Lately, cats have been the main subject of many virals on the internet. They are cute and they are fluffy, but they are also elegant and royal and sometimes savage, because as history shows, they never accepted humans as their owners, but more likely they think they are in charge. But what happens when the cat in charge gets scared? The internet is now raging about cats and new major enemy: the cucumber.
People have been posting videos of their cats being scared by cucumbers and now specialists are explaining the phenomenon and are advising cat owners to stop frightening their cats.
One of the reasons cats get scared is the simple element of surprise. They do not expect to turn around and see something behind them that wasn’t there a few moments ago, so naturally they are startled.
Another reason why cats get scared is that they are very suspicious creatures and seeing something unknown, they immediately associate it with danger and therefore they act accordingly, running away from it.
According to the author of “Think Like a Cat”, Pam Johnson-Bennett, there is another theory that could explain cats’ reaction, which is about the place they eat in. Cats are obviously familiar with the places they eat in and consider those places as safe, so they feel comfortable and secure in that space. Once a foreign object enters the safe place unnoticed, the cat is frightened because it feels threatened and no longer secure.
Although it might take more for humans to get scared, the principles are more or less the same. Just as cats, we can be taken by surprise and easily get scared, we fear the unknown, and many of us, especially those who are not fans of change, will be afraid of anything new that enters our private space. The only major difference is that we don’t have the physical abilities of a cat and our reactions are slower and, of course, less spectacular.
In the end, dear cat owners, you are strongly advised to stop scaring your cats with cucumbers or any other objects that your cat sees as life-threatening, because otherwise you are causing them severe stress. And a stressed cat, which, I remind you, thinks that it’s in charge, might be causing you severe stress.
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