How Fast Can Cats Run?
Many, many years ago, it is told that a man on foot raced a steam engine train, to see whether man or technology was faster. Though I don’t know how historically accurate the story is, nor do I know exactly who won this race — I am guessing that if the course had been over 100 miles long, it’s likely the man came in second.
What does this have to do with how fast cats can run, you ask? I am imagining a similar race, but one brought more up to date: My cats racing against my tablet personal computer. It’s very hard to picture, I know, but think about this: Socks and Lucky vs. my tablet pc. They are at the starting line, itching to take off! The starting water pistol squirts (I don’t care so much for real hand guns) and the race begins!!
The cats are racing from room to room at a furious pace! They’ve circled from the living room to the dining room through the kitchen back to the living room through the dining hall and on and on. It’s great!
But by now, my tablet pc has already connected, via the Internet, to an ex-Olympic marathon runner in Lisbon. He’s forwarded an email to a friend in Taiwan, who sends the message on to a guy running a small software company in northern California. The millionnaire in California sends the message to me back in Atlanta. Elapsed time? 33 seconds. In 33 seconds, my cats have raced within the confines of my house 11 times.
So, who wins this absurd race? The cats, or the tablet? Actually — they both do!! The email message travels around the world in less than a minute. My cats have traveled around the house in the same time.
But why do they both win?? Because the cats are running their race for fun, for craziness, and for my pure wild enjoyment. And the tablet? Well, it gives me immense pleasure knowing I can communicate around the world.
So, who ultimately wins? I do, because I love my cats, but in truth I can’t expect them to run around the world in 33 seconds. And I love my tablet, but it doesn’t purr when I pet it, at least not yet. So, in the race of felines vs high tech — everyone crosses each unique finish line first. Yay!