apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ha! I always leave my cat sitter a long list of the places my cats might hide while I'm away - in my sweater shelves, under the bed, under the covers on the bed, in the bookshelf, in the bathtub, the list goes on and on!

Our old cat, who is a sweetheart to us but chases guests and extended family alike, sleeps under the covers on our bed during the day, even when it's hot. We've made it a habit to check carefully before sitting down because she's so small you can barely see her little covers lump. And when we do sit down, you can hear her purring under the there.

My cat. In a basket of towels on top of a cabinet in the bathroom. Between the layers of my blankets (I've accidentally sat on him). In a crawlspace above the kitchen (I was mystified as to how exactly he managed to disappear, then re-materialize on the other side of the room before I saw him up there, staring down at me like Ceiling Cat).

looks sunny in there, i'll bet thats why he was in there!

Many mornings I wake up ad see the silhouette of my dog on the window shade, he likes to crawl onto the window sill and catch some morning sun if I am not awake yet. Dogs love sitting in the sun.

I'm loving everything about this post: the story itself, the cute dog, plus the cool yellow tub and shower curtain, slate (?) bath tiles, and interesting window!

Aw, is Birdy a German Shorthair Pointer? Those are the best dogs ever.

One of my cats has managed to tunnel through the bottom of my boxspring, and likes to nap up there. I guess I should be grateful that all four don't get up there...

My cat likes my dresser drawers, preferably on top of clean folded sheets or tshirts. She also likes to jump from the counter to the fridge to the tops of the high shelves and perch up there in the kitchen. She also has also perched on top of an open bathroom door but getting up there but then she has problems getting down.

Oops. take away the 'but getting up there' part.

My white cat, up the chimney.

Oh, I was just reminded of a former roomie's cat. We had an old, beaten-up armchair that had a hole in the bottom. He'd slink beneath the chair's skirt, then crawl up and inside to nap. When she moved out, it took four people to get her cat out of the chair: her two brothers picked up and shook the chair while we reached into the hole to haul him out. That was fun!

My rabbit inside my animation table. Took 2 straight hours of searching!

Dogs are sooooo cute!

Me, too, love this post and the stories of hiding spots. My cat loves to just find a new spot somewhere and watch me go looking for her, then I spot her, congratulate her on her ingenuity and she purrs like a fire engine. She likes to go under the covers infrequently and when she does I'll make the bed and put pillows on the bed, trying to even out the mysterious lumpy spot, unwittingly, until I hear a meow and an indignant cat jump out.

Most favorite I think are the just washed anything: clothes, sheets, bed spread and any new boxes.

Beautiful photo, beautiful Birdy.

Once I freaked out because I could not find my dachshund anywhere in the house. I was already in tears when I saw a little lump on the edge of the bed. Turns out he had unbuttoned the duvet, climbed inside and nestled into a corner for a nap.

My little Tildy-Cat has a bizarre habit of dashing into cupboards and getting shut in them. 20 minutes later we'll hear pitiful scratching and find her looking sheepish amongst the canned goods.

And this post comes at a very strange time- it's so hot in our upstairs apartment that we jumped ship and moved in with my parents. We took the cat along, and she acclimated just fine... until a scuffle occurred between my parents' dogs and a rather nasty neighbor dog on our front porch. The kitty was naturally terrified of all the noise and hid. My poor mom searched for an hour and thought for sure that she had lost her- until she found her in a basket on top of the built-in cabinets in her living room. Poor Matilda refused to get down for 8 hours (she just sat there glaring at my mom) until I came home and rescued her.

@lella

I have two cats and one loves going underneath the covers. I keep forgetting and always sit on her. One day I decided to change the bed linens and flicked her out of the bed by pulling the sheet. She was shocked but ok.

My eldest cat, Chibi-chan, would hide at my parents house by going up on top of the armoir the TV was in and sleeping in the decorative basket Mom had up there. She also once meowed her way out of a closet I swear had not been opened at all that day.

I once spent hours searching for my cat. I was so puzzled, I even checked the hallway in my apartment complex. Finally, I found her sleeping in one of my bathroom drawers. How she got in there? I am really not sure. :)

My Rot takes every opportunity to get up on the window sil! He is not a small dog and usually falls off. He also wedges himself under our platform bed, it is like Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit's hole!

My French Bulldog, Henry, likes to unzip the storage compartment on the underside of the sofa. He's now learned that when it is fully unzipped he can crawl up inside and lounge in it like a hammock. It took forever to find him the first time it happened, but I saw his little paw peeking out. He has tons of crazy antics. Here he is in all his glory . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRI6CtnPkz4

My cat, Gus, who's actually a girl (long story:) LOVES any contained spaces... boxes, suitcases, cupboards, drawers. Every time I open this tall pantry cupboard in my kitchen she jumps in. If I can't find her, its usually because I closed the cupboard door on her unknowingly.

And then there's her persistent habit of running into the bathroom after me and jumping up on the sink to drink out of the faucet. But, that's another topic.

my story needed a picture to accompany it: http://tr.im/vmQP

Kermit (the Dog) is 7 years old and is terrified of thunder, fireworks, etc. He used to just go into the dark mudroom for safety, but recently he found a way to actually climb into one of the shoe cubbies. While not the biggest dog, he is definitely not limber, and it is still a mystery to us how he gets in there without knocking out any shoes.

my boyfriend's cat likes to get onto the uppermost shelves in the closet for his naps.

My two prefer to be where ever I want them least (on top of the laundry-way up high tucked away in some shelves, on my boyfriend's t-shirts, you name it. Still I love them both and they are worth the occasional aggravation or hide and seek adventure.

I love the picture of the Birdie!

