My cat started 'burying' her food bowl and people told me I was reading it wrong

So my cat Luna has this thing where she scratches the floor around her food bowl after eating, like she's covering it up. I always thought it was some weird leftover instinct from when cats bury leftovers in the wild. But a commenter on here told me no, that's actually a sign she doesn't like the bowl placement or she's stressed about something. I changed where I put her bowl from next to the washing machine to a quiet corner and she stopped immediately. Now I'm wondering if half the weird things cats do are actually just them telling us something's off and we make up cute stories instead. The other side is maybe she was just going through a phase and would have stopped anyway. Anyone else had a cat behavior they totally misinterpreted and changed something in response?

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claire_campbell6d ago

Might be an unpopular take but cats scratch around their food for different reasons and not all of them are negative. My cat does this and her bowl has been in the same quiet spot for years with no stress signs. She just likes to "save" her food for later even though she never actually covers anything. Some cats are just weird like that. Switching the bowl spot could have been a coincidence if Luna was already getting used to the house noise. Did she show any other stress behaviors like hiding or overgrooming before you moved the bowl?