If you're living in the UAE, your cat is hearing things right now that they've never heard before. Low-flying aircraft, distant booms, unfamiliar vibrations. These are not normal sounds for a house cat, and they know it.
Cats have exceptionally sensitive hearing. Sudden, loud, or unfamiliar noises can trigger genuine anxiety, not just a startle response, but sustained stress that affects eating, grooming, litter box habits, and overall wellbeing. You might notice your cat hiding under the bed, refusing food, over-grooming, or becoming unusually clingy or withdrawn.
But you can give your cat something that taps into instincts thousands of years old, and it's probably sitting in your hallway right now.
A cardboard box.
Why Boxes Work
Cats are both predators and prey. They're hardwired to seek out spaces where they can observe without being observed. A box with an open side gives them a clear sightline out, with protection everywhere else.
Dr. Mikel Delgado, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and senior research scientist at Purdue University, has studied this extensively. According to Delgado, cats feel safer when they can control how much of their body is exposed, and enclosed spaces help reduce their anxiety. Some animal behaviourists believe the snug feeling of being enclosed may even remind cats of being nestled with their littermates. Whether or not that's the mechanism, the outcome is consistent: a calmer, more settled cat.
There's also a thermal element. Corrugated cardboard traps body heat and reduces airflow, creating a small warm pocket once your cat curls up inside. Even in the UAE, air-conditioned rooms often sit well below a cat's preferred comfort range of 30 to 36°C.
The Research Backs This Up
Think about what your cat is dealing with right now: unfamiliar, unpredictable sounds they can't control or escape from. That's stress. And it's the exact same kind of stress that researchers have studied in shelter cats, animals suddenly placed in an unfamiliar environment with new noises, new smells, and zero sense of control.
A 2019 randomized controlled trial from Utrecht University split newly arrived shelter cats into two groups: one with a hiding box, one without. The cats with boxes reached a calm, low-stress baseline a full seven days earlier than the cats without. Seven days faster, from one cardboard box.
Professor Danielle Gunn-Moore, a professor of feline medicine at the University of Edinburgh, has noted that multiple studies show cortisol, the primary stress hormone, drops in cats when they're given access to a box. The science here is clear and it applies directly to what cats in the UAE are experiencing right now.
A box won't stop the noise. But it gives your cat a place where the noise feels manageable.
It Also Saves Your Furniture
Cats need to scratch. It maintains claw health, stretches muscles, and deposits scent from the glands in their paws. Cardboard happens to be one of the most satisfying textures for cats to scratch, and many actually prefer it to sisal or carpet. A box gives them a legitimate surface to work on, which means less attention directed at your sofa.
Keep It Safe
The Simplest Thing You Can Do
That Amazon package, that IKEA delivery, that grocery crate. Before you toss it, leave it on the floor and see what happens.
It's the one thing about which our pointy-eared companions are not terribly picky: if it fits, they sits. And when they do, it means something is working.
This costs nothing. It's already in your house. And the research says it works.
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