Two Cats and 500 Balls in a Ball Pit !!

July 10, 2020 8:47 PM

“I surprised my two cats with a huge ball pit filled with 500 multi-colored balls!”
posted by brook horse (39 comments total)

"Toys?"

"No, I think it's a giant bed of some kind."

"No, wait..."

"OMG this bed is made of toys."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:59 PM on July 10, 2020 [12 favorites]

I think white cat should eat their faces. A ball pit is one (terrible) thing but the getting the low-speed ball peening?
posted by janell at 9:29 PM on July 10, 2020 [28 favorites]

Enrichment!
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:58 PM on July 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

I love that the tabby cat kept putting the little ball in the ball pit. "Here. Go be with your friends."
posted by MrVisible at 10:04 PM on July 10, 2020 [22 favorites]

Seconded on the fury of the white cat. The orange cat seems to legitimately enjoy the ball chamber though, I mean they willingly returned to it. And the white one seems more relaxed in later scenes.
posted by JHarris at 10:07 PM on July 10, 2020

I did not realise how damn lazy my cats are.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:23 PM on July 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

Li’l marmie has such pretty markings. They look like littermates - same cat, different paint job.

Maymo the Lemon Beagle has a similar video.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:20 PM on July 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

So cute :)
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:28 PM on July 10, 2020

This was the best bedtime story.
posted by meemzi at 12:33 AM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love cats and often ooh and ahh over cat videos, but this did not sit well with me. Throwing the balls AT the white cat was mean, not cute. I clicked paws down and left.
posted by nirblegee at 1:01 AM on July 11, 2020 [15 favorites]

Ponies in ball pit (that channel is just full of lovely crazy pony stuff).
posted by uandt at 1:13 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Pit ponies!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:07 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

The white cat's body language wasn't, to my eye, frightened -- the thrown balls were just triggering their MurderKillDisembowel!!! reflex.

(My own cat does that to my hand, under the duvet, every night when I go to bed. Mostly when she's bored.)
posted by cstross at 4:36 AM on July 11, 2020 [23 favorites]

The white cat's body language wasn't, to my eye, frightened -- the thrown balls were just triggering their MurderKillDisembowel!!! reflex.

I don't think anyone is claiming the white cat was frightened, more that it was pissed off. And hell, I'd have my own MurderKillDisembowel reflex triggered too if I was trying to take a nap and someone kept throwing balls at me, so I also side with the white cat.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:58 AM on July 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

Yea the white cat wasn't having much fun, but may have been having much serious, which is almost the same. We are of the opinion in our house that orangey-bro is probably part Bengal, which might also explain the greater curiousity/play.
posted by Iteki at 5:02 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

now I'm wondering if cats are more irritated on carpeted floors vs. hard surfaces.
posted by One Thousand and One at 5:48 AM on July 11, 2020

I, too, took away more of a jerk vibe from the ball pelting and noped out. Fully understanding it's unreliable to map human emotions and responses onto animals, it was the vague cruelty of the laughter of thrower of said balls that helped me decide it was not kindness at play.
posted by abulafa at 6:08 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yeah, this guy's a jerk to his cats, the white cat was absolutely "FUCKING STOP IT DUDE I WANT TO CHILL" and also teasing orange cat with a feather lure so it jumps near those fence posts is thoughtless as the cat could come down on one and that would hurt.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:15 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

I read this as, ‘I surprised my two cats with a huge pit bull... and I thought, yes, I bet they WOULD be surprised!
posted by Jubey at 6:17 AM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I don't like the way this guy is with his cats.
posted by Hobgoblin at 6:37 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

well, he's got a huge fuckoff house with apparantly a room roughly as big as my whole flat to entertain his cats in, so of course he's a bit of a spanner.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:33 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

I enjoy seeing people do cute, dumb shit on the internet but this felt like a view farm. The existence of this weird, sterile cat room, 3 cameras to cover the overly theatrical filling of the ball pit, the pelting of the cat to have as much happening in the shot as possible, the young cats of roughly the same age who look they were maybe purchased for the purpose of making these videos.

I knew it was going wrong for me when the cats were coming down the stairs to that music and I started thinking about starving kids around the world.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:41 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Self-amusement cruelty for clicks.

