My cat, Satan (aka Ren), has bedeviled (as it were) my wife and me since he was a wee kitty of six weeks. You can read about that earlier on in the blog. It’s very difficult to piss him off - I’ve tried. Yesterday I exacted some small amount of revenge.

Unfortunately I have to explain this for non-musicians. There’s a speaker called a Leslie, most often connected to a Hammond organ, that produces a very interesting effect via a rotating baffle or horn in front of the speaker. You might have seen a huge wooden box with something rotating inside - this is a Leslie. Guitar players like them too - it makes them sound almost organ-like.

Last night I was experimenting [cue evil laughter] with my poor-man’s Leslie for the guitar. It’s a small box with the sound coming out of both sides alternately. This is a 2 speed model. The slow speed is too slow and the fast speed
is too fast. I cured the problem earlier by installing a speed control.

I figured now was the time to break out all the leslie tunes I always wanted to try out and proceeded as expected: I couldn’t remember a single one. For a guy who has played out in public, I come off like a blithering idiot sometimes in front of people.

Fortunately my only audience member at the time was Satan, (Ren the cat). He did NOT like the leslie. And he did not like it in a really amusing way. He eyed it suspiciously from across the room. He stalked it a bit. He got within range of one of the side ports and froze, studying this new noise.

The box itself wasn’t a problem. Since it was a box, it was the perfect resting place. But this new noise was something most disconcerting.

Between increasing spasms of laughter I tried to figure out what was perplexing him the most - the guitar or the motion of the sound. Figuring it was the motion, I had no choice but to put the thing on high speed :)

This REALLY disturbed him.

He leaped to the other side port to study this horrible new development. Stealthily he stood there, mind whirling like a … well… like a leslie. He got a little closer but this strange beast did not advance or change its tone. He sniffed a bit then deciding the better of it, just left the general area.

When my wife came in from smoking on the front porch she said Satan was pretty agitated about something… he sat on the ledge and made funny cat noises.

I should have broken out the champagne…. this is the FIRST thing I’ve found since we adopted him that is even mildly disturbing. He even gets along with Marshall (the dog). They `play’ all the time, which looks a lot like a 20lb tabby linx rolled into a ball with a 26lb black cocker, making ferocious noises.