@Abra_cat -One of my cats like to do this as well-I learned (two box springs ago) to place a fitted sheet on the box spring (it should be facing the floor) as a way to prevent this.

Linus, our Jack Russell/Dachshund, loves to spend time in my closet. It always leads to an endless variety of R.Kelly - Trapped in the Closet jokes.

I have a cat, Woody, that loves to find new places to hide out from the family - he usually perches on top of the small cupboards above our refrigerator for a nap. He did that so much that we put a small blanket up there for him.

Woody's best hiding spot to date?

One day when the neighbors were replacing windows in the basement, he managed to jump down there... what he didn't know was that no one currently lived in the house and thus, they would not free him. Now we are quite used to Woody disappearing for hours or sometimes even overnight, as he loves to walk around town at night, but he went missing for almost three months & we had no idea where he was or if he was even alive.

Finally, one of the owners of the house stopped by to check on things and told us that there were animal droppings in the basement and asked if there were any way that we could go down there and check it out, as they were in a rush and had to leave town again. Dutifully, we went over there and lurked around the basement... and then we saw him. It took about 30 minutes to coax our scared and starving cat out, but we got him and he was rail thin, but otherwise fine.

Our lab mix Abbie loves to nap behind a curtain underneath the stairwell. It's nice and cool for her, I guess.

Cats? Any and everywhere. We've given over the floor of the linen closet to their beds, and they also like to crawl onto the lowest shelf, but there are dozens of possible spaces in this place.

My dog, a Sheltie named Arwen, has a strong denning instinct and likes to sandwich herself between two smooth surfaces. She usually winds up between the layers of coffee tables (sleeping on a lower shelf under the upper surface), or on the lowest shelf of a bookshelf if it's left open to her. In the case of the coffee and side tables, she will wriggle into spaces that seem impossibly small in relation to her body.

Ginger, my Sheltie who passed away in April, would turn up in the strangest places during thunderstorms. Once she wedged herself between the toilet and the wall. Another time we spent an hour calling her and looking for her, only to find her in the couch - she'd dug her way under the cushions and throw pillows and was pretty much inside it. She's turned up in the shower a few times.

If Cat can't be found, he's in one of two places - the linen cupboard on the towels, or in the 'crawlspace' off of my closet, at which point he's pretty much in Narnia.

My new dog, Jackson, terrified me one night, as I found myself at eye level with him. He was standing on top of our chest freezer. I still have no idea how he got up there, as he is not a large dog.

As a kid, I had a cat named Necco - he loved to sleep on top of a stack of towels on a shelf in the bathroom. We had to get used to never using the top one since half of us were allergic to him. He also loved to jump in the dryer after it was done running to nap - weird cat.

My mom's dogs will hide anywhere - under a recliner, behind and underneath the couch, behind a door, etc. Just think of anywhere you could hide at that small and you might be able to find one.

My almost mother-in-law's cat loves to hide in the closet. She's accidentally got shut in several times. She also loves to hide on top of cabinets. If she doesn't like you, she'll hide under something and literally growl at you - don't ask me how a cat can growl - LOL.

Birdy is such a good name for a dog, as is Chicken the Chihuahua I saw in Brooklyn last weekend and Rambo my future pug.
My cat Anna used to like to hang out in the tub, after you took a shower, it was kinda gross but there was no stopping her. My mom's dog Ty randomly naps on the dining table, which is also gross, but he is a very sneaky devil.

Messi, one of my bunnies, loves to hang out behind the toilet. He scrunches himself into a ball and naps there for hours. Cricket, my Jardine's parrot, is an escape artist. Whenever she gets out of her cage, she makes a beeline for the kitchen. If I notice her cage is empty but the door is still closed, that's the first place I look for her. Her food is now kept in locking jars in the highest cupboard the kitchen has to offer.

Our kittens haven't had that much time to get creative, but so far we've found them in my Fiance's sock drawer, sleeping in the shower, on the kitchen chair (under the table, and impossible to see), and their favorite: the laundry basket. I feel bad tossing clothes in there now! about half the time, I hit a kitten.

I love that Birdy has her crazy pants on at the sitter's house!!!

My cat Albert loves to hide behind the toilet in the morning. He'll wait till i start brushing my teeth...and then he attacks my ankle and then runs away. The rest of the time he never hides...just lays in whatever spot will get him the most attention (or at least whatever spot will be least convinient for everyone else). He's a bit of a spaz...

mazzy, my 12 yr-old lab mix, used to sleep under my bed every night. when she woke-up in the morning, as far under the bed as she could be, she'd thump her tail against the hardwood floor to wake me up...and thus began the "mazzy-towing" morning ritual. in the meantime, my other dog, sam, would be in all his tail-wagging, eye-smiling, butt-wiggling glory just waiting for his best friend to arrive. when i finally got her highness out into the open, it was a mini-lovefest!

ps-they sleep in the living room now. :0)

My 80 pound labrador-Chow mix sleeps in the bathtub. I find it so weird. I regularly accidentally turn the shower on him in the mornings while I'm still half asleep.

My cat Flounder loves to sleep/hide behind our toilet, partially hidden by the shower curtain. He doesn't attack us or anything, I think he just likes hearing the water run through the pipes and the metallic sound that's created when he delicately noms on the plumbing. :) (Though sometimes he accidently shuts the bathroom door on himself, so if I haven't seen him for a few hours, I go see if he's trapped in the bathroom...)

Our cats hide *inside* the couch... between and under the cushions. Or they will tuck themselves between the wall and the back (the fabric gives enough to fit a cat body). Our old bed had a box spring they clawed a hole in and they would hide up inside when they were kittens... super hard to sleep with them bouncing around in there *sigh.*