.piano/ Kircher’s Cat Piano

When you get to the section of my book (We Are the Cat : Life Through the Eyes of the Royal Feline) on the “Cat Piano,” I would like it to be known very well right now that I do not have anything resembling Mr. Kircher's Cat Piano (pictured).

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My guess is you will know that from the text itself. Just to be sure, I'll post a sample of the text itself. Let me know if you cannot tell.

The piano is a high piece of furniture that sits in the living room. It is a good piece of furniture on which to escape from a Stampede of Dogs or Herd of Lap Children. We do so daily, hopping first onto the piano bench, then onto the brilliant white teeth of the piano.

The piano is one of the few pieces of furniture in the house that is apparently alive. When we jump onto its teeth, the piano complains with bright, remarkable noise. We do not mind the bright, remarkable noise, but we are often surprised by it, and have to jump quickly to the top of the piano to look back at the teeth in wonder, asking ourselves, “has it always done that?”

Perhaps it has. We’re not quite sure.

We Are the Cat : Life Through the Eyes of the Royal Feline
by Terry Bain

We quickly decide it doesn’t matter, of course, and regain our composure almost immediately so that we can sit at the edge of the piano, as nonchalant as the situation will allow, utterly ignoring the Stampede of Dogs or Herd of Lap Children.

Furthermore, we rather enjoy, at times, the complaints of the piano, except for the fact that when we step on the teeth it seems to alert both children and dogs (whichever is not currently stampeding or herding) of our presence, and they likely will come to explore what it is that has disturbed the piano. Still, we are out of reach of the dogs, and we are no longer under the feet of the Lap Children, so it doesn’t matter much.

Sometimes another member of the household will also be alerted, and they may chime in with, “That’s lovely, kitty. Can you play The Minute Waltz?”

This seems to amuse them. So far, their amusement has caused us no harm.

In any case, they know very well how difficult it is to play Chopin without any fingers.

℅ Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » Blog Archive » Kircher’s Cat Piano.

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