That time I listened to the football with my cats

You will all be wildly surprised to hear the news that we have two cats, Harriet and Beatrice. As you would imagine, Harriet is an ardent supporter of the Geelong Cats, while Beatrice, like me, is a devoted, er, devotee of the Richmond Tigers.

This evening, while the Baron went away to the far north for a few days, we all indulged in a little group bonding activity and listened to the Richmond vs. St Kilda match on the radio. Here is how it happened:

FIRST QUARTER
I turned the radio up loud so we could all hear it in the house. Beatrice mostly slept on the chair in the living room by the radio for that time, but soon the excitement got too much for her and her ears pricked up. Meanwhile, Harriet, who obviously had less at stake in the game, slept up the other end of the house. It was an exciting first quarter of football all right, and we were all on the edge of the seat by the end of it. Well actually Beatrice had jumped off the seat by the end and was sitting in front of the piano.

SECOND QUARTER
Beatrice was clearly concentrating hard on her team's efforts this quarter. She just sat in front of the piano and looked ahead while the game went on. She was clearly gripped: she didn't move an inch. I'm not sure why she wasn't looking at the radio, but come on. She's just a cat. She wasn't expected to know that that was where the sound was coming from. Oh yeah, Harriet came out that quarter too and joined her sister in front of the piano and looked ahead too, I suppose just because Beatrice was doing it.

During the break between the first half and the second half, funnily enough, for most of the time Beatrice and Harriet continued sitting looking ahead to the piano. They couldn't wait for the second half to start! Well I'm not surprised, the tension was almost unbearable.

THIRD QUARTER
During this quarter, Beatrice went to the donut shop to get some treats for everyone. Well okay she miaowed at me and took me in to the kitchen while I filled up her food bowl with biscuits. The tension was almost too much for her in this quarter: she started poking around behind the couch. (As for her sister, well, she couldn't stand the tension at all - she ran outside.)

FOURTH QUARTER
Well for the thrilling finale to the game, Harriet did come back in but then plonked herself under the piano seat again. Beatrice had gone back to sitting and looking fixedly at the piano too. Actually, their eyes were very focused on the piano indeed. Hang on, I thought - are you cats interested in the football at all? Wait! They were looking for that damned mouse again! They weren't even listening with me! I had been fooled all along!

And that is the story of that time I listened to the football with my cats.

What? Oh yeah. The Tigers won.

 A thrilled cat.(Photograph courtesy of the Baron).