CattyCorner: I Will Meow At The Closed Door Until Its Mysteries Are Revealed

Written by: Kelli Brinegar
For more than five years, Kelli Brinegar has been using her ability to write and her passion for research to tell the tale of what cats are thinking and why. She has provided care to more than 30 cats in her lifetime.Read more
| Published on March 24, 2021

Greetings, my pawsome human minions and cat cohorts.

Forrest here, coming to you vexed and betrayed…

Why am I betrayed, you ask?

Well, the first thing one needs to know about my home: we don’t close the doors. Yes, the front and back doors remain closed, locking out the dangers of the wild world. But the interior doors remain open at all times as everything inside these walls resides within my domain.

And do you know what my father did?

He shut the door to what Mom calls the ‘spare’ room. There is nothing spare in my territory; all places are mine to access when I choose! And suddenly Dad thinks he can just close a door that’s always been open?

Upon discovering the closed door, I did what any self-respecting cat might do and meowed at the door. Then, I meowed again and again. No one came to right this wrong, so I commenced the meowing, growing the volume until I could hear my plea echoed back from the wooden floors.

Still, no human came to open the door, leaving my curiosity’s suffering to carry on!

To the meow song I returned, but now I added the din of my paws under the door, shaking it in its frame. Finally, my mother arrived, and I told her of my father’s wrong. She only scooped me up, carried me away from the scene, and said, “Forrest, you can’t go in there right now.”

My feline friends, you feel this sting, I’m sure. You understand the importance of being able to access your territory. And then to be carted away from the insult, told it was no longer mine to see. Hmph, I say!

I wriggled from my mom’s encapsulating embrace and hurried back to the door, screaming my plight. What’s in there I can’t see? How dare my parents close me out of my rightful territory!

I vowed, then and there, to scream until the door was opened and access to my territory had been regained. But, the nap hour soon descended, and my vow was rewritten for return after slumber.

Why Do Cats Meow At Closed Doors?

And now, as I’m settled upon the couch for an afternoon snooze, I can calmly speak to you of why cats meow at closed doors.

To you humans, this shutting of the door may seem of no consequence, but such a small thing provides grievous upset to felines because our homes are the territories we know. And believe me, we know every single inch of our stomping ground.

It may seem we don’t care about all of our space, not visiting parts of it very often. But we care. Oh, you may not see us investigating a spot, but we have, oh, we have…

So, to put it plainly, cats meow at closed doors because suddenly being denied access sends cat curiosity into overdrive, along with our vocal cords.

Mom and Dad have both taken turns hauling me away from the door with toys and hugs, but I don’t forget. And mom had the nerve to say I was just going to have to get used to the door being closed. She also muttered something smart about her eardrums suffering along with me.

I also feel…wait, wait! I hear dad opening the door! Gotta go, but as always…

Don’t forget to feed the cat.

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