Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I really should read my own blog.

This really is a full service blog.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

This blog will pay for itself.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The willow is too close to the house.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The words do not have to be perfect.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Cats Love Boxes! (Open Thread)

Cats Love Boxes! (Open Thread)

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Here’s photographic evidence that it’s not just your comparatively dainty backyard saucer-scraper who loves to play in boxes:

big cat box 2

This tufted beauty also loves boxes every bit as much as cat wrangler Marc’s marauding kitten horde no doubt does:

big cat box

I’m a dog person, but one thing I miss about having cats around is their box and bag antics. Someday!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  4. 4.

    J R in WV

    Wow, does the big cat in the “Rusty” box have some beautiful ears or what?

    Our cats like their little cat caves too. And Punkin, the formerly fat cat with the drapey belly-skin now that she’s svelt loves to sit on a paper bag and tear it into shreds with her teeth.I love me some cats!

  6. 6.

    Germy

    Rusty has the same expression on his face that our little kitteh gets when she sits in a shoebox. Dignified and serious contentment.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @J R in WV: Those ears!

    Despite being a confirmed dog person, I love cats too, and someday, I will prevail upon the mister to add one or two to our menagerie. I’m just biding my time…

  8. 8.

    geg6

    Beautiful cat! And I’m not even a cat person.

    Lovey loves her some boxes. She loves to hide. In a box, her kennel, under chairs, under the bed, between the couch and the comforter that covers it. Pretty much anywhere she can burrow under or into.

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    Did anyone see the Acrocats on Colbert a few nights ago? They, uh, pretty much stayed in their boxes. It was funny. The only one prancing through was Colbert, in cat ears.

    Guess it was Monday night, commemorating the Paris attacks, they opened with blue, white and red (vive la France) and music.

    Aha: digg is on it.

    CAN’T TEACH A CAT NEW ANYTHING
    Colbert’s ‘Fuck You’ To ISIS Was The Amazing Acro-Cats

    It’s been a long-held belief that terrorism triumphs when fear replaces joy, and what could be more frivolous and joyful than cats who barely give a damn about performing tricks they’ve been trained to do?

  14. 14.

    Germy

    Our cat’s favorite game is called “Attack From Hidden Place”

    She conceals herself under a chair (it has cloth cover all around the bottom) and then when I dangle a toy, one paw darts out to catch the toy. Claws out, she catches the toy and drags it into her hiding spot.

    repeat until she loses interest.

  15. 15.

    NobodySpecial

    I have always wondered about why cats love boxes but have never wondered enough to actually Google the answer.

    And, of course, as a old gamer, this picture comes immediately to mind…

  19. 19.

    Tommy

    I read a story the other day that panthers are going to soon make all their way to Illinois. I find this kind of neat since like the first project I worked on in my professional life was a kit for school kids in Florida to save said panthers. Appears we did our little part to save them. Oh and yes there are panthers in FL if you wonder!

  21. 21.

    PurpleGirl

    It may have been on National Geographic or Animal Planet but I saw a show about big cats and how they play with boxes. It was funny watching them.

    At my friend’s kitten rescue housewarming on Sunday, there was a lot of paper stuffing from Amazon boxes. The cats and kittens love the paper, so it was saved. (There already are a lot of boxes in the house.)

    ETA: I’ll have try to bring over some pictures from the party. There is one of a momcat and two kittens sitting in paper.

  23. 23.

    The Other Chuck

    @NobodySpecial: Something about claiming spaces with defined boundaries. Same reason they’ll sit on any newspaper you set down on the floor. Just put a circle of string on the floor sometime: they’ll invariably sit in the center of it.

  26. 26.

    Tommy

    Sitting at a vet. House sitting my brothers dog. He got really sick. I just had one thing to do, watch his dog. Clearly I was not successful in this little thing.

  28. 28.

    Srv

    Cats are true conservatives. They’re happy with the simple things and satisfied with what they have. If only liberals could be more like them.

  29. 29.

    EZSmirkzz

    Sen. Marco Rubio just called for shutting down the Republican Caucus in the US House of Representatives!

    “Well, I think it’s not about closing down mosques. It’s about closing down any place, whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site, any place where radicals are being inspired,” the senator said. “The bigger problem we have is our inability to find out where these places are because we’ve crippled our intelligence programs.”

    Goes without saying sir, goes without saying.

  31. 31.

