Cats love cubbyholes, tents, caves, and other hidey places. They curl up in boxes, drawers, closets, and even under the bed. How many times have you opened the linen closet and found a cat resting on a stack of towels or behind folded sheets? Or looked all over for a cat and found her sleeping in the closet?
There’s an experiment people perform with
their cats and most cats fall for it. You create a circle (or it can be a square) on the floor using blocks, pencils, the cat’s toys, socks—it doesn’t matter. But once you’ve made the shape, the cat will generally step inside it and sit down. Smokey (aka Rags in my Klepto Cat Mystery stories) actually moved the items around before he stepped inside the circle that I made for him. Yup, he’s creative.
In winter, we toss blankets over the furniture for our cats to cuddle under. They love this. We find it especially important when we’re going to be gone for a while and we’ve turned the heater down a few notches because their body heat inside the tent keeps them warmer.
What happens at your house when you receive a box in the mail? Here, Sophie shreds the packing paper and makes herself a little bed and Lily chews on the tape around the box. Then they dive into the box and sit, sometimes together, but generally they take turns being queen of the Amazon box.
Open a suitcase to begin the packing process for a trip and the cat will jump inside. Leave a 
drawer open for a moment and the next thing you know the cat’s in there. Kitchen cabinets—the same thing. We had a lazy Susan corner cupboard once and would lose kittens back in there sometimes. No worries, we’d always rescue them. They taught us to keep that cupboard closed.
Why do cats love enclosed spaces? It makes them feel safe and secure. Cats are natural predators, and what do cats do when they’re stalking prey? They hide in the tall grass, behind a shrub, in a tree, or behind a garden rake. So this is another interesting aspect to cats that’s actually in their genes.
