may give you the urge to hide somewhere. Right?....  I would run as fast as I could and "vanish" inside a cardboard box every time that I felt threatened, insecure, fearful, inadequate, cold or just looking for comfort. Apparently, cats have known this relaxing "enclosure" technique since their goddess-like days in Egypt, when they would probably hide in other type of receptacles. And that's probably why they just can't resist a fresh box that has just been delivered with something, ready to be filled with their fluffiness.

Being the proud mom of two senior cats and grandma of three kittens I wasn't surprised when a Utrecht University study, published at the end of last year, hit the headlines last week. A curious mind at Wired magazine went to investigate why cats love cardboard boxes (and anything else they think they might fit into). Because of that article, cats were again on the headlines of big newspapers.

The study made by Claudia Vinke (Vet Department Utrecht University) was published in Applied Animal Behavior Science. It was based on the observation of 10 cats in shelters showed to be less stressed when using boxes to chill out, making their adaptation in the shelter smoother than the 9 cats which didn't have a box to hide. Isn't it a lovely way to reuse boxes?

Juju was found in a box when she was abandoned. Now she still loves them.

Previous studies had related the "cat in the box" situation with other factors, such as a very smart way of keep warmth. As most of us know, cardboard boxes might be just the cheapest and coziest way to have thermal protection. and something that the guys at most feral cats specialists have known about for a long time, and use them also as a emergency shelter to protect felines from winter, as you can read here. 

Dada, our oldest cat, is one that loves to sleep in a very special roofed cat bed: a comfy regular bed inside a cardboard box. Cardboard boxes are a very special hideaway for our 4-month old kittens. Panda, Tigre and Pantera love to hide and then spook the others when inside. A very funny peek-a-boo game. Ready to share your cat-in-the-box photos? Please post them to our social site: www.petzi.com.