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Musical cats

by David Yehudah, Bellflower, CA, USA

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A little earlier I was sitting here checking the newsgroups to see what was going on and glad to see a lot of familiar names here. After a while I got up to make me a snack and passed under the catwalk.

Some of you may recall we have an overhead catwalk that goes from room to room throughout the house.

Anyway, here were four cat tails hanging over the edge, all in a row, practically in my face. Just as a lark I gave a little tug on one of the tails as I went by and got a friendly little 'meow' in return. Just saying 'Hi,' you understand.

It occurred to me to wonder if any of the others would do that, so I stopped and tugged on another tail and got another 'Howdy.' Then I pulled another tail with the same result. All four responded, and I noticed each one had a different pitch. By alternating cats I could almost play a tune, you know, like the Advantage commercial. For a few moments I stood there just tugging tails at random and admiring the music. The cats didn't seem to mind.

Then it occurred to me to try and assign the proper musical notes to the sounds they were making. That way I could check musical scores to see if anything matched. I imagined playing 'Jingle Bells' or some such thing and making a lot of money on tv and records. So I went and got my guitar.

A guitar takes two hands to play properly, and it was a bit of a hassle tugging tails and playing notes and trying to match them up from memory. Bummer. I looked around the room for inspiration.

My grandaughter's little chair she sits in for tea parties was the only thing I saw. A light popped on in my head.

I dragged the little chair over to underneath the cats' tails, and by standing on it I could just reach the tails with my mouth. So I began gripping them with my teeth and gently tugging, meanwhile plucking the guitar.

Patty walked in about that time, but I had my back to her, and she didn't say a word.

Romeow decided he didn't want to play anymore. He stopped meowing. You may remember Romeow; 24 pounds of attitude. So I tugged a little harder and bit down a little more firmly. Still no meows.

I got a good mouthful of tail, clamped down firmly, and pulled. Just then the chair collapsed, and I fell flat on my back with Romeow on top of me, hisspitting for all he was worth. Patty let out a yowl and collapsed on the sofa, completely helpless with laughter. I spit out a mouthful of hair and tail and enraged feline and just lay there, too stunned to move.

Now Patty wants me to do the whole thing over again so she can film it for one of those telly shows. But Romeow and I both declined.

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Just a little follow-up to my previous article about the musical cats. Now when I walk into any room where the cats are, I am immediately followed by four pairs of eyes, and they don't stop watching until I either sit down or leave the room. I mean they are alert!

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Editor's note:

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