afraid of

What are your cats afraid of?

Yesterday I was with Tabu in a bathroom and there was a washing mashine working. Tabu was SOOO afraid of it, she wanted to go out, she meowed and she even panted like a dog when it's hot!

And both of my cats are afraid of this weird car that cleans roads in the evening. Tabu growl at it. She's also afraid of vacuum cleaner. Although she tried to attack it once...

 

Vacuum cleaners!!

Actually, weird noises like undoing duct tape makes one of them nervous, too. That screeching peeling noise can be really loud. Oh, and shaking out garbage bags to put them in the can.

 

Oh, bags! That's weird, because my cats are afraid of plastic bags too but Tabu tried sometimes (she doesn't do it now) to get UNDER the bag, and Mitra can get into a bag and stay there. But when I take a bag and shake it - no way, cats are miles away from me.

 

Yep, exactly! It's okay if it's on a table and they go up to it, create a little noise, etc. To shake it or try to open them, though? That noise will send them running under chairs in a flash.

 

What's more! It works like this even if it's a bag of FOOD! Tabu comes to the kitchen, she sits next to her bowl and when I shake a bag to give her food (sorry, I can't do this otherwise), she runs away... That's annoying sometimes

 

That's odd. My cats are super-sensitive to the sound of plastic bags. Even if they were in the next room or outside, they would be all around me even before I had finished opening the bag. If I were to shake the bag, they would check the floor carefully to see if anything edible had dropped out.

 

Victor, your cats are obviously hoping for food! When you open a trash bag (assuming yours are similarly packaged to mine), does that noise scare them?

 

Yes, vacuum cleaners are a classic, I guess because they are so loud and possibly can resemble thunder. As most cats thunder is about the only thing that has bothered my most recent one. My older cat was afraid of nearly everything, including other cats! But he had a lot of different problems himself.... However I found interesting was he had a fear of plastic bags. Most cats love those I heard, he was petrified of them!

 

My cats are suspicious of most things, especially other animals! They don't like dogs, raccoons, etc. And until I tamed them, they were scared of me, too.

 

No, they don't have any problems with trash bags. In fact, they will follow me out to the trash bin. So I have to close the trash bin lid firmly so that they won't be able to check out the trash bag when my back is turned.

Maybe my cats are like that because they were strays. Life in the streets isn't easy. You can't be choosy about your food. You eat whatever you can get. Quickly.

 

Dolores is afraid of a squeaky window. There's a window in the kitchen, that if I open it to let some air in, it squeaks and the sound makes her take off running. She's also not a fan of my blow dryer because it's pretty noisy.

 

I suppose the problem with the blow dryer is the same as that with the vacuum cleaner. There must be something about the sound of air being blown out or sucked in which triggers off some kind of primal reaction in cats.

Anyone wants to hazard a guess? I am speculating that it may be related to the sound of wind which heralds the rain. After all, cats are not exactly enamored of rain.

 

Do your cats freak out at animals on TV? I like to watch Animal Planet, especially the shows where they rescue abused animals. The sound of dogs on those TV shows freaks Dolores' entire being out and she also doesn't like the sound of Gordon Ramsey yelling, so I have to watch Hell's Kitchen with the volume on low.

 

Vacuum cleaners seem to be a given! Mine is also not keen on men with beards! I don't know why this is, but she hisses whenever my neighbour comes around to visit.. it's quite embarrassing because he's such a nice chap. Bonfire night is never good either..

 

They are both afraid of when our apartment door knocks or the apartment is buzzed. Max runs under the futon, while Batman runs to the kitchen. Max is also afraid of other people, while Batman is cautious of others and just sits there analyzing them. That's about it from my observations after this past year.

 

My 2 year old

 

One is afraid of the shower, sprinklers or heavy rain that hits the windows the other is afraid of the vacuum yet then its off she will paw it and attempt to kill it. Its a never ending battle to kill the vacuum.

 

When the vacuum is off, I assume? Or does she get really brave and go for it while you're using it?