Our kitty occasionally scratches at our apartment door. I can totally empathize: she’s an indoor cat, she’s already seen the couch a million times, and all the interesting smells and tasty foods come through that door. I mean, I would want to check it out if I was her.
So the other day I just went and opened the door. She sort of jumped back a bit, and stared at me with this “WHOA! I was just bluffin” look on her face. But then she turned back to look at the untamed wilderness before her, and she seized the day.
Our apartment door opens on a long, carpeted hallway. Think the Keymaker’s corridor in __The Matrix Reloaded__ but with cheap art on the wall. But for an indoor cat, it’s like landing on the moon. She didn’t bolt. She quietly padded out, her belly wiggling a little as she surveyed this alien vista she had landed on. She thoroughly sniffed and looked up at the first row of doors towering above her. Her mind seems to click; these square portals are also “doors” and they may also contain fun and interesting things behind them.
She returned by her own accord, her face set in quiet contemplation. I think she had a religious experience.
The next day she cried and scratched at the door again.
I just figured out the one thing that is harder to construct than a virtual reality environment that can completely submerge a person – a virtual reality environment that can entertain a cat.