Why do cats love boxes? Let us count the ways

It's the day after Christmas, so we're guessing your house is filled with empty boxes. And we bet your cat is having a heyday with all the surplus "toys."

Cats and boxes go together like ribbons and bows. What's the attraction? We checked with experts to find out.
Cats have a couple of different motivations for getting inside boxes and bags, says feline behavior expert John Wright, professor emeritus of psychology at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. One is play. (...)

Having access to a box where they can hide has even been shown to reduce stress in shelter cats. Researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands published a paper in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, which found that cats in shelters who had a hiding box had lower stress scores. In case you didn't know, a cat's stress levels are judged using the Kessler-Turner Cat Stress Score — a system that rates feline stress on a scale from 1 to 7, ranging from relaxed to terrified.

Het volledige artikel is verschenen in Florida Weekly, 21 december 2016