Inventive & Sneaky
Fiona almost disappears against the stainless steel interior of the dishwasher.
Every cat needs a good hiding place or two or three, especially when one of the humans is trying to take it to the vet or another kitty is hot on its tail. Over the years our kids have been inventive and sneaky; though, sometimes they have not completely hidden but merely gotten themselves into a space unreachable by human hands. Both Thelma and Louise liked to flatten themselves against the wall under the very center of the king-sized waterbed. This was the perfect tactic since even with the bedroom door closed and a kitty caregiver on each side of the bed, they could jump to the window sill and escape across the top of the bed. It didn’t matter if they were unable to escape the room. They knew that when caught we’d never keep our grip on a squirming, flailing, claw-extended cat. When the door was opened the gyrations would begin. Soon we would be racing after a feline flying down and up and up and down the stairs and throughout the house.
Before the New Kitchen
Lily secrets herself from the other felines in a basket.
Prior to our kitchen redo, another of Louise’s favorite hiding places, which she usually saved for what Dad Tom calls, “The Round-Up,” (when the vet comes to the house for annual check-ups and shots) was on top of an enclosed kitchen radiator camouflaged by a curtain. And Daphne used that as a point of entry to a corner cabinet where she wedged herself behind a lazy susan. It took a contortionist (me) to drag her from this niche.
Daphne tucks herself into a pot in the previous breakfast room.
Also before the make-over, all of our felines, as kittens, would crawl through a tiny space between a base cabinet and the stove if we didn’t keep it covered with cardboard and duct tape. Once there, they could scamper around under the peninsula and behind the cabinets. Every once in a while we needed to pull out the stove to retrieve the toys, pencils, corks, coins, bag ties and other bright, shiny objects that had been batted into or taken through the hole.
And again while we were in the old-kitchen era, every kitten found the built-in wine rack at the end of the peninsula. Its compartments perfectly fit their little bodies. This hiding place gave them the opportunity to attack the ankles of unsuspecting passersby!
Alex, another kitten from one of Mom’s* litters, tucks himself into the wine rack. (The wine rack is now enclosed inside an upper cabinet.)
In the new kitchen, Astrid discovers Lisbeth’s hiding place during a rousing game of Hide ‘n Seek.
The previous four hiding places have been eliminated with the kitchen remodel. A variety of others remain. We still have plenty of radiators for a flexible cat to secret itself under or behind. And, of course, shelves, drawers, closets, laundry hampers and suitcases work well, often hiding and trapping a feline whose only intention was to take a quick look around.
Update to this post: Lisbeth has found a place to hide that we have never discovered! She scared us terribly when we thought she had escaped the house during a delivery. We spent hours searching outside and inside, and I had convinced myself she had jumped in the delivery truck and only escaped it after it arrived at its next destination. Dad Tom and I went to bed, and I cried myself to sleep. When I got up at 3 a.m. to use the bathroom, Lisbeth showed up in the hall. I have never discovered where she was hiding during those 12-plus hours!
Hiding Assistance
But the sneakiest cats of all are the ones who help hide other cats. If you look closely, you can see Giulietta’s face peeking out from behind Fiona.
Once, much to our dismay, Louise hid herself in our neighbor’s basement for two weeks. But that is a long story for a another post.
Mauricio discovers Misty May hiding in a bag of used Christmas wrappings.
These photos of cats in baskets, cabinets, pots and a variety of other creative places are a small representation of those we have snapped of cats in hiding. In the future I definitely plan to share others as some are hysterical.
Mauricio wiggled his way onto a shelf of tablets to spy on Tom while he worked at his desk.
And, if you would like to see photos of cats in hiding already posted, please visit, “Cat in a Box” and “Cats in High Places.”
And speaking of “Cat in a Box”: With the holidays coming, remember to carefully check all shipping boxes prior to sealing and mailing. Astrid, Giulietta and Mauricio were all in danger of being sent out-of-state to Meredith (whose Comments you often can read here) this morning. As the box was already heavy with books, I might not have noticed the extra weight!
Where do your cats like to hide? You can tell me about their favorite hiding places by leaving a Comment below. Maybe it will help us the next time one of our pusses pulls a disappearing act.
* Mom was the stray cat that was the mother of our cats, Daphne, Thelma and Louise, and many others we for which we found homes.
