Todds Take: My Quarantined Cats are Binge Watching Birds on TV

With the stay home order in place forcing us to entertain ourselves much more than normal (whatever that is!), many have turned to binge-watching TV shows. I'll admit that even I watched all eight episodes of "Tiger King" in like two days. Thank goodness for DVRs and streaming services, eh?

But what about our pets? How are they reacting to this new scenario?

My cats, brothers Marmalade and Marmaduke, are starting to lose it during the shelter-in-place orders. We call Marmalade "Marley" for short and Marmaduke has been shortened to "Duke". Duke had to have one of his back legs amputated so we sometimes refer to them as "Shaquem" and "Shaquil" in tribute of the Seattle Seahawks Griffin brothers -- one of which is also missing an appendage.
My wife, Carrie, is a Cosmetologist. She has been out of work for weeks and weeks and the kitties can't figure out the new routine. They're normally a bit nocturnal. They'll stay up horsing around all night and wait for her to leave for the day before crawling on our bed and going to sleep. They get up usually about the time I get home.

Because both my son and wife are now, like many, home all of the time, our pets are... confused? I know they are "talking" to us more, that's for sure. They're also constantly needing attention which wasn't as pronounced two months ago.

In a desperate effort to get some things done around the house without constant kitty cravings, my wife stumbled across an eight hour YouTube video called "Videos for Cats to Watch". It is nothing more than real-life birds going about their business in Mother Nature. When we popped it on our big screen HD TV -- along with 5.1 stereo surround sound -- the cats have been MESMERIZED! (I have to admit, it is quite soothing and hypnotic!)

So much so, a few nights ago, we all hit the sack at around 9:00 p.m. We locked the doors, turned out the lights and popped the video on. Later, I got up in the middle of the night (around 2:00 - 3:00 a.m.) to get a drink of water. When I entered our living room, they cats hadn't moved an inch, still glued to the birds!