Noodles (Washington State, USA) has seemingly gotten a taste for Ritz crackers, and while his human was out he broke into the pantry and extracted a mini sleeve from the box. He then gnawed on it for some time, perforating and crushing a half dozen crackers.
Among Tigger-Tiger’s (Massachusetts, USA) many duties as benevolent boss to his human staff is to act as their personal trainer via demonstration and example such as rolling around and doing flips all whilst purring loudly.
Cat News recently spoke to NASA about the work of Taters (California, USA) on the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment. Taters took on the role of Laser Motion Analytics and Close To Capture Specialist, for the mission, which saw an ultra-high definition video of him chasing a laser-dot streamed, via lasers, 31 million kilometres (19 million miles) from the Psyche spacecraft to Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in California. The demonstration proves the ability of the cutting-edge ‘flight laser transceiver’ to transmit broadband video over huge distances.
Tater’s human described how Taters became involved:
“Knowing we wanted to have an HD video of a cat chasing a laser, the team actually thought of using beautifully filmed cinematic stock video. I filmed several test videos of my cat Taters chasing a laser with my phone to use as temporary video to build the idea and finalize graphics/technical overlays concepts. Despite finding a few videos that worked - they were almost TOO good - and we kept coming back to the charm and DIY of Taters. We all agreed however the video needed to be better quality with more energy from Taters. I did a massive set up in my apartment of lights and cameras pointed at a backdrop and a freshly charged laser pointer. But Taters wanted nothing to do with it all. He laid down and stared at the moving laser for 45 minutes doing nothing. I was very upset at the wasted time and told him to leave the room. I took everything down and packed it up, getting ready to let [the team] know I couldn’t get the footage needed and to consider the stock again. As I walked into my living room, Taters was lounging dead center on the couch.
I simply sat down on my coffee table, pointed the laser at the couch and filmed again with just my phone. He went crazy and that is the footage we used in the final video. A video done on his terms, not mine.”
Tater remains available as a specialist for future DSOC experiments, but ‘meanwhile he’ll keep focused on his goals of chasing more lasers, eating more flies and finding better ways to wake up his dad at 4am.’
Babette (Washington State, USA) loves to eat her dog brother’s food, and thinks it smells really good. Unfortunately it is a bit big to chew. However her Grand-human likes to visit with two little dogs and their kibble is much easier to eat.
Mister Pickles (New York State, USA) has observed that the dog gets to go to the park all the time. This seems extremely unfair as he only gets to leave to go to the vet!
Every day at noon an orange cat visits Mister Pickles (New York State, USA) and every day at noon, they must duel.
Magic (Michigan, USA) likes to sleep in the laundry basket. This is something her humans are having to learn to factor into their routines, because she does not like dirty laundry dumped on her head.
Bear (Vermont, USA) has lately been enjoying a new game his humans play with him. They go to the door, and start putting on their shoes. He catches and pulls at their shoelaces. They play it with him every time they leave the house!
Ashton (Oregon, USA) was seen staring at the wall today. He declined to explain himself. It is not clear if there might be ghosts in the house, but the only other explanation his human’s can think of is too much catnip.
Despite being Mayor for only a day, Manny (Pennsylvania, USA) celebrated all week with his online kitty friends. The pawty included a giveaway, an Instagram Live with the mayor himself, a special sticker sale, and a pawty favor: an ebook written by Manny! The pawty ended on Manny’s fifth adoptaversary!
