Buffy & Birds - "Cat TV"

On 1/29/2016 7:04 AM, Will in New Haven wrote:
On Friday, January 29, 2016 at 2:29:17 AM UTC-5, Joy wrote:
On 1/28/2016 7:27 PM, Bastette wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

On 1/25/2016 10:05 AM, Will in New Haven wrote:
On Monday, January 25, 2016 at 5:16:30 AM UTC-5, Jack Campin wrote:
Buffy simply doesn't seem to care about birds. Persia was always
thrilled by "cat TV". In the summer when there were hummingbirds
at the feeder, she paid rapt attention as they zipped around and
sipped. Buffy was all Ho-hum, there's a bird hovering. Guess it's
time for a nap.

Buffy is only the second cat I've ever had but I truly thought
all of them would at least like to watch birds flitting around.
Honestly, she doesn't seem to care.

Our lot are all fascinated by them, either in the garden, on
a nature DVD or as recorded on a CD.

But here's a new one. Marion spent yesterday evening at her
computer watching a BBC nature documentary series about deception
strategies in animals. Ollie was on here desk beside her and
ignored the whole thing - until he heard the call of a baby seal.
That got him REALLY interested.

Where can you get baby-seal-flavoured cat food?

Squeakytoy ignores sound from the TV, including "normal" cat voices. However, if anything comes on that sounds like her voice, which you can figure out from her name, she immediately alerts and replies.

We think she is an alien and is trying to answer the mothership.

Of course she is!

Buffy ignores television completely. Even cat food and treat
commercials. Then again, there probably isn't a cat on TV with exactly
her same voice.

She is bothered by my watching videos on my computer. There's something
about the recordings that irritate her, even when the videos don't
involve cats.

My cats never liked videos made for cats, which would feature squirrels
and other small animals running around, or birds chirping and flying around.
Actually, to say they didn't like them is an overstatement. They simply
didn't take any notice of them.

They were much more interested in videos made *of* cats. The instant there
was a feline - of any species - on TV, they were glued to the set. They
particularly liked images of leopards and mountain lions slinking around,
probably because those cats look and move more like domestic cats than, say,
a big male lion. The big cats on TV certainly didn't sound anything like
my cats, so it wasn't about that. I think they just liked the images. I think
it goes without saying that they really enjoyed shows about housecats like
themselves. Especially loudly mewing kittens.

I guess my cats were social types, so they liked to watch TV that had
characters they could identify with, and maybe were similar to cats they
knew. That would be like a human watching a show about people and their
relationships. And maybe a cat who likes to watch shows about prey animals
is similar to a human who isn't quite so social, and prefers to hole up
in their den watching cooking shows.

This was back in the days of Roxy and Smudge, btw. Smudge is now basking
in the Big Outdoors in the Sky, and will never have to spend another day
of eternity inside four walls. Roxy is still with me, but she doesn't pay
much attention to the television. That's because I insist on watching shows
about boring humans. Licky usually doesn't pay attention to the TV, either,
but once in a while, he is inexplicably riveted to the images. There's no
pattern to what might grab his attention, at least not that I've noticed.


None of my cats have ever paid any attention to the TV, with one single
exception. One evening I was watching a nature show, and Skeeter (RB)
was lying on my lap, facing me. At one point in the show, a wolf
howled. She immediately jumped up, turned around, and laid facing the
TV. She watched intently until the show was over.

Years ago I had a screen saver (Anybody remember those?) called Rat
Race. It showed rats, wearing numbers, racing around a track. Another
RB cat (I've forgotten which one) used to lie on top of the monitor and
hang his head down so he could watch that.

The wolf howl incident brings back a memory. We were camping in the desert in Arizona and suddenly there were coyotes yipping and howling not that far from us. BD, our Malamute, stuck his head out of the tent and let loose with a much deeper howl, something we had never heard him do before. The coyotes shut up. I think they may have thought "timber wolf, time to go." When we were back in Ohio, BD would occasionally do his wolf howl.


LOL! BD was pretty smart.

Joy wrote:

On 1/28/2016 7:27 PM, Bastette wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

On 1/25/2016 10:05 AM, Will in New Haven wrote:
On Monday, January 25, 2016 at 5:16:30 AM UTC-5, Jack Campin wrote:
Buffy simply doesn't seem to care about birds. Persia was always
thrilled by "cat TV". In the summer when there were hummingbirds
at the feeder, she paid rapt attention as they zipped around and
sipped. Buffy was all Ho-hum, there's a bird hovering. Guess it's
time for a nap.

Buffy is only the second cat I've ever had but I truly thought
all of them would at least like to watch birds flitting around.
Honestly, she doesn't seem to care.

Our lot are all fascinated by them, either in the garden, on
a nature DVD or as recorded on a CD.

But here's a new one. Marion spent yesterday evening at her
computer watching a BBC nature documentary series about deception
strategies in animals. Ollie was on here desk beside her and
ignored the whole thing - until he heard the call of a baby seal.
That got him REALLY interested.

Where can you get baby-seal-flavoured cat food?

Squeakytoy ignores sound from the TV, including "normal" cat voices. However, if anything comes on that sounds like her voice, which you can figure out from her name, she immediately alerts and replies.

We think she is an alien and is trying to answer the mothership.

Of course she is!

Buffy ignores television completely. Even cat food and treat
commercials. Then again, there probably isn't a cat on TV with exactly
her same voice.

She is bothered by my watching videos on my computer. There's something
about the recordings that irritate her, even when the videos don't
involve cats.

My cats never liked videos made for cats, which would feature squirrels
and other small animals running around, or birds chirping and flying around.
Actually, to say they didn't like them is an overstatement. They simply
didn't take any notice of them.

They were much more interested in videos made *of* cats. The instant there
was a feline - of any species - on TV, they were glued to the set. They
particularly liked images of leopards and mountain lions slinking around,
probably because those cats look and move more like domestic cats than, say,
a big male lion. The big cats on TV certainly didn't sound anything like
my cats, so it wasn't about that. I think they just liked the images. I think
it goes without saying that they really enjoyed shows about housecats like
themselves. Especially loudly mewing kittens.

I guess my cats were social types, so they liked to watch TV that had
characters they could identify with, and maybe were similar to cats they
knew. That would be like a human watching a show about people and their
relationships. And maybe a cat who likes to watch shows about prey animals
is similar to a human who isn't quite so social, and prefers to hole up
in their den watching cooking shows.

This was back in the days of Roxy and Smudge, btw. Smudge is now basking
in the Big Outdoors in the Sky, and will never have to spend another day
of eternity inside four walls. Roxy is still with me, but she doesn't pay
much attention to the television. That's because I insist on watching shows
about boring humans. Licky usually doesn't pay attention to the TV, either,
but once in a while, he is inexplicably riveted to the images. There's no
pattern to what might grab his attention, at least not that I've noticed.


None of my cats have ever paid any attention to the TV, with one single
exception. One evening I was watching a nature show, and Skeeter (RB)
was lying on my lap, facing me. At one point in the show, a wolf
howled. She immediately jumped up, turned around, and laid facing the
TV. She watched intently until the show was over.

Years ago I had a screen saver (Anybody remember those?) called Rat
Race. It showed rats, wearing numbers, racing around a track. Another
RB cat (I've forgotten which one) used to lie on top of the monitor and
hang his head down so he could watch that.

That's really cute!

--
Joyce

What business is it of the state how consenting adults choose to pair
off, share expenses and eventually stop having sex with each other?
-- Bill Maher