
This little video is a bit sad to me. This sweet gray cat wants somewhere to hide; can’t find it on the spur of the moment and chooses the only available space he can find which, as you can see, is not very effective. At least he feels more comfortable. He feels that he is hiding. It reminds me of the cat who tried to hide at a veterinarian’s clinic by stuffing his head down a waste hole in the counter top. His body was completely visible. It is a desperate attempt to get away and hide. It is amusing in a way but I tend to see this feline behavior as unsettling, really, because I don’t like to see cats frightened. And this guy is frightened which drives him to find a place, any place, to try and hide.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1082442260426432517
This is an example of why it is important for all cat owners to have suitable places in the home where their cat can hide. It particularly applies to timid or anxious cats. It’s one of those aspects of cat guardianship that needs to be taken care of. Another scenario where a place to hide is important is in multi-cat households. We know it. This is because one of the cats might be submissive towards another and therefore more inclined to be anxious due to the presence of another cat. Hiding reduces the anxiety.
Anxiety in cats
Anxiety in domestic cats is an interesting subject. We can’t be sure that cats experience anxiety in the same way that we do but they do feel anxiety in a similar way.
The most common cause of anxiety in domestic cats is probably worrying about their territory and whether it will be invaded by other cats. Sometimes this applies to cats in the same household.
Dr Bradshaw, in a survey, carried out in 2000, said that cat owners reported that almost half of their cats regularly fought with other cats. And a colleague of Dr Bradshaw, Rachel Casey, a veterinarian specialist in cat behavioural disorders, often diagnosis anxiety and fear as the main reasons why cats defecate and urinate indoors but outside the litter box.
They express their anxiety in various ways such as spraying the walls or furniture with urine which is designed to deter other cats from entering the home. When there is conflict between two cats in the same household one cat may spend a lot of time hiding and/or grooming himself excessively. We see this quite often on the Internet: over groomed cats due to stress. Cats find it calming to groom themselves so it’s a response to anxiety. Idiopathic cystitis is linked to the sort of stress and anxiety referred to above.
You are correct and I totally agree with your feeling about it.
When the cat sitter comes in I have post it’s on all their hiding spots.
Yeah right, cat in an extreme state of fear, “hilarious”
How crass to make light of a fearful being.
Everyone who takes on a cat as a companion ought to own and read a decent, modern book about the psychology, behaviour and environment of the domestic cat.