Feel Good Friday – Cats in Boxes [VIDEOS]

Growing up I never had cats, we always had dogs. My husband had cats growing up, so he's used to their weird behavior, but it's all new to me. Maybe it's just our cats, but they have some bizarre behavior.

For starters, they will "play" fight. The first time they did this I thought we were going to have to bring one of them back to the shelter. Apparently, this is normal for cats. After they finish wrestling and having each other in headlocks I'll find them on one of the beds cleaning each other. Such weird creatures.

Then there's the box thing. If you have cats you know what I'm talking about. They always feel the need to fit into any box they see, no matter how small. The picture above is of our cat Hermione. This plastic box is now hers. She swats our other cat if he tries to get in it.

I guess it's a safety thing. According to Daily Mail, boxes can serve as a stress reliever.

According to a report by Bryan Gardiner in Wired, veterinarian Claudia Vinke of Utrecht University in the Netherlands recently studied stress levels in shelter cats.

She discovered that cats who had boxes got used to their new surroundings faster than those who didn't because the boxes acted as a coping mechanism.

The article goes on to say that boxes offer a safe place for them to take naps and that it's a way for them to escape an unwanted situation.

They could also be trying to escape unwanted attention. According toThe Domestic Cat: The Biology of its Behaviour, cats don't have good conflict resolution strategies and running and hiding is a coping mechanism for this.

It's not just domestic cats though. This video of big cats with boxes is pretty funny.

And just because...

Listen to Liz Kaye weekdays from 10-2 on 105.5 FM, online at kicks1055.com/listen-live/ or by downloading the radioPup app for your mobile device.