Giza Cat

Behold our cat Mocha contemplating the Pyramids.

Dish Network is for some reason devoting Channel 100 to a digital re-creation of Giza in the 1920s.  The camera never moves, and mostly nothing happens in the image, except that every so often a biplane might fly into the picture, circle the pyramids a couple times, and then fly off.  Or a felucca might sail down the Nile, very slowly.  Or the sun might set and the scene is bathed in sunset colors, and the stars will come out.  Or a leopard might stalk past.  The whole time you hear bird calls and insects.

It’s a relaxing image, sort of like those yule log videos you see around the holidays.  It’s almost a still photo, except every now and again something happens, and then it stops happening.

Mocha was utterly fascinated and watched it for ages.  Maybe she was interested in the giant cat crouched off to the right of the Pyramids.  (In this image the Sphinx seems to be much larger than life size.)  Or she was entranced by the bird calls.

Since lockdown I’ve been watching more television than usual, and I’ve got a better handle on Mocha’s tastes.  She likes Looney Tunes, in which vaguely animal-shaped characters hit each other over the head with anvils.  She likes anything with horses, and I’m sure I don’t watch enough Westerns for her.  (This is odd because she’s scared of real-life horses— I think she suspects they might be really really big dogs.)  She likes nature programs with birds, but she’s indifferent to other animals that aren’t horses.

But the Giza Plateau seems to be her favorite.  Not surprising, since ancient Egypt was where they worshipped cats.