I like to play music loudly. I have two big speakers in my living room from which I blast stuff so it can be heard anywhere in (and a little out of) the house.
My cat likes to rest on the living room rug. But when I blast the music, he doesn’t even flinch. And it’s not simple melodious music that I’m playing, it’s stuff like Bartok and Shostakovich. But the cat just goes on lying there.
Cats are supposed to have sensitive ears. I don’t think the cat is enjoying the music. One could make a case for a cat responding to a simple melody, but not to a dissonant symphony.
How does my cat ignore the music so well that he seems oblivious? How can I learn to do this when cars stop at the light on my corner blasting salsa?
I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying.
*Pete: I like to play music loudly. I have two big speakers in my living room from which I blast stuff so it can be heard anywhere in (and a little out of) the house.
My cat likes to rest on the living room rug. But when I blast the music, he doesn’t even flinch. And it’s not simple melodious music that I’m playing, it’s stuff like Bartok and Shostakovich. But the cat just goes on lying there.
Cats are supposed to have sensitive ears. I don’t think the cat is enjoying the music. One could make a case for a cat responding to a simple melody, but not to a dissonant symphony. *
My cats do this too. They’ll ignore the obvious, but freak about any subtle change.
For example, I have a laser pointer on a keychain that I like use when playing with my cats. (They’ll chase that little red dot anywhere.) I can be watching TV with the sound relatively loud, and the cats’ll just be lounging around. But if I just jostle that keychain, all 3 perk up and start looking for the dot.
I think it’s just a matter of prioritizing what sounds are important. In the wild, there’s actually a pretty loud droning of insect noises much of the time. If you didn’t ignore it, you’d go crazy. But then you hear a twig snap behind you, and you whip around with your adrenaline pumping and your eyes wide. It just might be me with a laser pointer.
AWB;
Probably I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake here, but a lasor pointer for the cats? That’s brilliant! I can’t wait to watch to watch my own little malcontents chasing a little red dot up the wall! I’m going to buy one today. Thanks for the tip.
“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization
AWB, you have a point.
There is a loud droning of insects and birds in the wild.
But that drone is always going on. The music in my living room is not. I have to turn on the CD player. Going from a very quiet house to blasting the opening chord of a Brahms symphony is more than a “subtle change.” Yet my cat doesn’t seem to notice.
Yeah, they make great cat toys. Cats go nuts over the spot. Just be sure to keep the beam out of the little beasties’ eyes! It’s very low power, but better safe than sorry.
My cat Maria loves her “red dot”! We recently got a new one and it’s got all kinds of little caps that make the beam different shapes (arrows, stars, etc.). Her favorite is a pinwheel, that looks kind of like a spider. She’ll chase it all over the house!
It’s really funny - when she finally pounces on it, you turn it off, and she looks around frantically for it. She has finally figured out that there’s something on top of the dresser that brings “red dot” to life; if you take anything off the top of the dresser, she starts looking for “red dot”.
She also likes to sit and listen to me practice the violin (and no, she’s not deaf!). If I’m playing particularly badly, though, she leaves the room.
I saw a study once in which cats’ brainwaves were monitored during various activities, and their reaction to ambient sound is quite amazing.
The brainwave graph of a cat at rest in a room where soft music was playing shows a small ripple in the particular wave denoting sound recognition, indicating (according to the authors) the cat was hearing the music but not really paying any attention to it. The beat of the music actually corresponded to the ripple in that wave.
Now they release a live mouse into the cat’s field of vision, and guess what? That sound recognition wave goes completely flat. That cat has turned off the amp, so to speak, and its brain, for all intents and purposes is completely transparent to the sound of that music. However, when the object of the cat’s desire makes a noise, it registers on the graph with much greater amplitude than did the music it replaced, even though the sound was much fainter.
Moral of the story? Cats hear (but don’t necessarily listen to) things that don’t interest them, and they don’t hear them at all when another external stimuli override their earpans.
So what your saying is that all these years when I’ve been imagining them saying to me “like I give a *&^^#$”, that’s pretty much exactly what they were thinking.
“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization
I think Nickrz is right on. They are predators and have to tune out the unimportant and be alert to prey. My cats exhibit the same type of behavior. (Is my name appropriate for this topic, Pete?)
Thanks, Nickrz - that’s really interesting. Music and other assorted noises that I’d think would scare the hell out of my cat leave him completely unfazed. Yet he’ll jump six feet in the air over a sneeze. He’s also been known to completely freak out at the sight of an angel food cake.
Whenever I shine my laser pointer on one of my cats, it becomes INVISIBLE to both of them. On the carpet, they chase it, on the wall, they jump at it, on the ceiling, they stare at it. but the moment i shine it ON one of them, it is like it disappeared. maybe it is because both of my cats are greyish in color, and they can’t see red on grey, but that’s the only thing i can think of.
“KITTIES!!” - Elmyra
On the topic of things that drive cats crazy: Anything that moves or sounds small-mammalish. We all know how to make them chase a string by jerking it around like a scurrying rodent. Now try this – hide your hand and make scratching noises (scratch your fingernails against whatever’s back there). Move your hand around the back of the couch. Then hunting instinct takes over. Like a mouse in the underbursh, Kitty has to find out what’s doing that.
Hmmm… I wonder if a four-speaker 3D sound system can make a scratchy scurrying noise seem to move about a room and if it’ll fool a kitty and make it go crazy.
Anyone here ever see a video tape called “Video Catnip”?
It’s pretty hysterical. It’s a simple, cheap idea. It’s just a recording of birds and squirrels. It hypnotizes my cats. They sit there staring and “clicking” at the birds on the TV. Occasionally they even swat the screen.
About the laser pointer. A couple of aquaintances had taught their cats that the red dot lived in the front hall closet. Whenever they started the laser pointer, they pointed to just under the door of the front hall closet. When it was done exhausting the cats, it went back to the closet before blinking out.
It’s gotten to the point where they will stake out the closet, waiting for the dot.
“I’m surprised that you’ve never been told before, that you’re lovely, that you’re perfect, and that somebody wants you.” - Semisonic, f.n.p
I think cats like music. I know they can hear and respond to it because they give me strange looks when I make wierd sounds on my guitar (run a pick down a string, ie).
My tomcat, Sir William, is especially fond of Jimi Hendrix and classical music.
my cats don’t react to music, but if i turn on a wildlife show on the tv, & a lion /tiger/jaguar/etc. comes on & roars------undivided attention on the screen!~
