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November 12, 2015 7:46 AM

Videos for Cats To Watch Volume 1 - a playlist of 32 videos filled with birds and squirrels and suchlike. The latest one is 38 minutes long and features birds twittering about on a fence and a bench. Warning: my cat attempted to destroy my laptop keyboard.
posted by desjardins (36 comments total)

Cat, enraptured
posted by desjardins at 7:47 AM on November 12, 2015 [10 favorites]

Yes. My Herbie is in love with the winter birds one. He believes they are his friends.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:49 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'll be taking this out for a spin as soon as I get home.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:54 AM on November 12, 2015

I'm not a cat and I'm enraptured by the sound of those wings fluttering.....

....or am I?
posted by Fizz at 7:56 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have to wait until I get home to try this but I imagine there will be much Predator Mouth in response to the bird "fwiends."
posted by Kitteh at 7:58 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

My now-gone cat HarryHarryHarry used to love to watch a videotape we had years ago of blue jays and squirrels. He was always intrigued by TV and computer screens in general.

I think my current cats are too stupid to know what to do with a video.
posted by briank at 7:58 AM on November 12, 2015

Also useful videos for grad students working in windowless cinderblock offices to watch to remind themselves that the outdoors exists.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:07 AM on November 12, 2015 [13 favorites]

Another cat, enraptured.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:11 AM on November 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

"Birds on the Fence and Bench" is already a classic. Black-and-white bird is visually striking and well-loved by the camera, but it's tan-and-gray bird's way of moving through the scene that really captures the viewer. This is the kind of film you can return to again and again.
posted by amtho at 8:18 AM on November 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

I am already trying to break one of my cats from her screen privileges; she stalks the TV like she's a four-year old in a boring restaurant, and we had a stand off last night where, for the first time, she didn't jump off the forbidden part of the TV stand when I stood up and walked towards her.

This will not help this struggle, but I will be hard pressed not to share it I'm sure.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:19 AM on November 12, 2015

Yep, it works.
posted by localhuman at 8:23 AM on November 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

My cat has briefly watched most of these but what really gets her attention is BBC nature documentaries. If I put those on she locks in for the full show and gets very upset at interruptions.
posted by srboisvert at 8:40 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Definitely trying this when I get home from work. Our cat is clingy in a "person having a bad trip at a music festival" kind of way so it'd be handy to have a reliable source of distraction.

I was on holidays in New England two weeks ago and was in a place in Beverly where people can leave their cats when they're away - they had a video of some aquarium fish playing and quite a few cats were transfixed.
posted by kersplunk at 8:47 AM on November 12, 2015

There's one of a cage of gerbils which we've had to ban in our house. Too dangerous.

Although their reactions the one time on another video there was a sudden close up of a squirrel, which on my TV meant it ended up bigger than the cats, has made up for all the muddy footprints on the TV stand.

My cats also like wildlife documentaries, but not Springwatch/Autumnwatch programmes which switch back to boring humans talking, One Man and his Dog (sheepdog trials), many sports, Bladerunner, and anything featuring big cats - they know, somehow they know, that they are their cousins.
posted by Helga-woo at 9:00 AM on November 12, 2015

It's a decent set, but it doesn't include "Party at the Snow Hole", which is a classic of the genre, at least in our house.
posted by yhbc at 9:17 AM on November 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

What videos I can watch that *won't* result in my cat trying to chew on my device's screen, is what I want to know (Sorry for not having pictures of the phenomenon in action- it's hard to take a picture of a cat with a phone that's in its mouth).
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:22 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

(Does anyone else's cat love watching Archer? Our cat can't get enough- she'll binge watch with us and only stop to get up and bat at the screen)
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:24 AM on November 12, 2015

What is the tit-like bird that is neither a chickadee nor a nuthatch?
posted by Jode at 9:52 AM on November 12, 2015

Everybody came to watch.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:30 AM on November 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

localhuman, I love the composition of your photo of your cat. If it weren't for the glare on the screen (and the low resolution), I'd be tempted to frame it!
posted by amtho at 10:38 AM on November 12, 2015

It took a while but he's hypnotised
posted by kersplunk at 10:52 AM on November 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

KittyP luvs watching the YouTube bird vids on the TV. Sometimes she does bat at the screen or go around behind the TV looking for the critters. She also sometimes watches Jeopardy and tennis.

The best slightly mean human entertainment is when during a show she notices a galloping horse, speeding train or car and she runs out of the room cos she thinks it’s after her. (But you know cats -- does she worry if I’M going to get run over by it?)
posted by NorthernLite at 11:13 AM on November 12, 2015

Eventually he had a look around the back of the TV to see if the birds were accessible and was sorely disappointed
posted by kersplunk at 11:37 AM on November 12, 2015 [5 favorites]

Between this post and what I discovered yesterday about cats and cucumbers, my weekend is planned.
posted by 4ster at 11:42 AM on November 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

My five-month-old kitten will find this a welcome change from Breaking Bad.
posted by scratch at 11:51 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also, that bird with the green breast is really beautiful.
posted by 4ster at 11:51 AM on November 12, 2015

Aw, my stubby cat loves this sort of thing, but what she really likes is soccer. Something about he quick movement of the ball - and sometimes the players - really grabs her attention.
posted by ominous_paws at 12:04 PM on November 12, 2015

I've had to pull out of this experiment. Simon was sat next to me on the couch, his eyes got very big and he looked like he was girding himself to go straight through the laptop screen. Wish I'd had my camera handy.
posted by biffa at 12:09 PM on November 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

I love field recordings, and I love watching and listening to birds. I do these frequently to relax in my own back yard. These videos will make my work day much more pleasant. In fact, I'm tempted to just let them play on my TV all day long.

Thanks so much for sharing.
posted by the matching mole at 1:23 PM on November 12, 2015

My cat was interested until the banner ad at the bottom covered up the nuts and the cat couldn't click the "x" in the corner.
posted by Chuffy at 3:37 PM on November 12, 2015

My cat can watch birds out the back window any time he wants, but he did run right up to watch one of these.
posted by acrasis at 3:42 PM on November 12, 2015

I can't help but wonder how our cats would react to our housemate putting this up on her projector, with a 10' screen.

Of course, with the possibilities including terrorizing the cats with huge animals, or having them attack and ruin the screen, there are too many ways for that to end badly.
posted by evilangela at 4:43 PM on November 12, 2015

I've been playing Paul Dinning's videos for my cat for several months now. We call his channel her "show" and put it on the TV whenever we're going to be gone for long periods. She loves it and will watch for hours.

Here's another one that drives her wild: Mouse Hunt
posted by Jacqueline at 5:05 PM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, if we're sharing photos of our enraptured cats, here's mine.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:08 PM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Roswell is all "gimme!"
posted by rtha at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

My cat was enraptured for five full minutes. Eventually he tried to paw at the birds and he touched the screen. He looked at me, delivered an exasperated mew, walked around to the back of the laptop, walked back to the front, and walked away with an annoyed look on his face.
posted by duffell at 2:33 PM on November 18, 2015