Cats and Boxes

Ever since they arrive to this world, cats form a strong bond with carton boxes.

It begins when their moms look for a secluded, dark and preferably warm place to give birth. Shortly after the newly-born kitties have opened their eyes, they start peeking at the world beyond the box but dare not leave it. However, as soon as they are strong enough, they venture into the unknown to satisfy their curiosity, but always returning to the well known safety of their box.

Even as adults, cats still enjoy playing and jumping into boxes whenever they can, even a humble paper bag will do.

This morning, as soon as I finished getting dressed up, I suddenly recalled I needed to bring an install CD to the office. Most of them are kept inside a small carton box placed on top of a cabinet.

Sassy and Mitzi, my beloved kitties, were taking a nap on my bed, comfortably rolled in my blanket. Their eyes closed, but their ears discreetly moving around to sense what else was going on.

As soon as I grabbed the box, Mitzi's ears became fixed on my position but she still didn't move. Gosh! Too many CD's to examine and I'm in a rush... ok, it will be faster if I just take them out and flip them like cards.

As soon as I placed the empty box on the bed, Mitzi opened her eyes, purred at me and stretched herself while placing her paws in it, claws fully deployed. Well, I didn't found what I was looking for, so it was time to put the CD's back into the box and... oh oh. Box is busy with kitty... or the other way around.

When I extended my hand to pick up the box, Mitzi purred again looking at me without any intention of letting go of it.

I smiled and gave her a quick scratch on her head. Very well Mitzi kitty, you can have the box even if you are too big for it.

Another gentle purr, and after she tried to fit as much of herself as she could into the box, she resumed her nap.

She seemed genuinely happy because I let her keep the box.

And my bloody camera wasn't charged or else I would have included a picture. Argh!!!

Felines everywhere

Dear Reader:

Have you noticed the recent abundance of feline-related stuff on the web?
In this post, I'll give you 5 examples.

(1) For starters, check out Hallmarks of felinity. This comic is a subset of 9 Chickwood lane by Brooke McEldowney and features Solange, a siamese cat who perfectly encompasses the general feline attitude towards life and humans.
If you share your vital space with cats (and even if you don't, but have some acquaintance who does), I'm sure you'll empathise with more than one of the situations portrayed there.

(2) Next, we pay a visit to LOLCAT, also known as "kitty pidgin".
This is a meme which consists of captioning a picture of a cat (preferably in an unusual pose) with a catchphrase using incorrect but persistently coherent grammar and spelling akin to Internet slang or l33tsp34k:


Image credit: Wikipedia

You can see more examples here and here.

(3) In a weird twist of fate, said catchphrases and grammar have spawned a programming language. For more information about it, please click here.
Who knows... maybe you'll get to see reference books like this one:


Image credit: Marco van Hylckama Vlieg

(4) Still unimpressed? Try the LOLCAT Bible, an ongoing translation effort:


Mai teh blessigs of teh Ceiling Cat b pwn u, lol!

(5) Last, but not least, a short animation featuring the tricks cats resort to when their human staff do not respond quickly enough to their will:


Image credit: Simon Tofield

Fun times =)