Ellis the Zombie Loving Cat

Our cat has a thing for zombie movies.

I mentioned in a previous post a while back that our cat Ellis (by "our" I mean myself and The Bride of the Bloviator) loves zombie movies.  I thought I might share some photographic evidence to show you what I mean.

Ellis' normal reaction to movies:  "Z."

At first, we didn’t realize we had a problem.  Ellis normally takes a very casual approach to television and movies, as shown in the two pictures at right.  At this point, some TV show was on. I don't recall the content, but it was not about zombies.  (Continue to scroll down for more copy).
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"This movie sucks."

"This is getting good."

When I put on a zombie movie DVD a short time later, Ellis perked up.  I noticed him watching the movie but didn't think anything of it at first.  But a half hour later, he was still watching, and that's when I grabbed my camera.  At right, he's checking out the main characters as they discuss what to do about a zombie problem.

"Wazzat?"

Any scene that had motion particularly interested him, especially those featuring close-ups of birds or bugs.  In the picture at right, he’s trying to spot something or other that was crawling along the ground.  Cats are notorious for having a short attention span, but Ellis remained glued to the tube for the entire presentation.

Artmemis the Siamese finds Nemo

Now, I’d seen cats watch snippets of television before, so I wasn’t that surprised at first.  For instance, our cat Artemis, when he was a kitten, had a brief fascination with Nemo.  But it passed quickly, and that was the only movie to which he ever paid the least bit of attention.  But Ellis was different. 

"These people need to bring on some zombies."

 
A few nights later I put on another zombie movie, and got a similar reaction.  Ellis enjoyed the entire flick.  Every now and then, if the action lulled, he might put his head down, but he never took his eyes off the screen.   

"That's more like it.  Get after that zombie."

 

When the action picked up, so did his interest.

"Are we gonna talk or are we gonna have some action in this flick?"

Every few minutes, he’d jump down to the cushion for a closer view.   
 

"There goes a zombie bug.  I'm gonna get it."

And birds and bugs still were his favorite characters.

Ellis gets comfy

 
From time to time Ellis would experiment with new positions on the couch, trying to get comfortable and still see the screen.   

 

"Don't pet me, I'm watchin' the zombies."

This went on for a while, over the course of several movies.  When my wife Deborah was home, sometimes she’d grab him in an attempt to love him up.  Ellis normally was quite affectionate, but if a zombie movie was on, his attention would wane, as shown at right.

Now, on reviewing these pictures, I realize the shots I captured don’t show any zombies eating people on screen.  You have to take my word for it that they were all zombie flicks (the image on the first page of this story is a dramatic recreation).  Ellis didn’t care about any other kind of movie.  I can’t explain it, really.  The zombies themselves didn’t seem to be the main attraction for him.  But when such a movie was on, he was all over it.

A few months later, we moved into a house.  Our couch is now situated further from the TV screen, so Ellis doesn’t watch as much now as he used to.  But every now and then, a zombie flick will get his attention, and he’ll go investigate, primarily through jumping up on the TV stand and batting at the screen.

Now, I’m not saying I wrote my first sci-fi novel for Ellis, in the hopes that maybe someone would make a movie out of it someday.  But there is a feline character in the book, it does have zombies, and the cat does have a fight with one.  Meanwhile, I’m waiting for somebody to make a horror flick featuring an actual zombie cat.  I think that would probably blow Ellis’ mind.

Come to think of it, they did that.  But I don’t think Ellis can handle Re-Animator.  I barely can.

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My zombie story, which perhaps Ellis can get to see someday, is here.  Please check it out!

©2014 by Forrest Carr.  All rights reserved.