Last night I was sitting at my desk, surfing, Smacky curled up asleep in my lap.
I was checking out my MySpace… uh… space (why are MySpace pages so ugly?) and found a bulletin from a friend. While I was responding, a banner ad loaded. It showed a cartoon kitten wandering back and forth, meowing loudly and robotically. I think the idea was to click on it, much like the evil “click on the monkey and win a million dollars!!!!” banner ads of a few years ago.
As soon as the meowing started, even though to my ears it sounded cartoon-y and false, Smacky woke right up. He looked around, and immediately started hissing. He tried to figure out where the sound came from. His ears went (further) back and his back fur stood up.
I started laughing at him. “There’s no cat, it’s a stupid banner ad! Go back to sleep, cranky!”
He paid me no mind and jumped up on the table and looked out the window. He was dead certain the cat was outside.
I turned up the sound on the speakers, still laughing. Smacky looked back at me as if he was trying to shut me up so he could figure out where the sound was coming from. When the volume went up he got confused and looked back at me and the laptop; circling around behind the screen, still hissing at the noise, he thought he was being sneaky. I muted the speakers; after a second he stopped hissing but was still giving off the body language of a cat looking for a fight.
I un-muted the speakers. I wanted to save this banner ad, but didn’t feel like clicking through. But, hell, this was way too entertaining.
When Smacky started reaching around the screen and smacking at the speakers and display, I decided enough was enough. I didn’t want him scratching my beautiul display. I muted it again, and picked him up and plunked him on the floor. He immediately started licking and cleaning himself and trying to calm down. Poor guy. He’d been pretty worked up…
I’m adding this to my “Things that make me laugh” list. If I ever come across that ad again, I am so going to save that sound.