I have two cats. They are generally bonkers, which is a fairly standard matter of affairs. I also have a dog. A dog with strong jaws and a taste for kitty meat. You can imagine the joy this brings me. To prevent a massacre, I have opted for the time-honoured tradition of locking my feline balls of joy in an assortment of rooms when the dog comes in to visit.
One of the places is the garage. They seem to like it in there. I'm fairly sure they view it as a jungle gym. Unfortunately, there is only so much fun to be had climbing all over my car and leaving very cute, if slightly dangerous, paw prints all over my windscreen. When they get tired of playtime, they respond as any cat does- claw rabidly at the door in an attempt to tear it down or force the nearest human to open it. Whichever happens first. It is this annoyance to both us and our landlords that forms the basis of my post.
Cats scratch at doors to be let out, humans pray to figments of their imagintio- oops, I mean, gods- to fix their car, help them win lotto, get rid of the nasty rash down there, etc. Only one of these has a decent success rate. From this, one could easily conclude that cats catch on way quicker than humans. BUT... The cats also scratch at the door leading from the garage to the laundry. A door that has never opened for them , owing primarily to the large cupboard we placed directly in front of it. Listening to them scratch themselves stupid on a door that will never be opened, it occurred to me that this is an easy parallel to prayer. The door and the prayers both bear close resemblance to something that actually works, except that neither do. It looks like it is only the appearance of effectiveness that matters to the faithful, not any form of efficacy.
In conclusion. Prayer is dumb and cats are either as smart as or as dumb as humans. Beware when they evolve opposable thumbs...
