As someone whose watch lists on different streaming services mostly consist of police procedural shows, I have to concede that this post, being the third after Rusty the Cat: On Food and Treats and Rusty the Cat: On Comfort Temperatures, moved the topic over the threshold when it definitely qualifies as serial… I mean, series.
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Do you know that cats love cardboard boxes?
Even though my grandparents had cats with whom I spent my summer breaks in the same house, and despite of the fact that my vSO and I had a cat once (I told this story many years ago – Orange Cats in My Life – Part I: Found and Lost), somehow I had never been privy to that cats’ trait.
I’m not sure why that was: either those particular cats that I observed were not adventurous; or maybe breeds of cats in my native country had different inclinations; or can it be that back then we didn’t have that many boxes in general, and those that we were rarely getting weren’t left out for pets to play?
Whatever it was, the first time I realized that it was “a thing” with cats was when many years ago a friend told me about the famous Japanese cat Maru and shared a couple of YouTube videos of him packing into different boxes, including the tiniest ones (it was years before he was certified by Guinness World Records as the most viewed single animal on YouTube).
And then we got Rusty, who over the years demonstrated to us how much cats love boxes.
Whenever a new box only gets in our house (which these days happens even more frequent than before), Rusty immediately plops himself on top of them. He notably likes wine boxes – probably because they are very steady and safe to jump on and off.
All other boxes are also fair game, especially once they are emptied. Rusty would pack himself into almost any box – be it large, small, tall or shallow.
Usually he stays in a new box for a while, probably until he impregnates it with his scent. After that he loses interest. But there are two boxes that we keep (replacing them from time to time on the same spot), and he uses them for years: one is a box to where he runs and hides when I yell at him for doing something he isn’t supposed to do (like trying to steal meat from a hot frying pan); and the second one is a “Greeting box,” as we call it: it stands facing an entrance door from the garage, and Rusty sits in it when we’re returning home from somewhere (on a picture below it’s a shallower box to the right from the temporary Rusty’s toy).
Undina's Looking Glass 
Rusty is the cutest cat ever. I love posts about him Undina. He has so much personality and joie de vivre!
Please give him a stroke and a snack with my love.
Portia xx
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Rusty was handsomely rewarded for his participation :)
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YAY! No cat was exploited in the creating of this post, eh?
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Aww, this post should have a cuteness alert because Rusty looks adorable in all the photos. Was he meowing loudly on that one picture in which his mouth is open?
My friend says cats are like water, they will fit to container of any shape and size.
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Rusty is very vocal, so he constantly talks to us.
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Looking at Rusty lowered my bloodpressure tonight after an annoying phone call with my credit card company. Just imagine if I could actually pet him. I’d be super chill. He’s so cute!
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Thank you!
Those calls can be annoying, I know. I hope you resolved the issue.
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Rusty sure is a fab cat. My cat loves boxes as well.
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Any pictures to share?
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Rusty is a star. My cats that are no longer here loved boxes. My Lily has no interest in them and is actually scared of them. Go figure.
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Rusty is often afraid of unknown objects, but it seems like boxes aren’t in that category.
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Rusty looks as suave as ever. I do love the way cats are compelled to sit in any and all boxes. I guess there must be an instinctual reason but it’s very cute.
The Greeting box!! !
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I read some explanations about snug spaces and cats. But it’s cute just to watch without trying to understand why.
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Such a handsome boy! I have photos of generations of my kitties in or on boxes. I don’t know …. you buy them expensive presents and yet they really love cardboard boxes!!!!
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I’m yet to do a post about Rusty and toys, but in general you’re absolutely right: those boxes beat all the store-bought toys.
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After learning last night that our schools will be remote learning to start the year (we were hoping for a hybrid model), I needed to see Rusty today! He’s so handsome.
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I’m sorry :( I understand that it might be hard on everybody involved. Let’s hope it all gets resolved soon. Do you have enough space and computers for everyone who needs to work or study at the same time?
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Rusty is such a gorgeous boy. Yes, cats adore boxes. My erstwhile Siamese always had to inspect each one, jump in it and then she tried to destroy it, chewing it up. Since that was rather messy, she never got to play with boxes for very long. I see Rusty is a more forebearing sort so he gets to keep his boxes. Such a good boy!
My fave cat and boxes photo is one of Maru with his 2 front feet barely fitting into a tiny box. He is just sitting with his feet in the tiny box looking so content in that photo! Nala Cat is the new Instagram star and her owner posts photos of her with boxes sometimes, but usually it’s something Nala is being employed to sell.
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Rusty is nuts when it comes to plastic – so there might be no packing tape or such left on the box, or he’ll eat it. But otherwise he’s fine.
I like one of Maru’s videos where he inserts his head in a tiny plastic box with the rest of him staying outside.
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My dear cat Caspie was absolutely OBSESSED with plastic! He would chew and bite anything that was remotely plastic – and he would search for it if you took it away from him. It looked like he really enjoyed the texture of it in his mouth. Unfortunately he got hold of my (new and expensive) glasses once and actually left bite marks in the lenses!
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If Rusty would just chew on plastic, we would have been ecstatic! Unfortunately, he swallows it. So, we have to be diligent hiding it in any form :(
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I love how cats have to climb into boxes, Undina. Part of their charm. You could seriously start a blog just about Rusty’s antics.
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Well, if to count all perfume-related posts that feature Rusty, this blog is already about him ;)
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So true.
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Ooh, thanks for the Rusty series 1 episode 3 😊 love the guilty look in the last picture.
I was well aware of this fact that cats love boxes, however Vega is the rare sort who actively hates boxes.
It has made me wonder over the years, if she was trapped or something.
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But maybe she just has Russian ancestors 😊
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:)))
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To be precise, it’s Season 2: over years I did multiple episodes of the Orange Cats In My Life series – not 100% about Rusty but related. But you know: cat “owners” can spend hours telling stories about their furry kids.
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True, we call orange cat in my life season 1, Rusty season 2 😁
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Absolutely, it’s our fur babies after all. It’s the only way for me to understand why on earth people can go on and on about their ( non fur) kids, hehe.
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:)
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Love this! I especially like the photo of him sitting regally in the tiny box, lol. What a character!
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That was a box in which a flower arrangement (I think, for my birthday) was delivered – you can see a florist name on it. I thought it was funny how he packed himself into it.
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It really is!
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Ah yes, it is standard cat behaviour – they seem to prefer the packaging to an expensive toy or piece of cat furniture you might have bought them in it. I especially love the shot of Rusty caught in mid-miaow, standing on the white box
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I think he was expressing his disapproval with us paying attention to all those boxes we brought back from our trip to the wine country instead of feeding him (it was still too early for that, but Rusty didn’t want to know that :) ).
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Rusty is so adorable! I had a torn piece of cardboard in the middle of my living room for at least 6 months because it brought the cats so much joy LOL
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Oh, yeah: what won’t we do for them? They trained us well :)
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What a cute post! Rusty is photogenic and knows it too! Is there any kind of box that he would not try to get into / use? How about paper bags?
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I don’t remember any box he wouldn’t try to get on or into. I’ll write about Rusty and shopping bags in one of the next episodes :)
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