The cucumber biologically speaking is a creeping vine that bears cylindrical fruits that are widely used as culinary vegetable. It’s just a fruit used as a veg so how come over a third of cats on the planet has an irrational fear of cucumbers?
Hendrick’s Gin enlisted the help of animal behaviourist Dr Roger Mugford to create a fool-proof cucumber exposure programme to help our feline friends cope with this irrational fear.
According to Dr Mugford, the suspicious nature of cats is what leads to the innate fear of the mighty cucumber – the oddness and unusual persona of the green fruit makes them feel uneasy.
Have you ever seen any of the “cats Vs cucumber” videos on YouTube? They are simply hilarious! I love my cats and I would never test them versus a cucumber but I have to admit that the reaction of some cats is simple unreal, have a look:
Funny isn’t it?
At this point you might ask why Hendrick’s Gin is spending its time trying to get to the bottom of a cats fear of cucumbers. Well:
“The cucumber is at the core of our gin, which is oddly infused with cucumber itself, the gin that is, not the cucumber – a cucumber is wholly made of cucumber”, says David Piper, Hendrick’s Global Brand Ambassador. “Cats have an illogical fear of cucumbers – so as inventors of the cucumber garnish, we have to act responsibly and ensure cats feel at ease as we enjoy our Hendrick’s libations garnished, of course, with a cucumber, on World Cucumber Day. Did I mention the importance of cucumbers?”
Hendrick’s Gin created their own cats versus cucumbers video which is full of tips on how to keep your cat calm and comfortable on this World Cucumber Day.
So when it comes to cucumbers, cat friendly tips include:
- Storing cats away from cucumbers
- Play some suitably serene music to help cats relax and forget about cucumbers
- Incremental exposure may acclimatise cats to cucumbers – limiting their fear
- Disguise a cucumber for feline use (for example put it into a paper bag and let them discover it themselves in their own time)
- Try not to appear frightened yourself when confronted by a cucumber – the more loyal cats out there may jump to your defence
- Rest assured that once the cucumber is submerged in a Hendrick’s and tonic, cats will not experience anxiety of any kind
I hope you will find these tips useful! After all we all love a good laugh but as responsible pet owners we do have to take the wellbeing of our cats into consideration too.
Have a wonderful World Cucumber Day!
My son found the cucumber videos hilarious and asked my sister who has a cat to try it. I found myself fancying a Hendricks gin!!
Absolutely funny post and video. Really made me laugh
I have seen a few videos of this and it’s crazy that cats react to cucumbers like this. It is not advised to do it though apparently, as it can scare them too much and give them heart problems.
Indeed, this is why we’ve never tried to establish if ours like cucumbers or no.
Oh my gosh this is hilarious. That cats v cucumbers video gets me every time!
i was talking about this at work a while ago and my colleague tried it but it scare his cat haha
Oh no. I hope the little guy recovered from this experience.
I never knew cats were scared from cucumbers. Interesting.
I did find the videos funny and whilst I have tried it with my three, they didnt batter an eyelid, they simply carried on with whatever they were doing at the time x
I tried this with my sister-in-laws cat and it just didn’t flinch whatsoever being around a cucumber. I blame it on a lazy cat lol
I love these videos – they are hilarious but I have always wondered why cats are scared of cucumbers!
This is hilarious and completely bizarre…. I am still not quite sure how seriously to take this