'The shredding machine purrs a lot': Troublesome cats shredding boxes, playing innocent, and having a blast

Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer

Sep 22, 2026 7:00 AM EDT

For cats, shredding things is part of their instinct, just like purring and waking us up in the middle of the night for some extra food…

If you say you've never caught your cat red-handed shredding a cardboard box or the toilet paper, I won't believe you. Every cat has made a paper mess at least once. Mine did one two days ago. I got up in the morning, like I do every day (sadly, I couldn't stay in bed all day like I wanted), went downstairs, and found her sitting on top of the dinner table, with a mess of paper napkins all over the floor. She was looking straight at me in the eyes, and I swear I almost heard her defying me and saying, "What is it, Karen? Is this not to your liking?" The nerve these furballs have sometimes is unbelievable. They can be really manipulative, for a creature so small and fluffy. If they could talk, they wouldn't dream of apologizing for making a mess, because, in their minds, making a mess is their job. And our job as mere hoomans is to clean up after them and give them another cardboard box for them to shred when they feel like it. I'm sorry to break it to all of you, but they are right. We are going to clear up the mess, give them a shiny and new box, and we'll be ready for the moment they decide they want to play the part of a fluffy living stapler. That's the story of our lives.

Suffice it to say that as long as they leave our furniture alone, we can handle some cat-made confetti all over our floors. It would be a heck of a lot more expensive to replace an entire shredded couch than to buy new paper towels. For the time being, we're just thankful they restrain themselves to shredding boxes and paper. Let's just hope they continue that way.

While we sweep the floor to clear it of our cat's obsession with shredding, here we have a litter of shredders looking completely innocent and having the time of their lives.

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