A Tunnel in Front of the Sofa Still Leaves Them Under It

The tunnel you laid in front
When the tube holds a pass
When the sofa gap still wins
A mouth that faces the wall
Watch one pass before you buy a second tube
Keep the gap, or line it

You set a play tunnel on the rug in front of the sofa. The mouth faces the room. The fabric looks like a path. The cat walks around it, drops the chest, and slides under the sofa instead.

The tunnel looks like the missing corridor. It fails when the corridor they already use is the gap under the furniture. A bright tube on the open floor is a different line. It does not inherit the dark, low ceiling they chose.

The tunnel you laid in front

An indoor cat does not take a tube because the tube was sold as a tunnel. The cat takes a line that stays low, stays dim, and lets them see ankles before they commit. The sofa gap already does that. A tube in the middle of the rug answers the empty floor you see. It does not answer the slot they already own.

If the first run after you place the tube is still under the sofa, the tube is furniture in the way, not a path. Bright fabric on an open rug cannot copy a slot that already has a ceiling.

When the tube holds a pass

The tube holds when one mouth sits on the exact line they already use — the end of the sofa gap, the run from chair to door — and the other mouth opens onto a quiet square. The fabric stays collapsed enough to feel like a ceiling. Nobody stands over either mouth. The cat enters, does not reverse at the first wrinkle, and comes out the far end.

On that hour the sofa gap can stay empty for a few minutes. The tube and the old line were the same road. You did not need a longer tube. You needed the mouth to sit where the chest already drops.

When the sofa gap still wins

The same tube fails when it sits a body-length off the gap. The cat can see both. The gap is darker and does not sway. The tube rustles. They take the gap. Extra length on the tube does not move the line.

It also fails when the tube is so springy that it rolls when a paw hits it. A path that moves is not a path. Weight the sides with a book on the fabric, not in the mouth. If the tube still walks across the rug, take it up. The sofa gap was stable. The toy was not.

A mouth that faces the wall

A tunnel with one end against a wall is a cave, not a pass. Some cats will sit in that cave. They will not commute through it. Turn both mouths toward open floor, or accept that you built a hide and stop asking it to replace the under-sofa run.

Do not block the sofa gap with the tube to “force” the new line. A blocked gap makes them go around the sofa and skip the room. Leave the gap until you have watched one real pass through the tube on the same line.

Watch one pass before you buy a second tube

Leave the tunnel where it is for the next busy hour. Do not add a second one. See which line the body takes when someone walks the room.

If they go through the tube, keep that placement and stop moving it each afternoon. If they still take the sofa gap, slide the tube so one mouth kisses the entrance of the gap. If they take neither and sit on the arm, this hour is not a commute. Leave both and wait.

Keep the gap, or line it

A cat under the sofa after you dressed the rug means the real corridor never left the furniture. Keep the gap clear if you can live with it. Or put the tube on that same line so the mouth is the first thing they meet when they leave the dark. Do not stack more fabric in the middle of the room.

When the tube and the gap share a line, the sofa can keep the hide and the tube can keep the pass. Two toys in the middle of the rug will not invent that line. Put the mouth on the drop, or leave the gap alone for the day.