Puzzled why this was even posted.
posted by Ayn Marx at 8:44 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

I was sent this video by my partner, who has a degree in animal behavior. I touched base with them about people’s concerns, and what they had to say was, “If the cat really wanted to be left alone he would have left and found a place to hide. The guy wasn’t restraining or trapping the cat in any way, he had lots of exit routes. He was aroused and wired but that doesnt mean he was unhappy. There was no hissing, no growling, no attempts to swat at the guy or the camera. It’s important to remember how very easy it is for a cat to get Genuinely Fed Up and get the fuck out of a situation they don’t want to be in. A state of arousal is not necessarily a state of anger.”

I didn’t read the cat as unhappy and it seemed like your typical “it’s time to murder” cat energy in a unique enriching environment, but obviously others did not read it the same way. Will think about that.
posted by brook horse at 9:00 AM on July 11, 2020 [38 favorites]

I think some of the concern here is that cats can (not all cats) get “stuck” in that arousal state and just...not flee if the reactive event doesn’t let up (like, you keep throwing balls at them in a place where free movement is difficult) For those cats, persistently triggering that reaction creates an unhappy life in general. As others noted this video looks a lot like it’s indicative of a person who sets up situations like this for internet points more than for cat happiness, furthering the potential for the cat to be surrounded by arousing events everywhere, all the time. But different cats are different!

I just thought it was a little rude—he was lobbing them gently, I guess, but those balls aren’t soft and pleasant to get beaned with even as a person-sized being.
posted by zinful at 9:58 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

That’s fair; if it makes anyone feel any better, all the other videos of these cats (his two indoor cats, the other videos are of outdoor cats and I didn’t look at those at all) seem to be just them doing their day to day things or interacting with new toys like a cat tree or climbing toy. The only exception is a video of them reacting to a roomba, but you can clearly see they’re not trapped or being herded toward the roomba, there’s obvious exits etc. So this does seem to be just a one off experiment, this isn’t a regular thing for the cats.
posted by brook horse at 10:28 AM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

now I'm wondering if cats are more irritated on carpeted floors vs. hard surfaces.

Data point of one, but I recently moved from a place with area rugs and hardwood floors to a place with a lot of wall to wall carpeting and my cat has 1) figured out that the entire apartment is a cushy bed, and 2) figured out how to scritch her own ears on the carpet, complete with that leg-shaking thing you see dogs do.
posted by mrgoat at 11:32 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

All cats are different, but if any of my cats were in that situation and unhappy about it they would hiss or just leave. I think his cats look like they were having an interesting time, and enjoying breaking the necks of those balls.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:37 AM on July 11, 2020 [14 favorites]

My cats like to lie on their sides on the carpet, stretch their little arms out, sink their claws in, and pull themselves along like they’re swimming the sidestroke.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:05 PM on July 11, 2020 [13 favorites]

I like how all the Youtube commenters appear to be on a first-name basis with the cats; they seem to have dedi-cat-ed followers
posted by LeviQayin at 3:46 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Santi is relaxed and enjoying the ball pit (with occasional deployment of his murder claws). Indi is a total ginger tom, complete with "I'm really a retriever in disguise" hound dog games. Indoor living looks good here.
Previously on their channel - ginger cats are veeeery clever, right Santi?
posted by TrishaU at 5:17 PM on July 11, 2020

OMG too precious.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:37 PM on July 11, 2020

I think the cats are fine. As was stated above, that's not true unhappy cat behavior going on.

I wish I could go in a ball pit, ever again. So jealous.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:47 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Jenfullmoon, I'm seeing 600 ball pit balls priced at around $70. That plus a set of fences like in the video, or perhaps a kiddie pool, and you'd be set. Follow your dreams!!
posted by brook horse at 7:17 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

OMG if I had the space that would be amazing :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:17 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Here's a dog that is very happy with his two ballpits.
posted by eye of newt at 11:59 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

So cute!
posted by Secretariat at 7:53 AM on July 12, 2020

So... maybe the cats need to watch how the French bulldogs do it? You know, for inspiration? A sort of typical YouTube tutorial moment and then -- whoa! Two kitten-shaped streaks! Makes you wonder about the inter-species language barriers.
Indi already does fetching quite nicely (needs more green rubber balls to really confuse him -- "Look at it! But I just found it!")
posted by TrishaU at 5:31 PM on July 12, 2020

previously
posted by queen anne's remorse at 10:43 AM on July 13, 2020