My cat is scared of Louis Armstrong!

Olli is the youngest of my cats at 3 years old. When he was 6 weeks old he was hit by a car and brought in to the animal hosptial where I used to work. He spent the next couple of months in a cage while his back legs healed from a break that had left him temporarily paralyzed. I ended up adopting him. Because he spent his formative time in a cage being prodded by a vet, he is scared of a lot of stuff. The vacuum cleaner monster, the dryer buzzer monster, the doorbell monster, the husband monster. Yes, all my husband has to do is say, “Olli!” and the cat runs away like he’s been shot out of a cannon. The only person he’s not scared of is me, and he can be quite the love muffin at times.

Two days ago I was checking out a compilation that I had made, of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong. I put on Louis’ version of “Mack the Knife”. It begins with him saying, “Dig, man, there goes Mack the Knife!” and then the music starts. I was sitting on the floor in front of the boombox, and Olli was walking over to me. When the gravelly voice started coming out of the boombox, Olli froze in mid-stride, eyes huge. He lowered his head a little bit and stood there staring. I thought, “This is curious”, so I started the song again. Louis’ voice came out of the speakers, Olli’s eyes got big again, his whole body lowered a little bit, and then he turned and ran down the hall in a crouch. Needless to say, I was laughing.

I wanted to see if he was really scared of Louis’ voice and not just being a freak, so the next day I pulled out my Louis Armstrong Christmas tape (with lots of groovy songs like, “Zat You, Santy Claus?”). One of the selections is of him reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. It starts with him saying a little introduction. When I started it, Olli was looking out the sliding glass doors. He turned and ran behind me until he was right by the doorway of the living room, paused, staring with big round eyes. His body went low to the ground, and he crept slowly towards the boombox for a couple steps, then he turned and ran away. I told my husband that we’d better shut Olli up in the bedroom if we ever rent the movie ‘High Society’, because Louis Armstrong has a speaking role in it!

The part of me that is scientific and interested in behavior says, “It’s fascinating when animals respond to noises from the tv or music, because normally it doesn’t affect them.” (ALL the cats got freaked out when I was watching a program on wolves one time, when all the wolves were howling.) The rest of me is just LMAO because I have this weird little spaz-kitty! :smiley:

We had a cat who was obsessed with Ed Sullivan. Back in the late '60s/early '70s, the family would gather 'round the old teevee on Sunday nights to enjoy Senîor Wençes, Topo Gigio and various plate-spinners. Our cat, Victor, would perch right in front of the set, gaze at Ed, then wander off after the show was over. If anyone changed the channel (and we did sometimes, just to see him do this), he would jump atop the set and press the button till he heard Ed’s voice again!

Oddly, Victor died the year Ed Sullivan went off the air . . .

Beru, my beloved feline, hates Ben Folds. She refuses to be in the same room with me if I have one of their CDs in. Oddly enough, she loves the Stray Cats…

Well, my cat could play the banjo. Her little claws were perfect for all of that intricate picking.

Her favorite song to play was a rollicking bluegrass-y version of “I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad”, and she’d sing as she played. She knew all the verses, too.

Okay, I made that up.

Actually, my cat never offered her opinion on music, only food items. But I did dance in front of her once and she hissed at me.

One of my cats used to love to watch Animal Planet’s “Big Cat Diaries”… I swear it was the only time she paid attention to the TV other than when I put in the Video Catnip tape (lots of footage of squirrels and birds)

When I was really little, and my mom would give me my baths, we would always sing songs, like Blue Moon, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, stuff like that. My mother’s cat, Meow, would always come in the bathroom when she heard us singing, for some reason.

My German Shepherd mutt hates the theme song to Northern Exposure, the theme to MST3k, and almost anything by Laurie Anderson. He’ll yowl, and whine, and complain when these come on, but won’t even think about leaving the room.

And I had to drop my cable service. The dogs were watching the Discovery Channel all day, which in itself isn’t bad. Educational, I guess. But then they’d spend all evening re-enacting scenes from nature shows in front of the tube.

“Here’s the deadly cheetah sneaking up on its prey…” Whomp. Maul. “And here’s the lion sneaking up on a hapless antelope…” Pounce. Maul.

However, it was really amusing to watch my pit bull watching the animals on the screen. If she got really into it, and the animals walked out of frame, she’d try and go around the back of the TV to see where they’d gone.