The Cat and its Body Image

The cat is up on the counter on the tube pillow when its hind legs slip off - she then uses her front paws to pull her hind legs up until its hind paws are again under its chin.  Nap resumes.  Something about this seems not quite right on the post-Cartesian account ...

Note: the in-door cat was staring for the longest time at the outdoor staircase - it cannot see the bottom of those outer stairs to the deck from its widow, but the orange intruder cat had fled in that direction.  Suddenly it flips its whole body a bit left - stares - and then flips back to staring at the head of the stairs ...

Note: the cat is "looking for" the mouse pointer where the cathode ray tube is fitted into its plastic case: the "mouse" disappeared in that direction ( to the other screen to the right) - it doesn't just try to get a claw into the gap - it tries to press its head up to the screen to peek in.

The cat is watching the spare DVD footage for some Antarctic (Cape Murdoe) expedition;  the spare film footage is of Weddell seals under the sea ice of the ice shelf.  The cat does not watch television, but it is watching these slow seals with interest - they leave the scene - return - they appear to perhaps be trapped ... is there no escape? Is that what the cat has noticed, that these large grey lumpen mice are trapped in the television screen?

But cat's do not imagine (I think I have that on Roger Scruton's authority.)

Delphine Chatouille L'Adoptée (Delphy)

The mind of a cat.

The sound of a spoon in a bowl holds her attention and she may even call and pace about before she is finally allowed to lap up the last traces of milk and such.  Typical.

Today I had a small scoop of vanilla ice cream with a serving of apple-mango streusel: Delphy was in licking the bowl as soon as I put my spoon down.

But I had put the spoon in the bowl, so when she stopped licking, I removed the spoon, exposing more yummy ice cream melt.  No reaction as she sat by the bowl washing.  I made the usual noises of a spoon in the bowl when cleaning up after cereal or ice cream.

Stimulus constancy is not enough?  Delphy walked calmly across the dining room table, hopped to a chair and then down to the floor and on her way.

She was done with that bowl.  She had finished.  Demanding and insistent and persistent pest that she is, she was done and on her way.

Chalk it up to animal behavior Psy201 "distractability" as "failure to emit response" to "ambiguous stimuli".

Stimulus, a goad or prompt to action.

A long stick with a pointed end used for prodding animals. 2. An agent or means of prodding or urging; a stimulus

"attention": concept with a dubious history in psychology; compare "attitude", "awareness","threshold"

The world of the cat is not our world, but a cat-world, and only as typical as a cat will have it.

Quasi-Russian: [ вид ]  now cat you seeing:  seen [kind of] cat which happens here, which does things there.