Musical cats

I must have been living under a YouTube rock. How could I not have heard of Nora, the piano playing cat? She has her own website, coffee mugs, posters and apparently heaps of fans. She has even been on the news surprisingly. Having watched the video, I’m wondering what all the fuss is about. What I see Nora doing, although very cute and adorable, is not really that out of the ordinary. Considering the large number of videos submitted of “piano playing cats”, how could you consider it extraordinary?

When I was growing up, we always had a piano but the cats came later at various stages. The first to tinkle the ivories was Mr Puss, the grand old fellow in the tuxedo fur coat. He loved to sit on the corner of the piano and listen to my sister play and during the night, if we left the lid up, you would hear him rubbing the keys with his head or his paw. I think he just loved the sound really.

Mojo on the other hand, being the proverbial curious cat, would run along the keyboard perpetually wondering how it all worked. If we lifted the top up, so he could see the hammers and strings, he would sit there fascinated as my sister played. I’m not much of a piano player myself but even my limited repertoire of Twinkle Twinkle, Chopsticks and Heart and Soul never failed to amuse him and he would add in his own little notes every now and then. I think you will find most cats brought up in houses with pianos will display the same fondness for the keys and the sounds they make. Even once they find the answer to the question – what is making that noise – they still are amused by it.