As every cat lover already knows, felines have some truly strange habits.
In addition to crazy meowing sessions in the middle of the night, my childhood cat totally loved sleeping in ridiculous positions, bringing his feet up to his head when he was happy, and laying smack dab in the middle of the newspaper we were reading every morning.
And every cat seems to exhibit these crazy habits — they all seem completely passive aggressive when it comes to petting, and have you seen what they do when you put a cucumber behind them?
Another universal kitty oddity is their habit of crazily bolting around the house as soon as they're finished using the litter box.
What is the reason for this phenomenon? Are they afraid? Embarrassed? Do they hate the smell of their own business?
Below are a few insights as to why your cat goes crazy post-poo.
[H/T: The Dodo]
When they're not slinking sneakily around the house or lounging in the sun, cats exhibit some pretty crazy behavior.
If you have a feline in your house, you're probably used to their midnight meowing, their erratic petting schedules, and them bolting around the house like crazy after they use the litter box.
But what are the reasons behind your cat's post-poop craziness?
Some say that the energy is part of cats' primal instinct to throw predators off their path.
In the wild, cats bury their business so that predators can't track their scent as easily — which is something that your cat may also do in his litter box.
To further throw anything off their trail, wild cats will also flee the bathroom scene, which may be why house cats also seem so quick to get away from their toilet.
Some speculate that cats may be experiencing discomfort from digestive problems or food allergies — though, since so many of them exhibit this behavior, it doesn't seem like it would span from health problems.
Others think that it may be part of their kitty cleansing method, ridding themselves of any excess waste and getting as far away from their uncleanly business as possible.
But Dr. Anish Sheth, author of What's Your Poo Telling You, believes that their running may be a sign of exhilaration.
Dr. Sheth describes the vagus nerve in her theories, which is a connected from your brainstem to your colon.
This nerve becomes stimulated through defecation, and can bring about feelings of exhilaration or invigoration in both humans and animals.
This may translate to a simple, satisfied feeling in humans, but can make cats go bonkers with energy.
"Dr. Sheth calls the pleasurable sensation with defecation 'poo-phoria.' Good name for humans, I guess, but the term 'poop crazies' is much better for cats, in my opinion, since they essentially run around like crazy cats afterwards," explained Oklahoma State University animal physiologist Erin Willis to The Dodo.
Though not too much research has been done on the matter, it would make sense that cats would go crazy with good feelings post poo — I mean, who doesn't feel sassy and satisfied after a good trip to the bathroom?
So whether it is due to animal instinct or "poo-phoria," cats' crazy litter box nature seems like it is probably healthy and natural.
Though they may have the weirdest habits when it comes to sleeping, eating, scratching, and using the bathroom, as long as they're happy while doing it, so are we!
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