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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:	Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:	FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:	MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO

Created:	Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5089
Total number of notes:	60366

3028.0. "KITTY VIDEO" by ASABET::CUNNIFF () Thu Nov 09 1989 16:56

    [The following extracted without permission from some magazine about people
    most people don't give a darn about.]

    Wanna give your cat come cheap thrills? Or should that be "chirp" thrills?
    For all cat owners wishing to provide their pampered felines with a
    whisker-tickling experience, Jane Talkington has made a 30-minute video
    that consists entirely of birds doing the things that birds do: chirping,
    pecking, hopping around, all in tantalizing close-up. And Talkington's
    tape, KITTY VIDEO, is being pounced on by the catty crowd. "I'm getting
    letters from all over the country about cats who are turning into couch
    potatoes," she says.

    Anyone who has ever seen Sylvester's lip-smacking pursuit of Tweety in the
    Saturday-morning cartoons knows that cats are canary fanciers. But
    boob-tube birds? Talkington says she was watching a TV special a year or so
    ago about backyard birds of Britain when she noticed that her own kitty
    (named Kitty) was also enraptured. "Her eyes lit up just like a 3-year-old
    watching Big Bird," says Talkington. "She meowed and pawed at the screen."

    That's when Talkington, 25 and a senior majoring in marketing at Oklahoma
    State University Stillwater, decided the movie business was in her future.
    Working with commmercial cameraman Gene Shouse and using Kitty and some of
    her like-minded neighborhood tabbies as a captive audience, Talkington
    conducted basic research on cat reactions to various birds. Some avians
    screen-tested better than others. "Ducks are a disaster," she says. "I
    suppose it's because most cats can't stand the water. The cats ran for
    cover whenever they saw a hawk or an eagle, and parrots scare them because
    they're too loud." In the end, it was the humbler birds from all over the
    workd - finches, starlings, doves, and bluebirds - that set cat pulses
    racing. 

    KITTY VIDEO ($ 19.95), available at some pet stores and by direct mail, has
    sold more than 1000 copies since its launch in July. One of the video's
    biggest nonfeline fans is Barbara Diamond of Canoga Park, Calif., a
    columnist at Cat Fancy magazine. "I've seen more than one cat stalk the TV,
    then lunge," says Diamond. "One cat spent half the day searching for a
    bird BEHIND our TV." 

    In the best hollywood tradition, Talkington is now thinking of a sequel,
    THE RETURN OF KITTY VIDEO, with more birds and guest appearances by mice
    and goldfish. A video for dogs is another possibility. What turns dogs on?
    "Arthritic postmen," says Talkington, "three-legged cats and fire
    hydrants."

