Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Is there a phenomenon akin to the 'uncanny valley' for cats, regarding the motion of toys and predictng which will be played with or pounced on and which will cause the cat to flee? (Note that if it does apply, it would have to apply to the motion more than to the toy itself, based on my observations of cats so far.)

All you other cat-owners out there: when your cat has caught the end of a string (between hir paws, under hir paws, or in hir teeth), and you gently tug on the string, do your cat's ears dip forward a few millimeters relative to hir head in time with your tugging? (And if so, isn't it cute?)

Do cats only have one word for "do not want" that has to serve for "that's not what I want right now" as well as "that's vile"? (Sometimes when I offer Perrine food -- her usual brand, from a recently-opened bag -- she'll signal, "this is crap," but then proceed to eat it apparently contentedly an hour or two later (usually after a session of catch-the-string or a prolonged scritching or brushing).)

Does Perrine's prediliction for sleeping pressed against my legs (which I frequently have to move during the night) instead of my torso (where I could disturb her less often when changing position) reflect a fear of being rolled over upon, a preference for sleeping farther from my face, or a preference for pressing herself against the parts of me that are approximately the same diameter as another cat?

How many of you have cats than can amuse themselves for quite a while with a toy but nonethless insist that you do something to start the play-session with them even if they're going to merrily play by themselves once you've helped them start? (I'm not talking about when they aren't thinking about playing until you move a toy; I mean when they beg and nag, insisting that you play with them.)

Has anyone documented tool-use in cats? (And no, I don't mean simply running off with a stolen wrench while the humans scream, "Wait, you can't use that! You don't have opposable thumbs!" -- though I wish I could find that story again.) I've watched a polydactyl kitten clutching a pencil and making loops on a sheet of paper, unfortunately with the eraser end (I really wish that kitten had survived to adulthood instead of succumbing to feline leukemia) but I'm not certain whether that counts or not because I don't know whether that was an attempt to effect a particular result, an attempt to mimic humans the kitten had observed, or randomly playing with a toy in a way that was very easy to anthropomorphize. More recently, while playing tug-the-string with Perrine (she seems to have invented a variant where we each take turns trying to draw more of the string to us; I wind it in slowly when she lets up on it, and she catches a section closer to me than what she's already got and drags it over to her pile) I saw her look around the room in the same way that I'll cast around for a tool within easy reach if I already have my hands in something I'm working on. This may have been (most likely) a random gaze around the room that I inappropriately mapped onto my own behaviour (As some of my friends were -- maybe still are -- fond of saying, "Anthropomorphizers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but Mister Dignity!"); she may have been merely mimicking something she'd seen me do (less likely but and interesting possibility); or she may have been genuinely seeking a tool (seems least likely given what I know so far but would be fascinating if it turns out to be the case).