Cats and box openings

I have cats, and I absolutely don't allow them anywhere near my dolls unless I'm standing right beside them (if I'd like to take a pic in the better-lit living room, for instance). They wouldn't mean any harm, but they are notoriously curious and might accidentally push a doll over. They do keep photobombing my box openings, but I don't mind that.
The dolls are kept in my bedroom, which is cat-free zone because I also keep all my craft stuff in there and I don't want my kitties to get into that, either. I do occasionally take a doll into the cat zone, but they don't go near the doll while I'm there, or leave the doll alone when I warn them to. They can be very well-behaved, as long as someone is looking ...

I think the reason we see so many cats photobombing box openings is mostly because cats love boxes and boxes are a side effect of owning BJDs

 

Well, if there's some cat-bjd connection, I'm definitely an exception to that rule. I'm VERY allergic to cats and also I honestly don't really like them even If they DIDN'T make me break out in hives and have my breathing impeded. I'm just not into them at all. The whole aloof and independent thing? Not for me. Not into paying for and scooping the crap of a being who only acknowledges me when they feel like it and doesn't listen to a thing I say.
I'm a 100% hardcore dog person. I ADORE my dogs. I like my dogs more than most people. And I don't find any issues with having bjds in the house with my dogs. For one thing, I keep my dolls in their boxes when I'm not actively doing something with them. For another thing, my dogs are extremely uninterested in my dolls and tend to avoid them when I do have them out. I just opened a new doll two days ago and my bulldog hid under an endtable and wouldn't come out till I put the doll back in the box... both of my puppies really seem to prefer staying away from the little resin people.

 

I may be a dog person but I do know cats can't resist a box.

"If I fits, I sits."

 

I have two cats and am happy to say that they both are very well behaved. We provide them with plenty of cat-friendly up high places of their own, so they stay off of the buffet that displays my dolls. My two cats are quite amazing in that if we tell them they cannot be up on something, they stay off.

They both have had time near my dolls (when we still lived in our apartment, there were always dolls in the living room, and I still sometimes bring them out into the main house for photos and just hanging out). There was only once when we first started displaying them at the apartment that one of the cats tried to nom on a hand, but I told him no and he has not tried again. A quick dip in boiling water fixed the little dent, and all has been well since.

It is funny how the older of my two cats really likes the dolls. When he gets the chance to be near them he always looks strangely happy. He will just lay down next to them and purr. Maybe the little people make him feel all big and mighty?

Now if we got another cat, I would for sure be shutting the door to my doll/sewing/hobby room. I have had my two boys for their whole lives (nearly 12 and 14 years now), and I trust them completely around my dolls and everything else in the house, but I know better than to just assume any other animals will act the same way. We would have to "kitten proof" the whole house!

 

that great truth, cats can not resist an open box

 

Absolutely. Experiment....1. obtain empty box 2. have a cat 3. place open cardboard box in otherwise empty room. 4. insert cat into room 5. leave room for 5 minutes 6. return 7. observe location of cat (cat will absolutely be in the box) I have 12 and they will battle over who gets the new box I throw into the midst of them first.

 

The "And here's a pic of my cat in the box"-thing is sort-of a self-perpetuating meme in the hobby now.

It started innocently enough...
Cat + box = cute, so post a picture of it along with the usual doll stuff.
Everyone did it.

... And now it's just an expected part of the routine. So much so that I've actually seen people post pictures of stuffed cats, other kinds of pets and, in one case, even a very young kid brother checking out the box when they didn't have a cat around.

 

I have always wondered why hobbyist usually have cats. I belong to a dollhouse miniature club and we all seem to have cats. Maybe people who do crafts and hobbies in general are more indoor people and tend to have cats since they don't need to be taken out for walks like dogs. BJD owners are very sensitive to aesthetics and nothing is as elegant in it's movements than a cat. As for the boxes any cat owner will tell you they love any container they can squeeze themselves into especially if you have been paying a lot of attention to it. My five cats are usually kept away from my dolls, they really don't care for them except for the occasional sniff. But what they do like are Tibetan lambskin wigs, those had better be kept away from my furry friends.