    Germy

    I used to have a cat (30+ years ago) who looked just like Tunch. Except he had spots on his white fur. He was a big guy, and liked to stretch out on his stomach for relaxation, with his arms forward.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @Germy: When he was younger, my boy kitty would hide behind the curtains and then jump out at my puppy when he walked by. It was pretty funny and I meant to take videos; I hope I did!

    Funny in a different way was the day my boy kitty jumped out at me (!) when I was walking by the curtain. I think i blurted out a very real “eek!” and then laughed because he had gotten me, too. Kind of sad that he has given that up now that he’s 5. :-(

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Germy: Hey! When I tried to post my kitty story below I got the evil server error. And of course I had forgotten to copy my comment before pressing post. So sad! Then I thought to try the back button, and there was my comment sitting there, just waiting for me to press Post.

    Maybe try that next time you get the evil error when you try to post a comment?

  34. 34.

    Tommy

    @Betty Cracker: I sure hope so. Couldn’t get my brother on the phone so I took him to my vet. Lady is a rock star. When not tending to a dog or cat she is mobile looking at horses or cows. Always felt she might know what she is doing.

  37. 37.

    Germy

    @WaterGirl: thanks, I’ll give it a try.

    The pounce from the curtains is a favorite of young cats. It’s a great game for them, and I think they’re even happier if you let out a yell.

  39. 39.

    Mike J

    @Elizabelle:

    They, uh, pretty much stayed in their boxes. It was funny. The only one prancing through was Colbert, in cat ears.

    Guess it was Monday night, commemorating the Paris attacks, they opened with blue, white and red (vive la France) and music.

    Nobody told the cats, “qui ne saute pas n’est pas Français.”

  40. 40.

    Tommy

    I am a cat guy, but have thought more than a little about getting a dog. But I will tell you this, housesitting a large dog for a week, I really like my cat is not as needy.Put out food, water, and she doesn’t need me. This dog so much more effort.

  41. 41.

    TaMara (BHF)

    We have a bobcat wandering around Boulder these days. People have pictures and video of him/her – stunning looking. Very unusual, but kind of fun. When I moved to this side of the Front Range, I did so because I wanted to be closer to the mountains and wildlife. Not disappointed – mountain lions, bear, moose and now the bobcat all spotted nearby. Not that I have spotted them, but I am content with the eagles, hawks and osprey I see all the time.

  42. 42.

    Germy

    A cat can be easier. “Here’s the food dish, here’s the litterbox, you know the drill.”

    But our cat will complain loudly several times a day if she wants to play and nobody gets up to participate.

    odd thing is, I bought some cat toys called “solo play” or something like that, and in fine print it warns not to leave the cat alone with the toys. (choking hazard?)

    But our cat will have intense fun catching a tossed crumpled piece of paper.

  43. 43.

    Germy

    I remember reading Fabulous Freak Brothers comic books. They had a pet cat “Fat Freddie’s Cat” who was smart and crafty. They took him along on adventures. Camped out, and showed him a teepee. The cat circled it several times and then complained he couldn’t find a corner to pee on.

    One day during a camping trip the cat wandered off and encountered a lynx. Asked him if he was where “Lynx (linked) sausages came from.”

    Anyone remember him?

  44. 44.

    Mandalay

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Drum has been a pants wetting squish.

    That’s completely misrepresenting his position. He’s saying that liberals should stop mocking those who have concerns about refugees:

    Mocking it is the worst thing we could do. It validates all the worst stereotypes about liberals that we put political correctness ahead of national security. It doesn’t matter if that’s right or wrong. Ordinary people see the refugees as a common sense thing to be concerned about. We shouldn’t respond by essentially calling them idiots. That way lies electoral disaster.

    Drum is saying that mockery is a dumb approach if you want to win elections, and he is right.

  45. 45.

    Tommy

    @TaMara (BHF): We have been very successful in reinducing cats, deer, wolves, you name it. Some would say to successful. Where I live we have an over deer population. You need animals that kill them. But people are scared of the animals that do that.

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    Support pours in for fired E. Greenbush Walmart employee who redeemed $5.10 of cans
    November 19, 2015

    A Times Union story about a Walmart employee fired from his job for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded in the parking lot sparked widespread outrage and is gaining traction nationally via social media.

    Local readers wrote and called the Times Union to express their anger at Walmart and vowed to boycott the store and to send the fired worker donations. An Altamont woman fired off a letter of indignation to C. Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart.

    This groundswell of civic action was touched off by a Times Union story Thursday about Smith, 52, who liked his job gathering shopping carts from the vast parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter here, where customers often left trash and empty drink containers.

