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[Silverbeard]

I'm actually very curious about this whole thing: Where did it come from? How did the idea get off the ground?
Just yesterday my work colleagues were passing around videos of cats getting the piss shaken out of them by inexplicable cucumbers while also making plans to do the same thing to their cats.
Where did this come from?

Some dumbass probably discovered that cats don't like unnoticed changes to their environment and it just happened to be a cucumber. Do it with most objects and they'll be about the same level of freaked out, scaling with the size/appearance of the object and how on edge the cat is.

That just seems pointlessly cruel.
Although I suppose it's better than putting them* in washing machines or setting them on fire.

*: The cats, that is. Not the cucumbers.

 

[Elfgore]

I can't belive I'm about to armchair pshycologiest cats.

Alright, I don't think the cats are freaking out about the cucumbers, more about the fact an item they were not aware of was so close to them. Notice the cats that had the most severe reaction were in comfort states and also completely oblivious to the cucumber. The cats who knew about it just approached it with the usual cat curiosity of "what the hell is this" when they first encounter a new object. Hell, even humans react the same when an object appears without them being aware and in comfort states. It happens in horror movies all the time when an inanimate object moves and scares a person who is just watching TV or eating.

I also don't consider this animal cruelty. It's fun to scare your cat once every blue moon. Now, if you do it daily or weekly, you might just be a jerk. Cats sometimes have to deal with things they don't like, just like humans. I doubt my Kitty enjoyed having to soak in water for fifteen minutes to cure him of a fungus or when the Vet shoved a thermometer in his ass. Last I checked he doesn't seem to be terrified of humans, as he is curled up in a ball and deep asleep two feet away from me.

 

[Jadak]

Well, fuck you, I will do it if I want.

Unfortunately, my cats do not seem to care.

 

[RJ 17]

Alright, I don't think the cats are freaking out about the cucumbers, more about the fact an item they were not aware of was so close to them.

That's pretty much what a number of people have said in this thread: it's not the cucumber, it's the fact that something that wasn't there suddenly is there. I've watched a couple compilation videos on youtube regarding this matter and there's a consistent theme: it's always done when the cat is eating...that is to say: when it's guard is down and it's not really paying attention to anything but the food.

Even then, the reaction is about 50-50 between cats that flip out at the foreign object in their vicinity and cats that turn around, see the cucumber, maybe sniff at it, but otherwise seem completely uninterested.

What's really funny is that if the cat doesn't have a reaction, the person filming it still bursts out laughing when the cat turns around, prompting the cat to look at their owner like "...dah fuck's wrong with you?"

 

[LetalisK]

I tried it with my cat. It startled him and broke his psyche. He's now sitting in the corner of the shower, rocking back and forth, and sucking his dewclaw.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

This is coming back to a nanny state thing here, don't do this one thing it might hurt something. "Don't scare people they could have heart trouble and scaring them could cause them to have problems of some sort", "don't climb trees you could fall and hurt yourself" ... it's ok to have fun at someone or something sometimes.

I'm not saying start torturing animals for kicks but a scare or two wont harm anybody or anything in anyway.

No. It's coming back to the Golden Rule. "Do unto others". Or better put, don't be a dick.

Giving someone a scare is being a dick, but at least they can understand it and laugh about it later. Don't fuck with your pets for the lulz, that's just sick. They don't understand that it's a joke. Saying "please don't be a jerk and frighten cats" is the nanny state is true in the same way that my bathtub qualifies as a lake.

So what about all the times my pets have made me jump?

I sneak up on my dog all the time... he jump a mile then runs in and plays... he loves it!

 

[Dornedas]

As someone who studied biology in university, at least for 1.5 years, I feel the need to tell you that all your theories are wrong.

As many of you allready noticed the cats are always eating during these videos. But the sudden appearance of the cucumber makes the cat think that she is now expected to eat her vegetables.
This is what creates the shock.

I mean put a cucumber next to me and you get the same reaction.

 

[Seraj33]

Yesterday, I put an eyeless garden gnome in my dorm-mates bed. He freaked out.

He is now OK.

If I continued to put the gnome in places that he didn't expect it, that would do bad things to him emotionally, and make me a jerk. As it is, having happened once, it's a joke at his expense that even he found funny in post.

Not everything's even a fifth as critical as people nowadays would want you to believe.

Except that cats are not humans and their mentality and phsyce does not work exactly the same way as ours does.
I think people tend to humanize their pets or animals in general too much. Believing they will be grateful for things we would be or let things go we would be able to let go off.
Cats are cats, not humans.
In this case, it simply makes more sense that by scaring the cat while it is doing something such as eating, you are making that cat feel unsafe. Now the cat will know that "once I got attacked at that feeding place. If I wish to eat there again, I must be on my guard."
Feeding is in already instingtively a nervous thing to do for any animal as it, under wild conditions, puts them in a dangerous position to begin with.
There are several studies and quiet a bit of science behind all this. When my sister studied to become a vet they even got to listen to presentations about how the cat views its domesticated home.

Sure, the cat probably wont DIE from it. But it doesnt have to bleed for it to be cruelty.

