September 15, 2009

Ruminations on Being a Cat by Flautist at bookofjoe

Who hasn't wondered at some point what life is like for our pets--how do they really view the world? The 'world's most popular blogging anesthesiologist' posted the other day over at bookofjoe:

One project of mine over the past few months has been trying (without success, methinks) to become Gray Cat, see the world as she does and experience things from her point of view.
I sometimes lie down right next to her and look at what she's looking at and try to do a mind-meld with her cat brain but so far nada.

If only I had fur and whiskers to make the incoming more realistic....

And received the following insights from Flautist:

Regarding your project to experience and see things as Gray Cat [above and below] does, I can save you some time and effort. I've already done it with my felines and here's my report: They spend their time dividing everything up into Feels Good or Doesn't Feel Good, and Exciting or Not Exciting. There is broad agreement amongst felines and plenty of individual quirks. Feels Good examples -- chin scratch, sunny spot, chow; Doesn't -- bath, medicine applications, toenail clipping. Exciting -- squirrel chase, bird stalk, cockroach hunt; Not -- waiting for playtime, waiting for rodents to show up, etc. They can occasionally feel deeply conflicted; when I pick up Laurence (cat) I like to hold him upside down like a baby, which he hates, and he plants back feet under my chin in readiness to kick forcefully for release, but he seldom uses that move because he knows he will get back of head scratch which he loves more than anything on earth. Anyway, all that is to say, this is pretty much what you need to know about Gray Cat's (literal) experience of life.

Readers, what do you think?