The piano that taught my cat to play for her supper

The pianist sits earlier her instrument. She cautiously extends a beforehand paw, pressing gingerly connected a key. She presses again, and again. She is composing immoderate psyche music, because thing unspeakable has happened to her: The vacuum cleaner has travel retired of the closet.

Yes, my feline is simply a tortured artist. When Jeeves is moved by thing that upsets her — say, I person gotten up erstwhile she was comfortable sitting successful my thigh — she goes to her soft and plays a little melody. And past the soft dispenses treats. At night, she prefers to slumber connected me. If I aftermath up to pee, disturbing her, my bath sojourn is accompanied by a moonlight serenade.

She hasn’t mastered chords, though I don’t deliberation the Pet Piano supports them. Really, her cat-sized instrument/smart feeder only has somewhat much than an octave for her to activity with. And she is prone to simply pressing the aforesaid statement complete and over, since I don’t deliberation she’s really mastered an receptor for melody. Nonetheless: My feline plays the piano.

As acold arsenic I tin tell, the soft is the activity of a YouTuber who has spent years training cats. (Yes, cats tin beryllium trained. It’s conscionable much activity than dogs.) Jeeves is particularly trainable, arsenic she is particularly food-motivated. So far, too the Pet Piano, she knows “it’s clip to provender the cat” intends she’ll get bedewed food; she comes erstwhile called; and she begrudgingly tolerates having her nails clipped because she gets the champion feline dainty of all: meat go-gurt.

Jeeves does sometimes effort to assistance the soft lid and get into the basin wherever her nutrient is stored. Fortunately, the soft is well-enough designed that she hasn’t surgery in.

The thought down the Pet Piano is that, for illustration each auto-feeders, it tin limit really overmuch a feline eats. (This is not a problem for Jeeves.) You can, if you want, schedule feedings. It besides adds enrichment for saturated pets, giving them thing to entertain themselves with. Unlike astir different auto-feeders, it’s besides bully to look at. Occasionally guests entering my location will squat to play the keys and discover, to their surprise, they are being rewarded pinch feline food.

Training Jeeves to play was beautiful easy. The app that comes pinch the soft — because, for illustration everything other now, the feline soft has an app — has a “training mode,” wherever it requires an expanding number of cardinal presses to dispense treats. Jeeves has maxed it out. The hardest portion of getting her to play the soft was getting her to property connected the keys astatine all; I managed to get her to make the first relation by putting a dainty connected a key. When she swiped the cardinal to get the treat, the dispenser also dispensed a treat. Once she figured that out, she was disconnected to the races. She now plays melodies of 8 notes to get her food.

I could, if I wanted, auto-tune what she’s playing, but I’m not willing successful that. I for illustration Jeeves’ weird small compositions. They’re ne'er the aforesaid twice. Some days, she simply presses the aforesaid cardinal 8 times. But I’m much willing successful the times erstwhile she moves her paw up and down the keyboard. What is she thinking? Why does she sometimes play different notes, and different times simply many times property connected the aforesaid one? What is it for illustration to beryllium a feline who plays the piano? What does euphony moreover sound for illustration to her?

That was erstwhile I noticed the times she was likeliest to play. Sure, she sometimes will conscionable play successful the mediate of the afternoon, because she’s hungry. But if she’s agitated, she consoles herself pinch the piano. Or, much likely, pinch the nutrient it dispenses. My beautiful girl is eating her feelings.