{"id":17927,"date":"2017-07-23T00:10:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T04:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=17927"},"modified":"2017-07-29T14:48:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-29T18:48:54","slug":"peekaboo-i-see-mew-and-other-hide-and-seek-cat-behaviors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/peekaboo-i-see-mew-and-other-hide-and-seek-cat-behaviors\/","title":{"rendered":"Peekaboo – I See Mew and Other Hide and Seek Cat Behaviors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cat under the curtain? What cat?<\/p><\/div>\n

Peekaboo \u2013 that simple form of play with an infant where someone hides their face, then pops back into view, causing the infant amusement – is a fundamental, universal concept in an infant’s inability to understand object permanence. Swiss clinical psychologist, Jean Piaget, known for his pioneering work in child development conducted experiments<\/a> with infants, concluding object performance was typically achieved at eight to nine months of age. I bring this up because cats also have a peekaboo mindset and Jazmine reminded me of this the other day when she was hiding behind a sheer curtain, convinced I couldn\u2019t see her.<\/p>\n

Why do cats do that? It\u2019s actually quite simple \u2013 it\u2019s all about their wild side. Your cat doesn\u2019t realize she can be seen through the curtain, so for her, the fabric provides a safe and concealed spot to hide while still being able to keep tabs on her surroundings (i.e., her turf). This stems from a cat\u2019s instinctual need to define her territory and stalk, hunt, and kill prey. The curtain becomes a camouflage bush come to life from the jungle of your bedroom, so to speak.<\/p>\n

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Central to Piaget’s object performance theory is the “out of sight, out of mind” concept, which Jazmine seems to believe.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Jazmine catches on that she might have been discovered – you can tell by her frozen, “deer-in-the-headlights” look..<\/p><\/div>\n

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Jazmine gives it one last half-hearted (and very poor attempt) to remain hidden!<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s also why you might feel a swipe at your ankles from underneath your bed skirt when you’re\u00a0innocently walking by from a cat who clearly thinks he’s invisible (despite the tell-tale swishing of his tail in plain view), or you\u2019ll see your cat hiding behind a door or underneath a blanket. In a multi-cat home, this is especially true. It\u2019s not necessarily that your cat is hiding from you, but probably more so your cat is hiding from a fellow cat-mate, ready to pounce with a surprise attack at any moment, defending what he considers his territory!<\/p>\n

Just like children, cats also like to play hide and seek, often with their own toys. You\u2019ll find a stuffed toy dropped in your purse or one of your shoes (or maybe even a real mouse or bug). Or maybe you\u2019ll find toys stashed under your couch, or in a box, or whatever other clever place your cat designates as safe.<\/p>\n

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Every time I move the couch to vacuum I find Kizmet’s stash of toys. As you can tell, I don’t vacuum much, and he’s quite possessive of his “kill.”<\/p><\/div>\n

The reasoning behind all of this behavior is actually quite ingenious. Your cat basically lives within the confines of your indoor home. They\u00a0get bored, so to create an environment suited to their natural hunt and prey instincts, aka hide and seek, they have to improvise with items around the house. Your cat is just doing his best to be a cat with the tools at his disposal.<\/p>\n

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One of the most nefarious items in our household is my left flipflop. Zee is particularly concerned with it and will drag it to various spots in the house for me to find later.<\/p><\/div>\n

As a responsible cat guardian, to help keep his mind sharp and body fit, consider providing him with new and interesting toys to play with. Surprise him by tucking something near his scratching post so he can \u201cfind\u201d it. Or give him an empty box out of the blue to hide in, or get a puzzle toy to put treats inside so retrieving them can simulate the act of hunting and killing prey.<\/p>\n

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It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this is the whole gang enjoying the challenge of getting treats out of a puzzle dispenser.<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I think it would be quite difficult to live with the same old, same old 24\/7\/365 \u2013 no wonder our cats are so clever about inventing ways to keep things more interesting! And out of curiosity, how many of you have a cat that will actually play hide and seek with you in the physical sense? Both Zee and his son, Rolz, love to do that with me. If I make eye contact with either one of them and then quickly run off, it\u2019s their\u00a0signal to chase after me to find me. I typically hide behind a door and when I\u2019m found, I get the most endearing meow greeting of, \u201cHa ha, I got you!”<\/p>\n

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My hide and seek buddies – Rolz and Zee.<\/p><\/div>\n

Happy Sunday dear friends \u2013 if you\u2019d like to learn more about the fascinating behavior of peekaboo\/hide and seek in cats, as well as to read some entertaining stories from other cat lovers about these habits, please consider reading Makin\u2019 Biscuits \u2013 Weird Cat Habits and the Even Weirder Habits of the Humans Who Love Them<\/a>, which recently won three awards at the Cat Writers\u2019 Association Annual Awards Communications Contest<\/a>, including Best Book\/Other Category, the Animal-Human Bond Award from Goodnewsforpets.com<\/a>, and the coveted President\u2019s Award which represents the best of the best from all entries.<\/p>\n

Now, I best run to locate Zoey…However will I find her?<\/p>\n

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I need some help…Has anyone seen Zoey?<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peekaboo \u2013 that simple form of play with an infant where someone hides their face, then pops back into view, causing the infant amusement – is a fundamental, universal concept in an infant’s inability to understand object permanence. Swiss clinical psychologist, Jean Piaget, known for his pioneering work in child development conducted experiments with infants, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1098,1096,1233,1097,1216],"tags":[1293,345,1292,1276,249],"class_list":["post-17927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-behavior","category-general-cat-care-and-health","category-makin-biscuits-book","category-multi-cat-home","category-sunday-selfie","tag-cat-boredom","tag-cat-habits","tag-cats-hiding","tag-feline-behavior","tag-feline-human-bond"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/curtain.4.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17927"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17962,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17927\/revisions\/17962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}