Meanwhile, at the home of Maru and Hana, the resident human makes an odd discovery: A certain type of sound, like the winding of a toy, will cause Maru and Hana to stick their tongues out. This raises an intriguing possibility: the Remote-Controlled Cat. If we could find the right sequence of sounds to make Maru squeeze into a box … well, I suppose any sounds will do that. (via Andrew Y.)
That is very strange. I can’t imagine why the sound has that effect on them.
Always something new to learn about Maru and Hana :3 <3
I approve of Tongue-Out Maruesday.
Clever!
How on earth did Mugumogo find this out?
From the video, I infer she bought the fishing toy for the same reason she’d buy any other cat toy, to have something to play with them (and ideally get a video), but when she turned the crank to pull in the “bait,” instead of stalking and pouncing on the lure like the toy designer (and Mugumogo) intended, both cats started that weird licking behavior instead. Or, to use less words, by accident. I’m guessing the wind-up toy was something else she had around that made a similar noise and by then she was experimenting. But I’m pretty sure the original discovery was accidental, trying out the fishing toy after she bought it.
Weird. I’m a little rusty on cat body language – Is this perhaps a nervous or anxious reaction to that sound?
Yes, I believe it is– nervous licking and cats also ‘sniff’ with their mouths open– scent thingy behind their front teeth. So, to sum up I am guessing nervous figuring out. Also it may be tickling his sensitive ears.
Slightly OT, but whenever I see one of those cymbal-playing monkey toys I have a flashback to a certain short story by Stephen King. Pure nightmare fuel.
Do we figure for “inconvenient” she means “distressing”?