If putting a cucumber behind a cat once or twice is considered "cruelty", then no one should have cats. The end. Do you know what they have to go through even in a particularly calm and quiet home?

Yes, I do know. And that cruelty comment was a summary on what I was trying to say. That just because we can't see the negative impact doesn't mean it's not there. I realize that the cat wont get messed up from doing this once. But still, would one really want to be a dick and add to the already stressful enviroment intentionally?

 

[LetalisK]

Yes, I do know. And that cruelty comment was a summary on what I was trying to say. That just because we can't see the negative impact doesn't mean it's not there. I realize that the cat wont get messed up from doing this once. But still, would one really want to be a dick and add to the already stressful enviroment intentionally?

...of being a house cat? I get that cats are a wary creature, but I wouldn't exactly call their environment stressful even considering that.

 

[Fappy]

Two of our cats have very anxious personalities. If someone pulled something like this on one of them I'd probably yell at them at the very least. Cats and dogs are a lot more psychologically fragile than people seem to understand.

 

[TwistednMean]

My cat cat scare me with cucumbers all day long. Figure I have full moral authority to do the same to him. Sadly, I don't have any cucumbers at home, so I will have to startle him in different ways. Like picking him up I my arms when he sleeps. You should hear the noises he makes. Surely, they couldn't be more heart-wrenching if I were to perform a vivisection on him.

But equating cucumbers to animal cruelty? Surely you have better things to do that to accuse people of starting cats. Have you not?

 

[Coruptin]

You're triggering the cats guys.

 

[Seraj33]

Yes, I do know. And that cruelty comment was a summary on what I was trying to say. That just because we can't see the negative impact doesn't mean it's not there. I realize that the cat wont get messed up from doing this once. But still, would one really want to be a dick and add to the already stressful enviroment intentionally?

...of being a house cat? I get that cats are a wary creature, but I wouldn't exactly call their environment stressful even considering that.

Well, that all depends on a lot of factors. How many cats there are in the same household, narrow passageways (corridors, halways, stairs), how many safe sleeping places there are, to name a few examples. Cats are adaptable animals however and can learn to cope with most of these kinds of things as they, depending on the household, can be very hard to do anything about. My opinion still stands however that you shouldn't cause sources of stress on purpose for no reason other than a bit of a laugh.

 

[LetalisK]

Well, that all depends on a lot of factors. How many cats there are in the same household, narrow passageways (corridors, halways, stairs), how many safe sleeping places there are, to name a few examples. Cats are adaptable animals however and can learn to cope with most of these kinds of things as they, depending on the household, can be very hard to do anything about. My opinion still stands however that you shouldn't cause sources of stress on purpose for no reason other than a bit of a laugh.

In a general sense, I would agree with such a sentiment, but I'm also wary of its sweeping nature. Specifically about what the thread is about, I take it nominally. I would agree there is a moral difference between startling a cat and not, but of such razor thin proportions that when people start throwing out things like "cruel", "dicks", "it's sick", etc? I'm now much more taken aback by those people and their disproportionate moral stand than I am by the cat owners. But that's how I'm wired.

Editted for clarification.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Huh. I didn't know this was a thing. Now I want to try it.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I don't have a cat so I'm good

I just worry about people wasting perfectly good cucumbers

 

[raankh]

Cats don't get pranks, huh? Having had many cats of various temperaments, I call bullshit on that. If you're being a dick about it, then you're just a dick, but pranking your cat in the right circumstance can certainly create a bond. Cats aren't all that smart, but clever and social, that they are in spades.


edit: BTW, the cat in the video is just being a dick! classic lolcat tho.

 

[Cycloptomese]

I might try that with 2nd Lieutenant Weirzbowski or that asshole Snickers. No way I'd do that with poor tiny Ripley. Snickers gives her enough stress as it is.

 

[RJ 17]

You know, maybe I'm just being cynical, but I think that a lot more people tried this AFTER they saw this thread, than before it was posted. Sounds a little counter-intuitive if you ask me.

Just to be a jerk in a thread that calls for people to not be jerks, I'll point out that the phrase you're looking for is "counter-productive."

Just to out-pedant you,while the posting of the thread was counter-productive, the human instinct to go and do this thing warned against is, while a major facet of human nature, still quite counter-intuitive.

Well if going and doing the thing that's been warned against is part of human nature than it certainly isn't counter-intuitive in the least. Doing something that's counter-intuitive means that it's something that goes against what you'd naturally feel should be done. If anything, the counter-intuitive reaction to this topic would be to, indeed, not frighten your cat with a cucumber considering the usual human reaction when told not to do something is to go ahead and do it.

Beyond that, by the context of "an annoyed writer"s post it made it clear that he was referring to how this topic was having the opposite affect of what was intended: it's making more people want to frighten their cats with cucumbers. As such, the topic is indeed being counter-productive. It's working against its own intended purpose.

 

[mecegirl]

Ok so I just saw this gif and couldn't stop laughing.

I love the internet sometimes.

People aren't saying that folks who do this prank are jerks because cats are super sensitive. It's because of the motive. Its just mean spirited to pull a prank that could scare the shit out of an animal just for your amusement. I don't see why that's a strange thing to comprehend.