A Cat and His Box
Posted on January 13, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
Zeus the cat, shown here being fooled into attacking the underside of a box by the scratching sounds my wife is making, has become quite attached to the self-same box. The box is the one my most recent desktop computer came in; I pulled the computer out of it and the kept the box for a bit just in case something went horribly wrong and I needed to ship the thing back.
As it turns out the computer runs perfectly well, but in the interim Zeus has decided that the box is his spot, i.e., the one place that for him and him alone. If Lopsided Cat dares to sit on it Zeus will thump on him until he moves, and then lie down on it himself as if to reclaim it. It’s kind of adorable, in a cat way.
So although the box now serves no real purpose any more and is in fact a little bit in the way, I think I’ll keep for at least a while longer. It makes Zeus happy and doesn’t hugely inconvenience me, and it’s certainly a cheaper cat seat than many others I might buy (and have). So, enjoy yourself, Zeus. I wouldn’t keep a big pointless box in my office for just anyone, you know.
My brain has been flooded with kitty cuteness.
Make it stop.
Why in the world would you think that the room is “your” office?
Silly human!
My two tuxedo-clad bosses firmly approve. One is purring on my lap, in fact, as if to tell me that I should promptly obtain a similarly suitable cat bed for him, too. Since I’ve been contemplating replacing my elderly laptop, this is an actual possibility.
[Purrrrrrrrrrrr]
When we first moved in here ten years ago, at some point we went grocery shopping and came home with a cardboard flat just big enough to hold one six-pack of soda. Because we didn’t quite have space for the soda itself in the fridge, I put it on the portable butcherblock-cabinet-on-wheels thing that we have in the kitchen. When I finally put the soda in the fridge, I heard a rustling sound. One of our cats thought the cardboard flat was a perfect nesting spot. He continued to nest in it until he got so big that the sides flattened out, at which point he looked crestfallen. Next time we went to Sam’s Club, I found a cardboard flat big enough to fit about twelve cans of vegetables–a little wider, and about twice as long, as the previous flat. Our two youngest cats (10 and 2.5, the 10 yo is the one who liked the previous flat) think it’s the greatest thing ever. One of the short sides has already given out.
:-)
This happens with paper grocery bags in our house. And every once in a while a delivered box, but most of those are not as awesome as bags, for some reason. Sometimes the Greybeast and our black cat share by taking turns, but just as often one will harass the other when the one is sure it is HIS (or her) turn.
After our last move the cat claimed an empty document box. However, the walls were just too high and so it became a months-long art project for her to shred them with her teeth, one tiny spit-out fragment at a time, until the box became a jagged two-inch-high tray, which is now her favorite bed. 3.5 years later it’s time to move again and I can’t decide whether we should bring it along so she’ll feel at home, or give her a fresh box to start working on.
Ah yes, the old cat and a box situation. Our cat is rather fond of them too.
We keep boxes around all the time for the use of our feline masters. Some large, some flat tray type. We swap them out periodically, for more enjoyment.
Being surmounted by a cat bearing the ancient pagan name of Ceiling Cat makes that box a latter-day feline Mount Olympus.
What a happy kitty!
One of my past cats, Thumper, really liked to sharpen his claws on corrugated cardboard boxes. Way better than scratching the furniture, and he liked them better than scratching posts, and there was always a supply of new ones available after he trashed an old one, so sure.
I think it says something about my current priorities that I find the instrument more interesting than the cat and its box. Is that a banjolele?
My current profile picture on Facebook is of one of my cats curled up in a box.
‘…although the box now serves no real purpose anymore…’
I’m shocked! That box has *found* its purpose!! And very cute, too :).
we have several similar cat domiciles around the house, some in various stages of being consumed as there is no finer delicacy as a well aged box.
Better to sit/sleep on the box rather than on the keyboard.
One of our cats has taken over the basket that we used for collecting recycling, so much so that if we dare drop something in it, he’ll throw it out. We have resorted to putting the recyclables in a cardboard box, which irritates the other cats, who quite liked the box. There’s no winning for losing, sometimes.
First I’ll wave my hands at the box containing Schrödinger’s cat, that famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory of superposition, proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Then I’ll mention that my puppy “Pip” has learned to modulate a contented growl into a purr when petted just right.
I notice the throne contains a stack of books. Brings back memories of my mom putting a phone book under me back when I was too short to reach the crash cymbal.
You do realize you have just spent thousands of dollars to buy a cat toy, don’t you? :)
Every visit to Costco brings a fresh box for the tribe to argue over. It’s always a debate as to which week I finally toss it in the recycle. My latest laptop box was a big hit, too. I finally got rid of it after someone arfed a hairball on it. The joys of cat ownership.
Quoth Kore: “You do realize you have just spent thousands of dollars to buy a cat toy, don’t you?”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
.
My pup was delighted with his first toy ever, months ago. A squeeze-and-it-quacks stuffed cloth duck. He would bite it to get quacks, pick it up, move it to places in the garden and talk back to it. Eventually, he performed a squeakectomy.
Several of my cats have found the box containing the latest cat tree to be quite a desirable lounging spot. For this reason, the cat tree itself is still in the box.
Our cat, MInty, tries to get into any box he sees; I think he has security issues.
Amazing. Greetings from Brazil.
Ética Animal
Gatos Mimados!!
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