In a documentary about the making of Spirited Away, director Hayao Miyazaki is shown in his studio explaining how he wants a certain scene to look. When the dragon’s jaws are wrenched open, he says, it should look like a dog clenching its teeth, gums bared. Faced with blank stares at this analogy, he asks the animators if any of them have a dog. “I had a cat once”, offers up one young man. “A cat!” exclaims Miyazaki in despair, before whisking the entire team off to a vet’s surgery to have a closer look at some canine mouths.
Cats and dogs, as we know, are quite different, and one thing that sets them apart is cats’ contrariness. A dog’s reward is pleasing you, while a cat’s reward is pleasing itself. Getting a cat to do what you want, therefore, can be extraordinarily difficult. Unless, that is, you can manage to convince your cat that it made the decision all by itself.
From Japanese cat blog guremike, we bring you: the power of the magical cat-attracting circle.
▼ Make an enclosed circle on the ground.
▼ Your cat should come running!
▼ Look, she thinks it was all her own idea.
▼ Tape works too!
Next up, the clever owners tried out some different sized traps.
▼ Which one will she go for?
▼ Well, cats do like squeezing into little spaces!
After guremike‘s adorable photo sets were uploaded to Reddit, cat owners the world over tried out different methods of tricking their pets, and within a few hours, the CatCircles subreddit was born.
▼ This one’s portable!
▼ Even a pair of jeans will do!
▼ Some cats weren’t so keen, however.
▼ “Tried a wide variety of colors and shapes without success,” said this owner, “but the classic works fine.”
Are cats in circles the new cats in boxes? Did you try a cat circle out on your pet? Did it work, or were you met with feline disdain?
And if you like your cat photos with a side order of tatami, be sure to check out guremike’s beautiful blog.
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