If you’ve ever watched your cat spend a day wreaking havoc in your home, you already know indoor cats face a battle with boredom. I remember one instance in which my cat, Tux, caused a Zoom meeting to be abruptly cut short when he discovered a new pastime: hooking his paw through the handles of coffee mugs that sat in an open cabinet and shattering them on the countertop below.
“Things like knocking items off tables, scratching furniture, chewing on objects, or persistently seeking attention can all be a cat’s way of saying, ‘I’m bored and I need more to do,’” said Stephanie Merlin, certified cat behavior specialist and founder of The Fulfilled Feline, a private practice offering behavioral consultations for cat owners. Excessive sleeping, she adds, is just as telling: “We have a lot of preconceived ideas about cats being low-energy, aloof or independent, and those assumptions can lead us to misread what’s really going on.”
