That cats are playful animals is something known. That if you give them a ball or a wool ball they can spend very entertaining hours too. And that when they manage to have a cardboard box They like to hide inside and spend hours inside, let's not say. The recycled cardboard boxes, so useful for so many things are, for cats, an irresistible claim. Recently Science has found an explanation for this phenomenon There's nothing paranormal about it.
Anyone who has a cat knows that giving him a cardboard box can make him happy.
A first explanation for this phenomenon is that are comfortable and inside feel protected. Elena Carloni, an ethnologist at the University of Bologna, Italy, and one of the biggest cat experts in Europe, has carried out a study on the topic in shelters where cats live awaiting adoption. Under these circumstances animals weaken and their life expectancy shortens.
Mr. Carloni noted that cats provided with cardboard boxes significantly reduced their stress. And not only that, but the cats he had provided a box with adapted much faster to their new home than they did not. It was also seen that were less aggressive and were much more interested in acting with human beings.
According to Carloni, this is because a cat's first reaction to stress is to retreat and hide. “Boxes,” he says, “improve the space where cats live, lower levels of corticosteroids associated with anxiety and improve the feline's quality of life.” This also happens when a cat encounters another cat and wants to avoid trouble: it retreats and tries to hide. “Cardboard boxes thus improve relationships between different cats living in a house: they are an individual refuge in which to hide, forget outside problems and find the privacy every happy cat needs,” agrees ethologist Claudia Vinke, of Utrecht University.
From now on, whenever we have cats and a cardboard box ready for recycling, let’s give it to them without hesitation. And if we feel like it and are a little handy, let’s first turn the box into a toy for the animal. We can make holes, connect several boxes with tunnels, or paint them in cheerful colors. The possibilities offered by cardboard boxes are endless. Let’s make the most of them.
