Conference misery::feline_v1

    Well, I have a large 4 ft long aquarium, with a smaller 10 gallon
    on the bottom shelf.  The cats will sit and watch the fish swim
    for hours.  It seems as if I'm always cleaning paw prints off the
    glass.  
    
    And then of course, there's stripees, who always has to come help
    feed the fish.  He'll put his paws into the water and paw at the
    fish.  Their cichlids, (the fish) so their pretty fast.  I worry
    more about the fish nipping Stripees paws than Stripees actually
    catching anything!!  
    
    

    
       My cats hate the aquarium!  Especially when the pump is bubbling
    away.  They pay no attention to it at all, and if held near it, their
    eyes get wide and they leap away.  The first day it was there, they
    showed mild, real mild, interest in the little squiggles in the water,
    but definately not since then!
                                          D

    re:1
    
    Now, if it were Lil trying to catch the fish, I think she
    would probably actually catch one or jump into the tank 
    and take a swim with them.....silly girl that she is...
    
    E.T.

    I have a large aquarium, and my cats could care less.  (They are
    much more interested in the bird.)  Somehow, they seem to know
    the bird is off limits, so they sit in the next room and gaze
    longingly.
    
    On another note, anybody else ever put ice cubes in the water dish?
    That usually is a good 10 minutes of wet paws trying to find out
    what is in there.
    
    Linda

    We don't have an aquarium, but Kimi loves to watch the microwave
    when it's on!          
    
    Our next-door neighbours set up an aquarium a while ago. Kimi visits
    them every day if we are out (they worship him), and Sura visits
    occasionally. K & S were both fascinated by the fish for a while,
    and would sit and stare at them. So far, so good. Then one day Dorothy
    (neighbour) mentioned that Kimi had eaten one of their fish! We
    both had minor heart failure, started offering to buy a new one,
    when she explained the whole story.
    
    A couple of days before, whe had been cleaning the tank and one
    of the fish had somehow escaped (I'm not a fish expert). It got
    in some inaccessible corner of the kitchen were they couldn't find
    it, and they thought they'd have to wait for the smell to give it
    away.
    
    They reckoned without Kimi! On his next visit, he went immediately
    to the kitchen and hooked out the fish from wherever it was (under
    the fridge, I think). Of course he ate it. 
    
    So in fact the neighbours were quite grateful!
    
    Shayne (NZ)

    We used to have a 50 fgallon tank and will again.  Smokey and Bandit
    both would get very frustrated by the tank.  They would watch the fish
    and as one would drop to the bottom of the tank to feed or whatever,
    the cats could reach under the tank (it was on a stand) and try to
    "hook" the fish out of the water and would be quite surprised when it
    did not go as planned.  Many hours have been spent watching the tank
    and the fish.
    
    I have not tried the ice cube trick, but as a kid we had a raccoon
    name Archie.  I sometimes would give him a sugar cube and he would take
    it over to his water dish to wash ...... a few seconds later he would
    be hunting high and low for that cube.  However, he got his revenge....
    one morning the household was startled awake by the star spangled
    banner playing on the TV as it went off the air in the wee small
    hours...   Thereafter we would have to de-nob the tv before going to
    bed at night.  A raccoon acts like a cross between a dog and a cat
    can be trained etc.
    
    Cathy (Smokey & Bandit)

    
    
    	We have a 10 gallon fish tank (but the fish keep dying!)
    	Anyway, with the ones that are left, Sasha and Duke love
    	to watch them and bat at the glass trying to catch them.
    	Every once in a while Sasha will jump on top of the tank
    	and try to stick her paw in ...only to be "Sasha get down"ed
    	by mom or dad.  They are funny.  Sasha likes to watch the fast
    	ones and Duke liked to watch our Siamese fighting fish which
    	was bright red, but I found him dead last night :-(
    
    	They are funny to watch.
      

    Yeah we have kitty TV too, but it is not a fish tank.  It's the
    "picture window" in our livingroom.  There is a table just a sill
    height and it provides hours of entertainment for both the cats
    and the humans. 
    
    During the day they watch the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, other
    cats, dogs, kids and the whole world go by.  (Spot is convinced
    that she is the best squirrel hunter in the world, and if she could
    only get out {she hate the outdoors, too much noise} she could reall
    show those inept neighborhood cats how it is done!!!)
    
    At night both cats go just bananas when one (or more) moths try
    to get in through the window.  It's such fun to watch then leap
    and complain (MUMMIEEEE that bug won't play fair, he keeps flying
    up to where we can't reach HimMMMM!!!)
    
    Most nights it's more fun to watch the cats than the boob tube!!
    
    Feline playful,
    
    Sue & Panther & Spot
    

    ....and then there was the day Sity did her usual sprint across
    the 30 gallon tank .....not realizing I had removed the cover
    for cleaning...     For months after she would run up to the tank,
    stop, reach out and touch the top of the tank ..and resume her
    headlong pace..
    
    :^)            

    
    About 5 years ago, my two roommates and I were getting ready for
    work at our flat in San Francisco.  As always, we were all running
    late.... The radio was going, blow dryers were going, and somebody
    was at the ironing board.  Suddenly, I heard a big crash and a 
    tremendous shreik from Sheryl's room.  Molly (my then 3-year old cat) 
    came tearing out of the room at about 80 miles an hour, as if running 
    for her life.  Seems this is what happened...
    
    Sheryl had a large fish-bowl on a small table in her room.  Molly
    was always fascinated with it, and would stand up and bat her paws
    at the side, etc.  Then she advanced to standing on the rim of it,
    with all four feet  --looking a bit like an elephant balancing on
    a small ball.  Of course once she was up there with all four feet,
    she couldn't get to the fish.  Well this one morning, she apparantly
    got brave and lifted one foot from the top so as to dunk it in and
    catch a fishy!  If you haven't already guessed.... the whole thing
    came tumbling down, hitting a big mexican plant pot on the way down.
    By the time I got in there, the fish was flapping on the rug, there
    was fish water and mud ALL OVER the place, and Molly was looking
    very chagrined!!!
    
    P.S.  The fish lived!