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
3028.1		FSHQA1::RKAGNO	A Cat Makes a Purrfect Friend	`Thu Nov 09 1989 17:35`	5
	I want this video!! How can we order via direct mail? --Roberta
3028.2	Hear the birds chirping?	WOODRO::IVES		`Thu Nov 09 1989 18:56`	6
	We have a bird book from National Geographic that has a 45 record of bird calls of all kinds. Play that on a rainy day when everyone is trying to take a "Cat" nap and watch the house come alive. We done this for 20 years on and off. Now this generation gets videos. Barbara
3028.3	Where to get it	ASABET::CUNNIFF		`Thu Nov 09 1989 22:15`	18
	re .1 The address for Kitty Video is: Lazy Cat Productions, Dept CF (as in Cat Fancy, where I'm getting THIS info from) Box 912, Stillwater, OK 74076 And the price reported here is $22.95 - the story I typed in didn't mention the $3 shipping/handling. Fyi - read the review in Cat Fancy, December 89, page 34. Barbara Diamond gave it a "thumbs-up", but Dorothy Holby, the other reviewer, bordered on the negative, so, as the saying goes, "Caveat Emptor", which means "Maybe you should wait until you can borrow it". (Boy, those Latins had a way of conserving words.) jack
3028.4		DELREY::WEYER_JI		`Thu Nov 09 1989 22:34`	9
	I am wondering if it is safe for cats to watch TV. Is it a strain on their eyes? Or is it cruel to tease them with a video? What do the Cat Magazines say in regards to the healthiness of having cats watch TV videos? (As a human, I would indeed find it amusing to watch my cats stalk the TV, but don't want to do anything to harm my kitties). Jill Mommy to Casino & Maui
3028.5		CRUISE::NDC	DTN: 297-2313	`Fri Nov 10 1989 10:23`	4
	I don't know about the eye strain part, but I would say its no more cruel to "tease" them with the TV, than when they watch birds from the kitchen window. Nancy DC who may get this for her crew for christmas
3028.6	Don't want depraved cats!	BIMINI::SPINGLER		`Fri Nov 10 1989 14:59`	12
	Be careful, if your cats figure out how to change the channel, well they could end up watching soap operas all day and that would be very poor for thier moral development. :-) Panther likes to sit on the remote control and watch the channels change at high speed!! Feline Funny, Sue & Panther & Spot (Who likes chase scenes)
3028.7	:^)	WR2FOR::CORDESBRO_JO	set home/cat_max=infinity	`Fri Nov 10 1989 15:43`	5
	I will have you know that my cats enjoy watching Loving and All My Children with Ken and I every night! Why just this morning, Limoges reminded us to be sure and set the timer on the VCR! Jo
3028.8		CRUISE::NDC	DTN: 297-2313	`Fri Nov 10 1989 15:46`	2
	When the cable box had the buttons on the top I would frequently find the crew watching M tv!
3028.9		DELREY::WEYER_JI		`Fri Nov 10 1989 16:52`	6
	When I watch TV, Casino likes to sit on my lap and seems to watch the TV also. Maui ignores it unless an ice hockey game is on, then she moves right up near the screen to closely watch the players and hockey puck move around. As for MTV, I never watch it, but both my cats are very friskey when we listen to the CD player. Cats must like that rock-n-roll beat too.
3028.10		GIGI::GOLDBERG		`Fri Nov 10 1989 19:10`	6
	My baby kitty will just sit on top of the cable box and sleep! F.
3028.11	Likes sports	GENRAL::BALDRIDGE	Fall has fell	`Fri Nov 10 1989 19:56`	8
	Cassandra, the flea, likes football and especially golf. Likes to bat at putts as they roll across the green. As an aside, she and Peaches (14) have become very good friends and play "thunder cats" just about every day. Jane and I have figured out that Peaches thinks its his cat-Sandra. Chuck
3028.12	Hours of fun and FRUSTRATION!	BUSY::CIOFFI		`Mon Nov 13 1989 13:43`	7
	This sounds like a video that will drive Jasper wild!!!!!! He's quite put out that we are no longer openning the windows at his command. He is an avid nintendo player--in fact, frequently gets bannished from the room when my daughter is trying to play, with him in the middle of the tv screen. His favorite game is Duck Hunt, so this sounds like a nice gift. What will they think of next???
3028.13	Mentioned in PEOPLEy	MICLUS::MTAG		`Mon Nov 13 1989 14:08`	5
	I bought PEOPLE magazine yesterday and what, to my surprise, did I see? An article on this video with a picture of a cat pawing the TV screen! Mary
3028.14	Do they really see what's on the screen?	SASE::MORRIS		`Tue Nov 14 1989 16:20`	19
	I've always wondered if cats could make out the images on TV or if they just watch it because there's constant movement. Well, I think my question was answered last night. Wild America had a show on American Cats - Cougars, Bobcats, Ocelots, etc. They started the show with a domestic kitten, crying its little lungs out. Snuggles and Peaches went crazy trying to find the kitten! They pawed at the screen, the speaker, looked everywhere for it. As they got on with the rest of the show, Snuggles got bored and promptly jumped in my lap and fell asleep. Peaches sat next to me on the couch and watched every minute of that show. The kicker was the very end, they were showing a Bobcat chasing a mouse in the snow. Peaches went into her stalking mode, slowly slithered off the couch, crept toward the TV, and then... the show ended! I was so mad...I was dying to see what she was going to do my poor TV! Paula
3028.15		SANFAN::FOSSATJU		`Tue Nov 14 1989 19:02`	9
	=.6 Gino was a real channel changer when we had the cable box, but now he watches TV programs with flying Aces - he likes to chase the air planes - also base balls during the season - the other two would rather look out the windows. Giudi in SF (Pippin, Gino & Stitch Too)