With the prevalence of cheap, networkable video cameras and surveillance systems, it occurred to me that at least some of you must use them to keep tabs on things when you’re away from home.
So what I want to know is, do your cats act any differently when you’re not around? I’m willing to bet that mine do. I can’t tell when they’re playing and when one is really annoyed at the other, so I tend to yell at them if they look like they’re serious. Except they’re cats, so they ALWAYS look serious. They also tend to do things I don’t necessarily want them to do and I know they are probably on their best behavior, or at least their whatever-i-can-get-away-with behavior, whenever I’m around.
I recently got a small robot that I can program to buzz around the house and can control remotely. I got it as a supplement to my alarm system and ultimately want to install a remotely accessible surveillance system.
I fully intend to use the robot to terrorize them, but I know that will only last for a day or 2 at most. And I’ll still look like the good guy since it won’t be active when I’m in the same room.
What do you think I’ll discover about my cats when my back is turned?
I don’t spy on my cats, but I’ve noticed that if Emmy is playing and sees that I’m watching, she stops. I’m assuming she does all of her playing when no one is here or if we’re sleeping.
I figure that they’re already on to me and had a good laugh when the robot came. Anyway, I think they are currently doing battle with the basement mice. The part calico is an atheist but the other one is part ceiling cat so I’m not worried. I know their tech is superior to what the mice have.
Do you happen to know if any of those automatic laser toys really work with cats. I’ve had my eye on a couple for a while now but I never pull the trigger on it because I think they probably won’t play with it. They do like when I use the laser point but that gets really boring really fast - at least for me.
They aren’t officially my cats, I just take care of them. I like cats but would never have any of my own. Of course after about 2 or 3 years, the ownership line is a little blurry.
For a while, by accident. I had this security software that that was part motion sensor, part alarm. When it sensed motion on the screen, it would snap a pic and send it to me by email.
I had to readjust the camera’s aim because I got too many pics of my cats stalking by the back door.
Internet meme. It’s a pic of a cat scowling from an open ceiling panel… but that’s just the origin of it. (There’s been many adaptations of that concept since.) Google-Image search “ceiling cat”.
No cats are cats and to do something different when you’re away would make them something else. Cats do what they want, when they want, to whomever they want and they do it whenever they darn well feel like it.
That is why they are cats! That is why we love them, because we all wish we could be just like them. But life in the human world don’t work that way, life in a cat world does
The only thing that will happen is the cat will say: "If there’s anything dumber than me sitting in a window all day watching a bird, that even if I caught, I wouldn’t know what to do with, is someone watching ME watch the bird
Sorry about the unexplained meme. I forget that most people don’t spend a couple hours on the “I CAN HAZ CHEESBURGER” site each week. Thanks Scrivener. Here’s a link to Know your meme - wonderful site for every obscure meme that even the CHUDs on 4chan won’t know about.
I’m sure that’s their nature, but mine were rescue cats so they tend to be concerned about whether or not they’re pissing you off too much. The part calico is more cat like in that respect, but even she knows not to do certain things - at least if she knows she’ll be caught. All I do is chase them away or yell, but even that seems to have an impact. The white cat was given to a no-kill shelter much later in life and for the first few weeks my gf had him, he would sit in one spot and never move. We figured that at some point he must sneak away to eat and use the litter but we never saw it. So he’s even more sensitive.
And I think they know that I don’t really like having them around. I take good care of them in terms of feeding and such but I don’t have any desire to pet them or play with them. I make myself do it when I’m up to it, I’ll even brush them, but it keeps getting harder. If I were more attentive I think they would be more comfortable and try to get away with more. That’s why I keep hoping my gf will be able to take them back but that doesn’t seem likely.
uh huh. yeah, howz that working out for ya? it’s much too late to dispute ownership boundaries. welcome your feline overlords and life will be much better for you in the long run.
I’m not sure. Emmy usually just throws around her small stuffed animal toys and chases after them, while Towelfish plays with the rings from milk jugs. They’d both probably love an automatic laser toy.
Yes, we spy on our pets with a webcam. Fatcat is getting very, very, very old, and we wanted to be sure he and Littlecat are safe with my partner’s dog, now that they live together. We were being very stealthy. However recently, our covert surveillance was compromised. :eek:
