Boxes, paper grocery bags, a shelf in a linen closet…if it’s a tight fit, your cat will like squeezing herself into it. The sense of security derived by felines in a close space is so strong that cats who are given a box when they arrive at a shelter calm down by day 2, according to a study conducted by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. It takes a full week to calm down for newly arrived cats who are not given boxes.
The boxes don’t just provide a sense of security. They also help a cat keep warm; felines like indoor temperatures higher than we do, as we said on page 1. And they like having their abdominal organs covered by curling up into a ball. It makes them feel safer from injury.
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