What are those critters *doing*...?

“You and me, baby, ain’t nothin’ but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel…”—the Bloodhound Gang, “The Bad Touch”

Sunday was slow and *snowy*! I love the snow, before it turns to slush and when it doesn't (knock on wood, take that out of the law) lead to blackouts. The City looked like it was covered in powdered sugar. The vehicles moved like they were three-year-old ice-skaters with no adult hands to hold. All in all, a beautiful day to stay close to home!

At about 4:30 PM, I decided to give my e-mail and the National Zoo's Panda Cam a quick check. Y'all know how I adore that baby boy (see last Friday's entry), and his sweet mama, too. Tai Shan was curled up in an adorable little black and white ball...licking himself *there*! We found other things to do because really, how long can you watch an animal do that, even if he's all roly-poly and cute about it? Then I logged back on about ten minutes later, and he was still licking himself! "Yep, definitely a boy," I pronounced. L'Ailee and I were laughing at his single-minded fascination with his own little personal toy. The zoo's blog writer talks about how their precious darling panda baby loves leaves and the scale, and from what I've seen he really does, but he doesn't stay with any of his other "toys" for anywhere close to that length of time. Of course I logged out again. A few more e-mails and minutes later, he'd fallen asleep. Oh, he looked so peaceful and cute, sleeping much more restfully than usual and not twitching those stubby little black legs, but we still snickered at the knowledge of exactly how he had so thoroughly tuckered himself out. Somehow, I believe the National Zoo just might fail to note this particular developmental milestone in the blog, important as it no doubt is to the cub his own self. ("Monday, December 5: Tai Shan's New Favorite Toy. Our precocious cub has made a fascinating discovery!")

"Not even five months old! I can't believe it!" I exclaimed. "It really does offer an insight as to what other animals do, though."
"Come on," L'Ailee said. "If we were on exhibit in the zoo, and had a camera that the whole world could see at all hours, imagine what people would see eventually."
"Some people do have 24-hour webcams that show 'em doin' all kinds of things; it's just that they make the viewers pay to watch 'em."
"Could you imagine what other animals would think if they had computers, though? 'Oh, how gross. The humans are doing it. Let's watch something else.'"
"Not necessarily," I noted.

You see, we have an idea how cats, at least, would react. They *watch*, avidly, with their bright little glow-in-the-dark eyes that don't blink. As I said, it was a very cold day, with falling snow and icy roads. A very good day to stay home, just us and our eight cats. A very good day to stay nuzzled together under down comforters and blankets, enjoying each other’s body heat...

We had a good time imagining what our cats might have been saying to each other.

"Ohmygawd, are they at it *again*?"
"You can get the little one to play with that yarn and the big one on that computer for a few seconds at a time, but then they get right back under that blanket..."
"And they won't let us under it, either. How selfish can you get? They know we like those feathers."
"Well, would you even want to once they're finished? I mean, ew, gross!"
"Sheesh, it's been fifteen minutes! Why are they *doing* that?"
"Shoot, because they can. Wouldn't you if you had those kind of paws?"
"Mmm-hmm. Well, you can sure tell our people like each other."
"You know how they got a whole bunch of shrimp fried rice delivered the last time, 'cause they were so hungry after all that exercise? Maybe they'll do that again, too."
"Just as long as they feed us *something*..."