When you are lazing around the house and even after you have eaten your meal you still find yourself in front of the fridge.
Why does this happen? Even if you are not hungry you find food to fill up your time, but cats are animals and their only fundamental is to eat or to hunt.
When they are sheltered or taken as pets they may be tamed or controlled but that doesn’t mean they leave their instincts behind
So when you find your cat near the fridge or find it obsessing over the refrigerator you may find the reason for it very intriguing.
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Why Is My Cat Obsessed With The Fridge?
As I said the primary focus of activities of a cat includes eating, your cat might be obsessing over the fridge as it associates it being a source of food.
When you open the fridge door, the aroma of food spreads throughout, cats have a very strong sense of smell and when they sense this aroma they might relate the fridge to something that provides them food.
The pet may also hang around the fridge a lot if it sees you getting something from the fridge that you feed the cat or the food it particularly likes.
Cats are like human babies, if they see something that catches their interest they get obsessed with it, the exception with human babies is that they wail and cry if they don’t do anything they want but cats take what they want.
Cats not only like the refrigerator because they think it would provide them with something to eat but also they are influenced by its physical significance and appearance.
They are not only interested in all the food they provide but also in their shiny exterior and its height.
Their actions are completely based on instincts and even if they are your pet doesn’t mean they’ll stop acting on their instinct.
Why does my cat sit on top of the fridge?
You might have heard the phrase, ‘dogs have masters but cats have servants’. Cats are animals with a streak of extreme dominance.
They are your pet does not mean that they lose their animalistic personality. They might be like family to you but their home is still the wild.
When a cat perches on top of the fridge it could be because :
1. The dominant side of the cat, likes being in control, sitting on top of the fridge gives it a proper and unhinged view of the whole kitchen which gives them a sense of superiority. They feel like they are on top of you and are controlling you when they do so. Not only their masters, but if you have multiple cats in your house they even keep a watch on them from on top of the fridge. They like to think they are superior to others.
2. They like to sleep a lot, they might like the top of the fridge because they might want to get uninterrupted sleep as that spot is usually out of reach for others.
3. Cats like being the center of attention, if it is on the top of the fridge you might try to get it down or fuss over it. Basking all the attention is what they are trying to do
4. Another logical explanation would be that the refrigerator emits heat and it’s known that cats love warmth, they love getting all heated up and cozying up to the refrigerator’s heat.
5. Cats micromanage, if it likes you, it would want to control you. So on top of the fridge, it catalogs your moments and watches every move of yours. They may give out the creepy vibes but no need to worry, instead it’s a sign that the cat might actually love being around you.
Despite associating the fridge with food, cats also have other animalistic qualities, they act upon.
The refrigerator for them is like their throne and ironically female cats are also addressed as ‘the queen’. So the analogy seems quite fitting for the same.
Why Does My Cat Jump On The Fridge?
Cats jumping on different surfaces is not unknown. They are constantly jumping from one place to another especially when they have so many places to be on top of.
The top of the refrigerator is a spot that gives them the feeling of being powerful. It is a place that gives them the dominance they crave.
It might also be your pet’s favorite spot. If the cat sees you getting a treat or food of its liking from the fridge then without a doubt, it would be even more obsessed with it.
It might feel as if your cat is silently judging you sometimes, but it is just that they like observing people they like and the top of the fridge gives them an indispensable view of you and a clear chance to observe your movements.
Fridges are tall and sometimes an average human might not be able to get on top of it. If humans can’t get to the top of it how does a cat go there?
Obviously by jumping. Jumping on top is not some sort of power move or anything significant it is just a way of reaching the places the cat wants to go or reaching the places it likes. Not only on the top of fridges but you might see cats jumping around from surface to surface in your house.
Why Does My Cat Scratch The Fridge?
Not a single day passes in human life when they do not check themselves out in the mirror, not only in actual mirrors we check ourselves out on all sorts of reflective surfaces, like glass doors or windows or the refrigerator door.
Cats don’t understand mirrors or what checking themselves out is.
When they see their reflection in the shiny exterior of the fridge they probably don’t realize that it’s them. They don’t recognize themselves when they see their reflection on such surfaces.
They assume that it’s another cat looking at them, and they feel threatened by their own reflection. When this happens they scratch the surface thinking that they are attacking the other cat when it is just their own self looking back at them.
Another plausible explanation for the same would be that when you feed the cat something from the fridge and the cat notices the food’s place of storage, it might try to get to the food.
In order to get the food, they would have to open the fridge and if they can’t do so they scratch the fridge in order to get to it.
Other pet parents have also shared their experiences as to how their pet cats like scratching metallic things. They have usually related it to digging as cats, digging the soil in the wild to do things like hiding tracks among other things. They scratch at the metal to get an idea of what it actually is like.
They might also like the sound produced when they scratch a metal surface that’s why scratching the fridge would be a very frequent activity of your pet cat.
How To Keep Cats Off The Top Of The Fridge?
If you don’t like your cat sitting on top of the fridge you can do the following things :
- Provide it with a better location: you can install high shelves or get window sills on higher windows which would have a better vantage point, so they may stop sitting on top of the fridge and move to the better location
- Put compressed cans on top of the fridge: when the cat touches the can it releases a sharp sound and also air, this annoys the cat a lot, so if you start putting such things at its favorite location, it may stop going there.
- Water: cats are generally not great fans of water, putting water on a baking sheet and putting it in the required location could help. But this is not really suggested because some cats have no issues with water and also they might spill water which could damage the electrical appliance.
- Double-sided tapes: your cats might not like the sticky feeling in their paws and stop going there because of the tape. But some cats are so interested in the tape, that they somehow remove the tape and start playing with them.
Cats don’t usually do harm so if it is sitting there doing nothing you should leave it be, because it may get all mad and cranky on you.
Frequently Asked Questions
The cat sleeps on top of the fridge, is it safe?
Yes, it is completely safe when your cat sleeps on top of the fridge. It may just be trying to get uninterrupted sleep. Also, the warmth provided by the fridge’s heat adds to the comfort factor for the cat.
The cat is hissing at the fridge is it normal?
The surface of the fridge is glossy and shiny, when the cats look into it, it sees their own reflection which it does not recognize, so they might hiss in self-defense, unaware of the fact that it’s their own imageÂ
Summary
Cats sitting on top of the fridge is not unconventional and definitely not a thing to worry about. They like being on top of things, control is a thing they crave the most.
Being at such a high point physically gives them power and that’s why they like it a lot.
They also like the ‘you can’t catch me’ vibe. The top of the fridge is usually out of reach for normal people so they like getting the feeling of being invincible
If your cat does so it’s nothing out of the ordinary and not unsafe too. You can let your cat be and if you have issues with it you can switch to other alternatives and get your cat off there.
If you ignore your cat’s antics, she might move to other things to catch your attention. It’s better you let it be because the cat maybe even trying to get a peaceful nap.
So would you disturb a peaceful nap for your cat or let it be?
