On feline entertainment

We have two long windows next to our front door that go all the way to the floor. The neighbor’s gray and white cat sits on our front step and looks in through these windows at our two cats. Our cats sit on the inside and peer out at the neighbor’s cat. This nose-to-nose through the glass staring contest can go on for hours. It would seem that looking at another cat who is looking back at you through a piece of glass has a great deal of entertainment value in their feline world. The intense concentration that both “sides” exhibit would suggest that some very important communication process must be taking place through that glass. Cat gossip? Mouse and bird reports? Trading hairball recipes?

“How strange”, I thought as I watched them.

Then this evening while I was watching the news on television, I realized that I had been sitting for an hour apparently staring at another person who appeared to be looking back at me through a piece of glass. For all the technological differences, the situation would appear to be remarkably similar to what transpires at the cat’s window peering sessions. Any truly objective outside observers (Space Aliens, perhaps?) would probably be unable to see any real differences in the two activities.

“How strange”, I thought. . .