People Are Scaring Their Cats with Cucumbers. They Shouldn’t

[C C]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/...-behavior/

EXCERPT: What happens when you put a cucumber behind a cat? Some felines couldn't care less about the vegetable intrusion, but others leap high into the air when they see it. Videos of such encounters are going viral this week, as people try to see how their own pets respond. But that’s not good for the animals, experts warn....

[elte]

Those poor cats.  I was thinking that might be it--in their startlement they thought it was a green snake.  I saw the headline somewhere else and seeing it here gave me a good opportunity to checkout the story.

I'm sorry that as a kid, I partook in our scaring our cat with a giant stuffed mouse.  I feel a kinship with mammals these days as fellow thinking animals.  I wish we all could live in more peace, however, the raccoons around here can get into damaging property.  Part of the problem is that bursting human population is crowding out wild animal habitat.  The deer are also getting problematic.  Yesterday I noticed that the bark was scraped off one side of the young mimosa tree.  I hope it survives okay because the old one near it has flowers that look too pale.

[Magical Realist]

Oops. I just sent a video of this to my relatives. Maybe my humanity is in question now..

My sister recommended "Babies going thru tunnels". Pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR3iBaN-758

[Yazata]

I've seen those videos of cats leaping into the air too.

The question I have is why are cats scared by cucumbers.

Is it their appearance? Do they look like some horrible green living thing, a giant slug or something? (A giant slug would gross me out, but I suspect a cat wouldn't care...)

Or is it something about the cucumber's smell?