Alert reader Steve sent me this short video showing a small kitten getting the heebie-jeebies over a tennis ball:
And here’s a Russian kitteh who’s guarding a cigarette with his life (my translator website says that the Russian means “How to break tomcat to smoke?”):
OK, the tobacco-addicted kitty is just hilarious.
You know…I bet an animal behaviorist at a university could put together an awesome lecture on aggressive and defensive displays based on that one video.
The kitten’s got it all — the arched back, the sideways stance, the puffed fur, the bouncing….
And, in the middle of it all, the kitten looks to the camera and pauses to scratch its ear before going at it again. Break’s over! Back to work!
Now…imagine the hilarity that would ensue if there were a remote-controlled motor in that ball….
Cheers,
b&
Seems there’s always a little grooming/scratching interlude whenever a cat feels overstimulated. Surely some catologist has studied this…
Rumor has it that Stanley Kubrick considered the tennis ball video for the Dawn of Cat section in 2001 before the section was discarded.
OMNEG! Aside from being hilarious, that is an absolutely phenominal job of synchronizing the music with the action. Bryxie had the same reaction to a green glass serving tray I bought years ago. I put it on the floor and she circled it cautiously, advancing and receding. When I moved it with my toe, she must have jumped 4 feet in the air. I miss that little girl.
And to our cigarette addicted friend: Don’t you know that those things will stunt your growth?
Why yes, I do know how to spell phenomenal. I just chose not to.
Indeed, the kitteh was extremely cute but the music was even more impressive.
It’s as though it was specially composed and performed. A friend in LA?
I thought it more likely that the ‘sound editor’ simply was able to manipulate the sounds as necessary?
Yet it still sounded musical. That’s what impressed me.
It impressed me, too. Well done, however it was done.
This is not a video of kittens behaving badly but but thought you and your good readers may enjoy the fun that these two clearly have with each other.
If I was that tennis ball, I would remain motionless also. That little thing looks so big when it moves sideways.