Why cats can't resist thinking inside the box: #CatSquare

[Psihala]

Twitter’s been on fire with people amazed by cats that seem compelled to park themselves in squares of tape marked out on the floor. These felines appear powerless to resist the call of the #CatSquare.


http://www.9news.com/news/nation-now...uare/432771767

[GenYus234]

Someone in a zoo needs to try that with the wild cats. They seem to love being in small (comparatively) boxes as much as domestic cats.

[crocoduck_hunter]

I'm just picturing them looking at the cat's favorite places to lie, then putting tape boxes around those places.

I mean, they're probably not actually doing that but it's funny.

[Sooeygun]

We just did this a couple of years ago with cats and circles.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/11/19/why-do...rcles-4954168/

[DawnStorm]

Whenever I go to the Costco, I make a point to bring home a box or two for the Oligarchy.

[thorny locust]

From the article:

[ . . . ] Dutch researchers who gave shelter cats boxes as retreats. According to the study, cats with boxes adapted to their new environment more quickly compared to a control group without boxes: The conclusion was that the cats with boxes were less stressed because they had a cardboard hidey-hole to hunker down in.

Makes sense.

Once when I was at the vet's a cat made a dash in the examining room and wound up under one of the cabinets. I commented about there being a space under the cabinet large enough for a cat (and, actually, large enough to make it fairly easy for me or the vet. to fish the cat back out again; while being small enough for the cat to think of it as a hiding place) and the vet. said that they'd learned to design the exam rooms like that. She said that a cat who got loose in a room with a suitable hiding place would go hide in it; but, if the room had no such place, the cat might go into full scale panic mode and bounce around the room at high speed trying to claw its way to safety, doing possible damage to the cat and to humans trying to catch it.

[crocoduck_hunter]

I tried giving my cat several boxes, mostly ones that Amazon orders had come in. She ignored all of them- she'd rather sit on me.

[GenYus234]

You can't give the cat a box, that offends their sense of contrariness. The cat must take a box.

[Crius of CoH]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

You can't give the cat a box, that offends their sense of contrariness. The cat must take a box.

Cats are basically Mentok the Mind-Taker from Harvey Birdman. Some illuminating cat-like quotes:

- Why? Because Mentok wills it so. Proceed.

- Mentok: We don't borrow; we don't rent; we don't lease: We TAKE the mind.

Yep, cats are Mentok. Just substitute boxes for minds in the second quote.

[TallGeekyGirl]

I always assumed it was some kind of nesting instinct in that the paper felt like leaf litter or something, but I'll bet this is also why cats love to sit on newspapers on the floor.