Don’t worry, they are not perverts.
You just got home after a long, exhausting day, and all you can think about is relaxing under the warm water. You pull out your soft towel, choose your comfiest pajamas, and start heading to the bathroom.
But just as you’re about to close the door to enjoy that peaceful moment, suddenly… a furry leg slips through the crack in the door. That’s right, it’s your cat, with a suspicious look and an expression that seems to say, “Hey, what are you up to in there, closing the door?”
This has happened repeatedly, many times. You know that if you try to push your cat away, it will scratch at the door and meow pitifully. In the end, you will have to compromise: either you take a shower with the door ajar, or it will complain endlessly.
Eventually, you choose the first option because you don’t want to hear any more sounds for the day—other than the sound of water and your own singing in the shower.
But now, the most mysterious thing happens. Have you ever wondered what your cat does while you’re showering?
1001 cat expressions while you shower.
Sometimes, it sneaks through the crack in the door, jumps to a dry spot to watch you shower. Other times, it simply comes into the bathroom and sprawls out. At other times, it obediently sits outside the ajar door to keep watch over you.
But even when the cat is sitting outside, why doesn’t it let you close the door? Whenever you slam the bathroom door shut, it starts to howl? Is this furry creature obsessed with closed doors?
The answer is: Yes, cats hate closed doors!
It turns out it’s not just your bathroom door, cats hate all closed doors, whether they are entrance doors, windows, or bedroom doors. They will try to wedge their furry paw to prevent you from closing any of those doors whenever they are around.
Dr. Karen Sueda, a veterinarian specializing in animal behavior, explains: “That’s because cats have a bit of FOMO like humans.”
FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out,” which means the fear of missing out. In humans, FOMO is understood as the fear that one might miss exciting or interesting experiences that others are having.
For example, during the recent holiday, you declined a friend gathering just to stay home and rest, but then you felt FOMO wondering what your group of friends did while you were absent. You had to go online to check photos and videos of that gathering or text a close friend to find out what happened during the fun.
FOMO can also occur during your regular workday. You never know how the world has changed while you are glued to your computer in the office. So, in addition to your usual working windows, Word, Excel, and Chrome tabs, you also have to keep a Facebook window open and never close it—unless your boss is watching.
It turns out cats are the same. They do not want any doors closed on them. “The fear of missing out in cats is like: ‘I don’t know what’s on the other side of that door, and I want to go see and find out'”, Dr. Sueda says.
Cats are very curious about everything behind closed doors.
Cats are naturally curious animals, and they like to observe everything happening in their territory, including their owner’s home. Evolution has equipped them with a curious instinct and fear of missing out to help them survive in the wild.
“Cats are both predators and prey to some other animals. Therefore, they must always be vigilant and control their surrounding space,” cat behavior consultant Ingrid Johnson explains.
But when those furry monkeys evolved into humans and created doors, suddenly, the cats felt they were no longer in control of their own world.
Jane Ehrlich, another animal behavior expert, even describes a closed door with three C’s that haunt cats: They lose Choice, lose Control over their surrounding space, and are forced to Change.
“Although cats do not necessarily want to participate in what’s happening behind the door, they want to know what is going on,” Ehrlich says. That’s why the cat doesn’t necessarily need to come into the room to see you shower, but you have to leave the door ajar for them.
Cats also experience FOMO like humans. (Illustrative image).
So how can you train your cat to get used to closed doors?
There’s some bad news: Johnson states that your cats are not smart enough to understand when a door is closed that it’s only temporarily closed. “They only know that a place they used to access—where they felt safe, or liked to sleep, rest, eat, or do anything—has suddenly been taken away,” Johnson says.
“That’s why when we close a door, it causes stress for cats.”
So here’s advice for those who haven’t owned a cat yet and are about to get one: If you’re about to welcome a cat into your home, always keep all doors in the house closed, or at least the doors that separate areas you don’t want the cat to access, like the bathroom, toilet, or kitchen.
Once the cats don’t know it’s a door, they won’t demand that you open it.
You need to get your cat used to closed doors from a young age.
But what if you didn’t get a chance to do that? Your cat has discovered that the wooden door can open and lead to another space in your house. Here’s advice for those who already own a cat and haven’t had a chance to teach them about closed doors: Be patient.
First, bring your cat’s favorite treats or toys to one side of the door. Then, let the cat play and eat their food. While they are focused on playing or eating, close the door.
Next, wait until the cat is almost finished with its bowl of food, and then open the door as if nothing happened.
Gradually increase the time you keep the door closed by switching to lickable treats that take the cat longer to finish. Over time, your cat will learn to be “content” with temporarily closed doors.
Never give in.
The final piece of advice is not to indulge your cat excessively. If you close the door when you shower, then give in and open it when you see your cat meowing or scratching at the door, then when you open the door, the behavior being rewarded will make your cat understand that whenever it demands something, you respond to it.
Animal behavior scientists call this a reinforced behavior. And once it’s reinforced in their brains, you will never teach your cats to get used to closed doors.
After all, cats should know who the real owner of the house is. And sometimes, their owner needs a little privacy for themselves. The cat cannot always demand to supervise you every moment, even when you are in the bathroom.
