[sdiy] Feline synthesis problems

[The Peasant]

Hello all!

I've just had a somewhat strange and unsettling experience 
with our cat. I have my breadboarding wire box sitting open 
on the table beside the computer, and the cat likes to lay 
on this table when I am using the computer. She started 
rummaging around in the box and picking up the bits of wire 
and playing with them. I wasn't too concerned since she 
likes to play with small objects like toothpicks and pens, 
batting them around and pouncing on them. Anyways, after 
picking up a few pieces, chewing at them a bit and dropping 
them, she picked up one small piece of wire in her mouth 
and before I knew it she had swallowed it!

I wasn't completely sure that she had actually done this, 
since it was a bit dark and I wasn't watching too closely. 
But I hadn't seen or heard the wire fall, although she 
didn't seem to need or use any effort to swallow it.

So I kept watching, very closely now. And she picked up 
another piece, exactly the way she would pick up a piece of 
cat food, and instantly and effortlessly swallowed that one 
as well. My wife and I simply could not believe our eyes! 
She swallowed it as quickly and easily as a drink of water.

I put the box of wire away and have been watching the cat 
ever since, with no sign of anything unusual at all. I'm 
not sure if I should pump her up with the grease gun or  
just wait and see what her digestive system will do with a 
couple of 1 - 2 inch pieces of hook up wire. What a strange 
animal!

I suppose all of the exposure that she gets to synth 
electronics and other high tech stuff around here must have 
some sort of effect, but this really seems excessive. Maybe 
she's actually a robot, planted by the government, and the 
wire chewing for food is supposed to be hidden. At any 
rate, she is fairly high tech herself, being "laser 
guided". My wife bought one of those cheap laser pointers, 
and the cat will chase that little red dot *anywhere* :-)=

Anyways, the moral of the story is watch out that your 
furry friends don't get into your hardware, it can be quite 
harmful to both. If she starts pulling wires out of the 
breadboard now and eating them, I won't get anything 
designed!  Oh well, at least I can blame her now when the 
circuit won't work ;-)=

Take care,
Doug
______________________
The Electronic Peasant

www.electronicpeasant.com