Is it live, or is it television?
For cats, the difference may be indistinguishable, at least when nature programs with birds, fish and other fascinating subjects are playing on high-definition television sets. The clearer picture on newer TVs is confusing pets all over the country, according to Phillip Swann of TVPredictions.com, a news website for television technology.
In an informal survey on message boards, Swann discovered plenty of amusing stories about cats that had developed a television habit, confirming that his own cat Snoopys behavior is not unusual.
One of our two cats watches HD all the time, wrote one Internet poster, Greg. Its funny. I can put it on Animal Planet (a non-HD station) and he's not that interested. I put it on Discovery HD, with animals, and I have to keep him from attacking the screen.
Snoopy is usually interested in just about any show with animals, and often crouches in an attack position when birds are flying on the screen, Swann said. Baseball also catches his cats attention.
Posted: Jan. 25, 2006, 3 p.m. EST