cats kittycam mefisown metafiltersown 100watts

August 7, 2012 8:45 PM

One of the subjects of the KittyCam research project has appeared in the KittyCam thread and is answering questions! Hooray!

New user 100watts recently had a camera put on her cat so that its experiences outdoors could be monitored and recorded. She has appeared in the ongoing thread about the project that she and her cat were involved in, and is very graciously answering questions that people have about the project.

I know that the indoor cats/outdoor cats issue is a bit contentious but let's all please be nice to her and enjoy the chance to talk directly to one of the participants in this awesome thing. Welcome to Metafilter, Metafilter's Own 100watts!

posted by Scientist to MetaFilter-Related at 8:45 PM (20 comments total)

Oh! Not new user at all! Joined in 2004! Still, great to have a participant talking about her cat.

oops
posted by Scientist at 8:46 PM on August 7, 2012

Also I screwed up the tags and title. What the hell is wrong with me? Mods, can you close this up and delete my comments in the MeFi thread?
posted by Scientist at 8:49 PM on August 7, 2012

No, I'm not new, just more of a reader than a talker normally.

I was interviewed on camera and ended up on the nightly news thanks to these cats. Metafilter feels like more of an accomplishment, though.
posted by 100watts at 8:49 PM on August 7, 2012 [7 favorites]

I was all... what the heck... aren't the cats the participants... how the heck are they commenting?
posted by Jahaza at 9:32 PM on August 7, 2012 [14 favorites]

It was only a couple more hours until a MetaTalk free day. The Guy who runs the Cortex signal was enjoying his time with his family, thank you very much.
posted by Jahaza at 9:33 PM on August 7, 2012

I happy, but on the whole, scientist, righteously pissed at your misdirection, I thought a cat had joined the thread and was all like, "Well, at first, the cameras really bothered me, you know? But after a while you just forget they're there. I swear, I was just about to jump on the bench and lick the plates before my buddy Phil reminded me that Mom was watching, crazy!"
posted by smoke at 10:06 PM on August 7, 2012 [5 favorites]

100watts, since you're around can you make an honest thread of this and let your cat speak?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:48 PM on August 7, 2012

Scientist, I just want you to know that CAPSLOCK IS HOW I'M FEELING ON THE INSIDE right now. I really expected to see a cat posting in that thread.
posted by vidur at 11:36 PM on August 7, 2012 [4 favorites]

Great use of the Yay tag, though. It sadly gets neglected, as do the kitties! and 100watts! tags.
posted by item at 12:11 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mrrrraw??
posted by Namlit at 3:18 AM on August 8, 2012

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into these tater costumes or why.





oh come on someone had to go there
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:11 AM on August 8, 2012

No criticism intended of 100watts - who I'm sure only wanted to be helpful for Science! - but that study was about as objective as Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.

Nice graphic for:

What ARE our cats doing outside?
posted by Egg Shen at 5:44 AM on August 8, 2012

Man I would have given some thing for knowing what our cat was up to, when so-called roaming the woods. She frequently smelled faintly of perfume...
posted by Namlit at 5:59 AM on August 8, 2012

I hate to take the romance out of it, Namlit, but when my cat smells faintly of perfume it's because she's been rolling in fresh litter.
posted by maryr at 7:39 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

You want a cat to write a comment? Ok:



w4buu4g89084vm45i fefhi 0 39 lkdikljfjkglllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll



(also what is the difference between a cat and a comma?)
posted by edgeways at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2012

what, edgeways?
posted by sweetkid at 8:28 AM on August 8, 2012

I googled it and now I know.
posted by sweetkid at 8:44 AM on August 8, 2012

I bet Scientist's name is RICK
posted by infini at 9:00 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

A cat has claws at the end of it's paws and a comma is a pause at the end of a clause.
posted by edgeways at 9:20 AM on August 8, 2012

Hey, my cat wore a pet camera! Not for a scientific study, though. Actually, it kinda was, but he was the only participant….

Okay, backing up and starting over: I had a cat who managed to escape our screened porch more than once. We didn't know how he was getting out and where he was going, as the other cat never got out, but we try to keep our cats contained for the sake of our neighbors, so we ended up keeping him inside the house. This made him sad, and the other cat, too, because they both liked to sun on the porch.

Plus, since he was a Houdini cat, he would still occasionally nip out the door, escape to gods know where, and I'd be scared to death until he came back home, because unlike our cowardly other cat, he was also absolutely fearless, and once he came back with his face torn up from a raccoon(!).

I'm a blogger, and reviewer, and I get pitches all the time for products to review. And wouldn't you know it, I had the opportunity to review a PetCam (I barely knew they even existed at this time!). The camera didn't take video, but would automatically take a picture at regular intervals until either the battery ran out or you took it off, if I remember rightly, and then you'd hook it up to your computer's USB port to download the pics.

So, basically, I set up a sting operation. I put the camera on the cat's collar (he HATED this, btw, and walked around with his tummy close to the ground like it weighed a thousand pounds for about five minutes until he realized I wasn't going to take it off). Then I let the cats out onto the screened porch. Yes, I know it was entrapment, but I wanted answers.

I got some great pictures (it's amazing how many places cats will go in just a short time!), and I found out how he'd been escaping: there was a small hole in the screen, behind where our hammock was hanging. Je'd been surreptitiously making the hole bigger by clawing at it (!) each time we let him out, and now it was big enough that he was sneaking out through the hole. The other cat (our Maine Coon) was both too big and too simple-minded to realize he could do the same thing, so he stayed comfortably on the porch with his usual puzzled expression while his littermate got into trouble.

We fixed the hole in the screen, of course, but the camera footage with his favorite hangouts was excellent material for tracking him down if he ever did his Houdini act again.

Also, people liked the posts I wrote about it so much, they gave me five PetCams to give away, and 172 people entered to win one. So that was cool.
posted by misha at 11:50 AM on August 8, 2012 [2 favorites]