 

I have three. One really likes to sit on laps and that includes the dolls. If she can not access the doll she leaves them alone but if they are somewhere where they are sitting down, into their laps she attempts to go. The other two mostly ignore them. Strangely only one of my cats tries to get into the boxes when they are out. My boy kitty likes to get a front row seat to the box openings and will stick his nose into everything. After the dolls are in the house though he thinks they are boring. The third cat figures the dolls don't pet and the dolls don't feed her. Dolls=useless.

 

I have two cats
they love the box
any box : bjd box or other
no matter the size

 

Yes! Cats just love boxes, and paper bags, those sorts of thing. Lots of people have cats, so when you have a cat and there's a box around they are interested. I'm not afraid of my cats being around dolls really. My dog has gone out of her way to dig through my project bag to find loose doll hands and chewed them to bits. I keep my dolls in their boxes so the animals don't bother them. Some cats might want to chew on dolls and many would probably like to steal doll wigs so they can 'kill' them.

 

My cat is surprisingly polite around the dolls, but he does tend to make off with unattended wigs v-v And of course, a new box is the most exciting thing in the cat universe. Great thread topic! xD

 

No cats two dogs, couldnt fit them in any of my boxes :/ maybe as a hat..

 

I have one cat- she's to fat and lazy to take notice to anything other then herself.

Cats can't resist anything that they feel secluded from. This is due to their hunting instinct - I'm protected/my back is protected and can't be seen therefor i am safe. That's why you often see cats in odd places. their wishers and ears also tell them wether they'll fit in an area, if their wishers and ears hit they know their body won't fit.

 

My cat is absolutely hysterical when I have my dolls out and am messing with them. He gets jealous! He isn't the most cuddly of cats, but oh no, let me be combing Sard or Storm's wigs and my cat will just plain attempt to sit on my dolls to get my attention. I've opened both their boxes on counters or tables so he has stayed away. And yes, he would eat their wigs in a second if I looked away. Such a goofball.

 

I have 2 cats who aren't particularly interested in the dolls, but they like to attack wigs.

 

I don't have my BJDs yet but I have already had to scare my sister's cat Molly out of my doll cradle that I have set aside for my new baby.

Unfortunetly my sister lets Molly sleep in her AG doll beds so she saw my cradle as one in the same.

So I flipped her out of it and hissed at her untill she ran out of my bedroom. Sounds kinda heartless but in terms of pet psychology if you give them a bad experience they are less likely to repeat the behavior.

I am worried about my cat Sushi and my dolls. He's already been a bit of a jerk to my vinyal ladies. He ate the feathers off of one of their head dresses and flipped another out of their chair in attempt to get my attention. Basicaly if it's mine and I love it it's fair game to be knocked off of a surface untill I feed him.

SSo if he's a jerk to Angel at all I simply won't let him sleep with me anymore.

 

i don't have any cats or dogs. I used to have goldfish and hamsters, and I still have the old tank and cages, so if I get some fish or hamsters maybe I'll do a box opening close to their fish tank it'll be a hamster/fish-BJD box opening hehe.

 

I think that cats pop up a lot in box openings because cats have a freaken radar whenever there is a box in the house. XD

I never thought about a connection between owning cats and BJDs, but I do own two cats and two dogs... Maybe a lot of the doll owners who decide on making videos and taking pictures of box openings happen to own cats? It is something to think about.

In regards to cats near the dolls, I don't mind. My cats don't chew or lick them and the worst one of them has done is rub his face against the dolls, but I don't think snuggling is harmful. The only thing it really leads to is minor annoyance when I have positioned my dolls to take a picture and Todd decides its a perfect time to move the dolls around with his face... Well, that and photobombs.

The other cat doesn't really go near them. He'll just look at them sometimes and them be on his way. He's more interested in the fact that they have boxes.

I don't let one of the dogs near the dolls. He's always chewing things up, and I don't want to take any chances. The other is fine. She has sniffed them, but that's as far as it goes.