Oct 21 2008
Hats for Clowns
So Kara and I have discovered that our cat has strange taste in music. No, really.
We frequently get into situations where we’re annoying poor Inari: trying to snuggle with her, trying to pat her head, trying to make eye contact with her, etc. This frequently leads to me grabbing her and petting her while she meows in protest, because I am Just That Sort of Person. As you might imagine, this occasionally leads to full-on Kitty Warfare, in which Inari decides that I need to be educated in the matter of cat-handling by way of having my eyes clawed out.
During one evening of particularly violent Kitty Warfare, Kara and I started singing to the cat in an effort to calm her down. It did not, generally speaking, go well — until we started singing “Hats for Clowns” from this Weebl and Bob cartoon. (To answer your question: No, I have no idea.)
The effect on Inari was nothing short of remarkable — she lay down on me and relaxed. Since then, we’ve been singing the song to her whenever she gets worked up, and it seems to calm her down.
Now, rational person that I imagine myself to be, I did not assume that the song itself was responsible for the effect. Surely it was just some particular aspect of the way we sang that particular song, or the way I held her while we sang that particular song, or some such unknown variable.
So last night we got into Kitty Warfare again. Kara happened to be using her laptop at the time, and she put on the extended “Hats for Clowns” mix from this site. Inari curled up on my chest, closed her eyes and started purring — the same effect, even though this time there was instrumentation with the vocals, and Weebl was singing, not us. After a couple of minutes, Kara stopped the music, and the cat immediately sat up and looked at Kara and her laptop. As Kara put it, it was as though she was saying “What happened to my jam?” When the music started again, down the cat went again. After a few minutes she was asleep.
So that’s pretty much the story. Apparently our cat finds “Hats for Clowns” incredibly relaxing. I don’t know how or why — I don’t usually think of music appreciation as extending to other members of the animal kingdom. I suppose the next thing to do is to expose additional cats to “Hats for Clowns” and study the effects. If you would like to exploit your cat for science, please do so and post a comment.
Incidentally, Kara believes that Inari is also partial to early Dylan, though I am not yet convinced.
I didn’t think music appreciation extended to the animal kingdom much until I realized that Claw likes really funky, jazzy music. She actually swings her tail in time with the music and gets upset when it changes to something else.
Weird. I think it’d be interesting to find out if it’s purely an individual preference, or if there are kinds of music that cats in general are more likely to enjoy.
We’ll have to try the funky jazz.
One time, I sang her “it ain’t me, babe” and she seemed to relax. It has never worked since, though, so I guess it was an anomaly.
w0w. a cat that likes music, that is pretty freaking amazing. i love it i wish i had a real cat now. not just some 3-legged stray that comes around for food once in a while..