Caught on Catcam

Wondering what his pet tomcat, Mr. Lee, got up to when he went through the cat flap, Jurgen Perthold decided to find out – by fitting a tiny camera to the animal’s collar. “He goes out the whole day,” says Mr. Perthold. “Sometimes he returns hungry, sometimes not, sometimes with traces of fights, and sometimes he also stays out all night. It gave me the idea to equip the cat with a camera”.

At first Mr. Lee was not keen on wearing the “CatCam” but he soon got used to it, and his adventures around his home in Anderson, South Carolina, have attracted worldwide attention. The 2 ½ - oz (70 g ) camera, which takes one photo a minute for 48 hours, has shown Mr. Lee looking longingly at bird feeders, exploring garages, hiding under cars with other cats, and even encountering a snake. It has also revealed that the tabby has a girlfriend, although he faces stiff competition from a black tom.

Mr. Lee is not the only cat to be the star of his own feline soap opera. In Los Angeles, California, Julie Peasley has fitted a lightweight camera to the collar of her gray and white tuxedo cat, Squeaky. Within days, she had discovered that he likes to hide in the basement of the house next door. With CatCam, no cat’s secret will ever be safe again.