Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/10/the-science-of-why-cats-like-g.html
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A lot of cats are just hopelessly bored.
Not the ones who have lived with me!
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…cats …in their cages…
I think I found the problem. 
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Reason?!?
They want to kill you!!!
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This calls for the services of:
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i order enough stuff from amazon or wherever that there’s always a couple boxes lying open around the house for our cats to play in. i’ve been trying to come up with other toys for them, so they are a bit more active and don’t just eat and sleep all day. there’s some good sites out there with DIY toys.
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This is why humane treatment includes occasionally hunting, killing, and eating one or more of the resident cats. That keeps the rest of the cats from being bored apex predators.
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Works for dogs too!
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Cats of that size are predators for smaller animals and prey for bigger ones. They’re only apex predators when there aren’t any bigger predators around (like in urban areas). I imagine the box behavior is also part of hiding from predators; maybe not a big part in someone’s house, but the instinct is there. We always keep all our cats indoors. There’s a fox in our neighborhood.
I wonder if that part was left out of the video for public, uh, consumption.
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How can they be bored? They sleep 18 hours a day.
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I recall that soldiers sometimes need this, a…periodic simplification of their immediate surroundings to soothe their minds.
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Swaddling?
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Less stress. From being in a box. Watch the GOP use this study to further fuck over the homeless.
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So has anyone tried leaving out large boxes for lions to see what happens?
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Curse you! Beat me to it by 2 minutes (shakes fist ineffectually) …
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Stalking advantage(???), period.
Cats and boxes are like Republicans and power…
P.S. Apologies for the political spin, but I had to pounce on that joke from my box.
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I’ve gotten my cat various toys, which she basically ignores. But she loves one specific one, the cheapest one out there (she will even sit next to it for an hour hoping that I pick it up):
(You could probably make one easily…)
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Thanks for that
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mine loves to ambush her humans. she’ll wait till you walk past, leap out of her hiding spot, tag your leg then scamper away.
it’s quite endearing, but only because I’m many times her mass
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