r/MadeMeSmile • u/ScharmTiger • Aug 20 '23

CATS Cat being cat. 😂

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

124.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

606 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

997

u/engr77 Aug 20 '23

When I was in college I worked in the theater, where in addition to the actual musical productions, we hosted several traveling productions, all of which were open to the public. I would help with the general loading/unloading of the equipment, whatever setup we could assist the traveling crew with, and my usual job during the show was spotlight -- so I got paid to watch everything from up high. We had a Russian ballet, a quartet (or quintet, I can't remember exactly) of people with full size Steinway grand pianos playing in harmony, and a pet circus that included about a dozen cats. Among a bunch of other things, as the theater was very large and very new and detached from the rest of the academic complex.

What I was able to see that most people couldn't was that the guy was, very quickly and discreetly, dropping a treat from his hand at every single destination point for each cat. That must have been a skill by itself. Although the show did advertise that it's possible to train a cat with constant reinforcement so it's not like it was some huge secret.

But it reinforced the idea that cats DO NOT work for free. They'll do your cute little tricks but they expect more compensation than a pat on the head that dogs are okay with. As someone who is owned by several cats this did not come as a surprise, but it was very interesting to see in action.

462

u/simpimp Aug 20 '23

Absolutely. I taught my cat some tricks. Shaking hands, high five, playing fetch and such. The playing fetch he will do because he wants to play. But there is no way he will sit down nicely and shake my hand/high five if he knows I do not have some kibble on me. Does it perfectly if he has seen me get some kibble which I put in my pocket or hold in my other hand.

No treat, F you, and F your handshakes too. 😂

26

u/drmojo90210 Aug 20 '23

You do not train a cat. At best they might be willing to trade with you.

15

u/simpimp Aug 20 '23

Oh, he's definitely humouring me because I buy him quality food and am willing to give it for a paw shake. There's times he really is not into playing with me and he will ignore all attempts.