CAT VIDEOS

CatmanDeux sleeping

CatmanDeux, ready for his close-up.

Cat videos rule the internet. They are so popular that otherwise sensible people readily admit to enjoying them. As a friend commented yesterday, cat videos lift the spirits. Lately my spirits have needed lifting due to the unrelentingly bad news: political, social and environmental. It has been difficult to tear myself away from the TV and Internet. I suffer from the absurd notion that if I turn away for even a minute, something even more terrible will happen. Then our cat sitter sent me a video of CatmanDeux biting his own tail and I remembered the pleasures of cat videos.

A few facts. There are feline video stars: Maru, Grumpy Cat, Simon’s Cat, Surprised Kitten, VaneCat, Colonel Meow, Nyan Cat and Henri, The Existential Cat. Maru has his Scottish Fold ears and his tendency to climb into boxes; as a bonus, he’s Japanese. Grumpy Cat looks like her name; Simon’s Cat and Nyan Cat are animated (ugh). Surprised Kitten is so adorable that her video has been viewed 75 million times. If you want to watch any of these videos, here is a website for all of these cats and more, courtesy of The Guardian, the British newspaper. No one loves kitties more than the Brits.

My favorite videos feature Henri, The Existential Cat. He’s not particularly special in the looks department except for his perpetual scowl. The brainchild of cinematographer Will Braden, Henri’s ten videos—satires of French films and their existential ennui, raise the intellectual level of the genre. I don’t feel as guilty spending time with Henri as I do watching cats running into windows or leaping at the sight of cucumbers.

It has been such a pleasure researching cat videos for today’s blog that the next time I am overtaken by fears for our democracy, world politics and/or the future of the planet I will try to shift my focus, at least temporarily,

FROM THIS

Hiding Kitty

TO THIS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a good week.

 

 

 

 

 

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About Alexis

Alexis Rankin Popik, author of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, is an award-winning short story writer whose work has appeared in The Berkshire Review and Potpourri Magazine. She has penned numerous articles about local history that have been published in Connecticut Explored and the University of Connecticut School of Law and The Hartford Seminary publications. A former union organizer, Popik traveled the country educating shipyard workers about health and safety and founded a labor-management health plan before turning to writing fiction full-time. She lives with her husband in New England.
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