The dichotomy of cats

[xiphias]

The following observations are both true.

First, our cats are incredibly graceful. Watching how Nick runs and attacks his toys, how he angles and pounces -- he has the same kind of beauty that Willie Mays had when fielding. He also has the kind of fluffy adorableness, but he has a pure athletic beauty as well -- it's gorgeous watching him jump off of the bed, over three horizontal feet of obstacles in order to precisely grab a toy that we toss, right out of the air.

Nora has a precision and grace to her movements that is equally beautiful, but in a more restrained way -- more like a ballerina. Nick has the explosive power and control of, say, Gene Kelly (and he loves watching Gene Kelly movies); Nora has an athletic side, too, but her beauty is more like Audrey Hepburn's.

They also pose in order to deliberately show off their beauty, and they have immense grace and dignity.

That's the first observation.

The second observation, which is equally true, is that, yesterday, Nora was being scritched by Lis, and she stretched and rolled over so ecstatically that she rolled off the daybed and into the trash can, and that Nick got his head stuck in the tissue box. Four times in a row.

Comments

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

And this? This is the feline estate, in a nutshell.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

:-)

[paninogirl.livejournal.com]

I love your kitty posts so much!

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Now that's a great observation. And after getting his head caught in the tissue box, did he look at you as if to say, "I meant to do that"?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Actually, no -- and there is a non-zero possibility that he DID mean to do that. See, it was, like, two in the morning, and it was only on the third iteration that we figured out what the sound was, and watched iteration three and four. He was sticking his head in the box, getting stuck, then backing up until he found a corner of the bed or nightstand or something, which he'd use to pry the box off. Then he'd, again, make an attempt to access the inside of the box.

He'd managed to drop one of his toy mousies in there.

But the thing is -- over the past several days, he's been deliberately putting toy mousies in holes, and in narrow spaces, and so forth, and working out strategies to try to get them out again. I have this creepy feeling that he's training himself in case another mouse gets in -- he seems to be proactively trying to figure out places mice might try to hide, and work out ways to access them.

So there is a non-zero possibility that he was deliberately accepting the risk of getting his head stuck in an active attempt to work out the best way of getting things out of the box WITHOUT getting his head stuck.

It's just as ridiculous, of course -- but he might have been doing it because of his brain rather than despite it.

Doing stupid and ridiculous things in order to learn and figure out new things? It doesn't make him any less silly -- but it would be a particularly geek kind of silly.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

But the thing is -- over the past several days, he's been deliberately putting toy mousies in holes, and in narrow spaces, and so forth, and working out strategies to try to get them out again. I have this creepy feeling that he's training himself in case another mouse gets in -- he seems to be proactively trying to figure out places mice might try to hide, and work out ways to access them.

Yup, that's pretty much exactly what he's doing. This is a really typical form of cat play. The things they hunt hang out in small places and little holes, so they love to try to extract stuff that way. Herbie does this a lot, other cats we've had did it as well. Of course, the dumb one used to stuff his toys into small places and then simply forget they were there until we rescued them days later.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

that's awesome...so he's in training!

[rosefox]

Sam once fell off the loft bed because Josh was petting her and she rolled over the wrong way. Fortunately she wasn't injured. Stupid cat.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

ab-so-lootle true

[elgoose.livejournal.com]

You're lucky they can't read.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Who says they can't?

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

In our house, we have a little catchphrase that we utter if we see one of the cats doing something like rolling off the arm of a chair, or attempting to jump up onto the kitchen table and missing. It goes "grace and elegance, thy name is Cat." (or alternately, depending on our mood, "so much for 'feline grace'".

That it happens frequently enough to have multiple catchphrases associated with it is noteworthy. :-)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

We like to recite the following poem:

Fog creeps in on little cat feet.
Galumph Galumph Galumph Crash Smash Kapow.

I think Carl Sandburg may have made a revision or two to it before he published it, but I'm almost certain that that's the original, more accurate, version.

[pameladean]

We think he just got it backwards. Cats creep in on little fog feet. They can't see in the fog, so they crash and galumph.

Almost any thunder of feline feet is met in this house with a brief, "Fog feet again!"

P.

[baka-kit.livejournal.com]

Hobbes has fallen off the bed while chasing her tail. She's also bitten her tail hard enough to cause herself pain. (The latter is especially impressive when you consider that she's only got one tooth left.)

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

heh...and this is why cats make fascinating housemates :)

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

When informed of Nick's encounter with the tissue box, Theo hid his head in shame.

Kiralee