On nights with fireworks, where do the cats disappear to?

The fireworks start, and suddenly your cat is gone. After searching the whole house, you finally find them under the bed or tucked away in a bookshelf. If you own a cat, you've probably experienced a night like this at least once.

Summer fireworks, New Year's celebratory gunshots, sudden thunderstorms, construction noise from the neighborhood. While we humans might just find these sounds "annoying," it seems cats don't feel the same way. Cats, with their keen hearing, perceive these sounds much louder than humans do. Furthermore, they are creatures whose instinctive alarm switch is triggered by sudden, unpredictable noises. A recent Dutch study has provided clear figures on just how many cats are affected by this.

A large-scale survey conducted by a research team from Utrecht University and other institutions interviewed 622 cat owners (Van Herwijnen et al., 2024). When asked about their cats' behavior during the New Year's fireworks period, 67.7% of cats flinched at something, 66.7% hid somewhere, 63.7% fled, and 52.6% became hypersensitive to sounds they usually tolerated. When limited to the exact moment fireworks were going off, the percentage of cats hiding rose to 75.9%. Overall, approximately 78% of cats were reported to have experienced some form of stress during the fireworks period.

For many cats, nights with fireworks or thunderstorms seem to be a time of fear that lasts much longer than we can imagine.

Another striking point from this study was that "providing hiding places" was highly ranked among the measures taken by owners in the same survey. The researchers pointed out that the dividing line between a cat's fear being temporary and becoming prolonged stress is whether there is "a safe place where they can escape by their own will."

Of course, hugging them and talking to them are important, but even more so is having a place where the cat can choose to go, thinking, "This place is safe." The Cat Cellar seems to be a perfect piece of furniture for just such a "place to escape to by themselves."

Not just during fireworks or thunderstorms, but also when guests visit, when you vacuum, right after moving, or when welcoming a new cat. There are surprisingly many situations in a cat's life where they might want a "hideaway." Rather than adding one piece of furniture, you're giving your cat another option. We hope you will welcome the Cat Cellar with this sentiment.

If you have any questions about how to use it, please feel free to send us a message via our official LINE. Our customer support staff will respond.

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※Reference: Van Herwijnen IR, Vinke CM, Arndt SS, Roulaux PEM. Firework aversion in cats and dogs as reported by Dutch animal owners. Veterinary and Animal Science. 2024;26:100402. doi: 10.1016/j.vas.2024.100402