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jimsjournal |
TV for cats -- 10/12/12 |
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I've always joked about windows being like television for cats. Tiger was fond of the windows in my office, especially the one on the right. He always spent a lot of time there, looking out at the world. Luther likes that window too -- but he also likes the windows in our bedroom -- and one of the windows in Jill's room (the one on the right, directly above the equivalent window in my office -- and, as I mentioned last time, he especially enjoys the windows in our kitchen where a large butterfly bush attracts butterflies and bumble bees and humming birds. However, I have never seen a cat (or a dog) ever pay any attention to an actual television set. I have heard tales of them watching, but I've never seen it myself. Then, one night last week, Jill and Nancy and I were watching one of those Nature shows on the Boston PBS station, something about a study of behavior, intelligence, and memory in crows. There was a scene (in Japan, if I recall correctly) where young crows were hopping around on the ground and a cat was stalking them. Luther was in the living room with us and suddenly he was stock still, staring at the television screen. After a long pause, he moved closer and closer to the television until he was sitting right in front of it, staring at the birds on the screen. He stood on his hind legs and put his paws on our wood television stand, staring, watching. Suddenly he was up on the television stand, he lifted a paw -- and Nancy grabbed him and lifted him away from the television. She passed him off to Jill and Jill sat there with him on her lap for a while. Eventually the program was showing talking heads and scientists in some US city (can't remember where) hunting for a particular crow who was wearing an RFID chip, so Jill let Luther go. He stretched out on the floor, but then got up and went around behind the television, as if he were attempting to figure out where the birds he'd been hunting could have gone. This week we were again watching another nature documentary (which also may have been another episode of Nature) -- this one about Siberian tigers -- and Luther came in and stretched out on the floor, facing the TV with his head up and his eyes pointed at the screen..
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