    Smith picked up the garbage for more than two months until Nov. 6, when he was fired for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded on two occasions.

    He was called into the security office and interrogated by a manager and two security staff members.

    “I didn’t know you couldn’t take empties left behind. They were garbage,” Smith said. “I didn’t even get a chance to explain myself. They told me to turn in my badge.”
    […]
    Smith was fired from his $9-an-hour job a few weeks before his 90-day probationary period was up, denying him a 10 percent employee discount and other benefits.

    Smith, who is African-American, contacted prisoner advocate Alice Green at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She took up Smith’s cause after hearing his account that alleged racial discrimination. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. The cashier paid the money back and was not terminated because she has five kids.
    “It raised issues of race and gender,” Green said.

    http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Walmart-fires-East-Greenbush-employee-for-6642073.php

  47. 47.

    bemused

    @Tommy:

    We have the big cats in NE Minn. My husband was just telling me of a friend catching pic of one on his trail cam at their hunting shack. We have also heard the screaming of a big cat in the middle of the night a few times during summers. Haven’t gotten any pics on our trail cam or seen one ourselves yet but one was taking a nap on neighbor’s driveway one sunny winter afternoon.

  48. 48.

    PurpleGirl

    @Tommy: When my friends lived in Peekskill, I’d move in for the week or the few days they needed me to house-sit their menagerie. They’d pay my train fare to go to work. In a nine room house they had: 1 Doberman pinscher, 3 (then 4) retired racy grayhounds, a cat, 2 parrots, 3 ferrets and an every changing number of gerbils. The cat was the easiest critter to take care of; the dogs, not so much.

  49. 49.

    bemused

    @Germy:

    Ball of paper is a favorite of our two kitties too. They sit and wait, staring at us to throw the balls for them to chase.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @Bobby Thomson & khead: Do y’all think Drum is saying we should change our refugee policy? I didn’t read it that way. Sounds like he’s just tone policing. I think he’s wrong about mockery on Twitter’s potential to change electoral fortunes — nobody gives a flying fuck. But I don’t think he’s saying the Republicans are right.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    Ya know Betty, it is OK to have both cats & dogs. I do. My cats are fine with my dogs. My dogs don’t really care about the cats unless the cats are fighting, which they do. Wish they’d get along but they don’t.

  55. 55.

    Peale

    The police memo said the meeting, held in southern Philippines, was attended by “14 leaders from the three outfits and 50 members of Abu Sayyaf armed with M16 rifles, pistols and bombs.”

    It said that Islamic State and Abu Sayyaf have eight suicide bomber in Sabah, Malaysia’s western state, and 10 in Kuala Lumpur.

    “These suicide bombers underwent military training in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as prepared to receive orders from their leaders to launch attacks/bombings,” Malaysiakini quoted the circular as saying.

    Pretty much sums up 14 years of the GWoT, that we’re still concerned about attacks by the same terrorist groups that we were when it started. Only added a few new ones. Hollande have any better solutions than declaring war and complaining that the US is not moving fast enough? Is he planning on sending more troops to Mali now that his country’s victory over terror in that country appears to be shaky?

  58. 58.

    Goblue72

    @Bobby Thomson: He’s a Nancy buying into the rightwing’s arguments. Yes, mocking cowards – and calling them pantswetting pussies – is exactly the correct response.

  60. 60.

    EthylEster

    My cat ignores boxes. Very strange. Also he does not hang around doors, waiting for them to be opened so he can escape. He has no interest in being outdoors. He likes to watch what happens outdoors but he doesn’t want to be there. I don’t get it. But he is otherwise very nice and smells great.

  61. 61.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Betty Cracker: he’s saying their concerns are perfectly reasonable, because he’s steeped in WASP privilege. He’s calling for the same squishiness that worked do well in 2003 and made him Instaracist’s favorite “liberal” blogger.

  62. 62.

    Manyakitty

    So, since this is an open-ish pet-themed thread, is there going to be a calendar this year? I can’t find anything about it, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t miss the info,

  64. 64.

    kc

    I think Kevin Drum has a point, but people who are more invested in signaling their moral superiority than in effectively helping refugees may disagree.

  69. 69.

    workworkwork

    @Srv: Cats are actually libertarians – they want all the benefits of being part of a community without any of the responsibilities that go along with it.

    Come to think of it, you could say that about conservatives as well.

    Huh.

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