Master of Situational Awareness

[james_davis_nicoll]

Comments

[movingfinger]

Mistress, strictly speaking.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

"Damnit, Gordon! How many times have I told you not to use the Gravity Gun on the cat!?"

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

My feline went "Spungggg!"

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

It had not occurred to me - but I suppose it's kind of obvious - that the hindquarters would rise faster and further than the forequarters. (I think that's why I was trying to figure out who was grabbing and lifting the cat, and why.)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Beware of the cucumber . . .

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

My puppy Žluta was startled by a perfectly stationary passionflower we passed by on our walk the other day. To be fair, the passionflower is a really strange item.

Then again, to be fair to the cat, that's an enormous cucumber.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

[nelc.livejournal.com]

It's a "Snake!!" reaction, right? Can't blame the cat for not noticing a vegetable snake-alike creeping up on them, and as an arachnophobe who reacts similarly to spiders for equally irrational reasons I'm not going to laugh (too much) at the jump.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see a snake-alike in a location where (by what the cat has visually swept) only a mobile object could be -- I can't blame the cat's reflexes for not being trained for monkeys with opposable thumbs and a nasty sense of humor.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I expect we all remember the kitten and bearded dragons video. This cat has the same lightning-fast reflexes and perfect grace as the kitten.

[laudid34.livejournal.com]

Poor kitty

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Think about the kind of creep who sets up a camera and a cucumber to scare the crap out of their pet because they know how the poor animal is going to freak out. Oh yes. That's hilarious.

Okay, I thought about it

[hot-soup.livejournal.com]

Verdict: still hilarious!

RE: Okay, I thought about it

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry; I don't particularly find cruelty hilarious.

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

Hell, I've had the shit (deliberately) scared out of me once or twice, and I didn't like it at the time, but I got over it. Maybe even came to see the humour in it.

I suspect the cat will be fine.

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I've known cats perfectly capable of being surprised by inanimate objects they looked at thirty seconds earlier. We see no evidence within the video that the cucumber was planted (so to speak) while the cat was distracted.

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

There's another video on Youtube with the same cat being startled by a cucumber in a similar (but obviously not the same) situation. Unless the owner's kitchen is experiencing spontaneous cucumber appearances, we can assume it was set up for the videos.

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Oh, so there is. And this magnificent reaction from a different cat startled by two cucumbers (they're ganging up on us!), and this wary cat that doesn't trust a scary cucumber, and this one of a cat startled by zucchini. There's a four minute compilation video of cats versus bananas.

So...what the hell? Is this a fad? Do people do this as a hobby? Is it an infinite monkeys thing showing that in a very large set such as "all youtube videos" you're likely to get any arbitrary random thing you pick?

Humanity, this is not why you got the tool inventing brains and opposable thumbs.

RE: Re: Okay, I thought about it

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

https://xkcd.com/676/

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

There really is an xkcd for everything. And since we arrived here by thinking of crazy human hobbies we should also remember this one.

Re: Okay, I thought about it

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I don't either.

[editrx.livejournal.com]

This is often my reaction when I find that huge lurking zuccinni hiding under a large leaf.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

That, or dismay at the mass quantities of zucchini bread that will soon appear.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

And the Law of Zucchini is once again reinforced.
(There can only be two quantities of zucchini: None, or too many)

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Recently I've been using zucchini as a replacement for pasta in low-carb cooking. It's ok, if a bit watery/mushy. Current plans involve roasting slices to reduce the water content.