Evidently, a Yoga Mat Looks Like a Giant Box to a Cat

I only turned my back for 5 seconds!

Ginger Tabbies Chris (top) and Wallace (bottom) — photo by Beth Bach

I was getting ready to do some physical therapy exercises and opened up a new yoga mat to try out. I unrolled the mat, laid it on the floor, and turned to put the packaging in the trash. I turned back around to see THIS.

So how long did it take me to walk about eight feet and open the trash can and then turn around again? If I was being SUPER slow about it, max of ten seconds? I’m guessing it was more like five.

I don’t even know where these two were in the room to have appeared this quickly!

I think it must look like the outline of a box to them on the floor and we all know how they feel about boxes!

Seeing them do this made me remember an article I read last year about a citizen science project that tested to see if cats would sit in fake boxes made by taping the outlines of squares onto the floor. Guess what? They certainly will!