[sdiy] Feline synthesis problems

[synth at charlielamm.com]

I hope you cat is alright...thankfully, they are pretty durable animals.

I would like to beg the group's indulgence to relate a cat story of my own
that's somewhat similar.   Well, not that similar but still involves cats
and electronics...this involves our cat Boof, who recently (sadly) died of
lymphoma.  He was always a million laughs....we already miss him
terribly..but my story involves the happy times when we watched
Boof-a-vision.  Went like this:

--My wife and I would be watching TV.
--Boof would jump up on the TV and plant himself on top
--Boof would swish his tail (bushy...he was a furry cat) back and forth
across the screen, which I assume gathered up electricity of some sort.
--He would then stand up and discharge himself on the TV rabbit ears.
DOINK!!!
--He would jump a bit, having just zapped himself, and then settle down
and repeat the whole process, over and over.  He seemed to really enjoy
it!!!!

needless to say, my wife and I almost peed ourselves several times when
watching this, funniest thing we ever saw.  Electronic-P, you might want
to take him to a vet to get an XRAY....I know it sounds a bit extreme, but
it's better to be safe than sorry....because if he is chowing hookup wire
with you around, who knows what he's eating when you're not.

--CL



On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, The Peasant wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>
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