I think most of us can agree that every kitten is an adventurer by nature. They love to roam around, be it outside or in the house, but you know they always come back once their adventure of the day is over. Of course, when you let cats out of the house, you’d imagine them running around, visiting the neighborhood roofs, or stressing out the poor birds or mice. However, cats are always full of surprises and in order to discover their little secrets, we can use the help of modern technology.
That’s exactly what Half-Asleep Chris, a British vlogger and a fellow cat owner, did. To find out what his cats Bella and Ralph were up to, he decided to attach a mini-camera to his cat’s collar and see what the daily routine of his cat Ralph looked like.
British vlogger Half-Asleep Chris decided to put a tiny bluetooth-enabled camera onto his cat Ralph’s collar to reveal his secret life
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
Bored Panda reached out to Chris, and we wanted to find out a little bit more about his idea for the video.
“Cats just always seem like they're hiding something! At my old house (where Ralph went outside), he spent long periods of time mysteriously away, so I put a GPS tracker on his collar. It revealed he went all over the neighborhood, but not what he was doing on these adventures. I would have loved to put a camera on him then, but obviously couldn't for my neighbors' privacy, but now we've moved and he's an indoor cat, it seemed like the perfect time. Plus he's still hiding something!”
Thanks to the mini camera we can see how the world looks like from Ralph's perspective
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
Of course, Ralph being the special cat that he is, we also wanted to know what his personality was like.
“Ralph is a really lovely cat—affectionate, cuddly, and incredibly vocal. That said, he can also be very secretive and spends long periods of time downstairs alone, presumably plotting world domination or something.”
We noticed that Ralph isn’t the only cat in the household, so we asked Chris to tell us a bit more about Ralph’s older sister Bella.
“Bella is 12 and has spent the last 10 years living with my girlfriend as an only cat. And she loved that lifestyle, so moving in with Ralph has taken quite a lot of getting used to. Even a year later, I wouldn't call them friends. Ralph really wants to be, but Bella simply tolerates him at best. She's mostly grumpy but can be really sweet and affectionate (to humans, NOT Ralph).
However, the idea itself was first born Ralph was gone for 24 hours around a year ago. Since then, Ralph’s owners had moved out to another place and Ralph became a house cat alongside with his sister Bella
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
As we mentioned before, Ralph’s owners had moved out to another place and Ralph became a house cat. We wanted to know how well Ralph adjusted to just being a house cat.
“Ralph adjusted very well to becoming a housecat—I think having Bella really helped give him something to take his mind off it. However, the camera revealed Ralph spends huge amounts of the day on windowsills and at the back door staring longingly outside, so I'm currently building him a large catio as a result.”
Though, that didn’t stop Chris from wanting to find out what his cat was up to even if it was living in the house
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
Ralph is a friendly cat, but can the same be said about Bella?
“Ralph adores Bella, but it's most certainly unrequited. He constantly tries to sleep next to her or play with her, but she wants none of it. He's very persistent, though, and occasionally this leads him to getting bopped on the head.”
Ralph’s adventure story was seen by a lot of people around the world and even became viral, so we wanted to know what Chris thought about it as well.
“Don't trust cats, they're secretly plotting our downfall. But seriously, cats have this whole other secret side to their lives that we don't get to see, it's so fascinating!”
He filmed his cat for 24 hours whilst changing and charging the mini bluetooth cameras and he went as far as to set up secret night-vision cameras as well
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
The black fur ball sure is special, so we asked his owner if he had any fun facts or stories to share with us.
“Both cats are now obsessed with screens! I recently played them a video on my TV of birds in the garden (as part of a feline IQ test), and now whenever the TV or my laptop is on and in view, Bella particularly comes rushing over to watch intently or attack my screen.”
Lastly, we wanted to find out what was Chris’s favorite thing about Ralph.
“My favorite thing about Ralph is how friendly he is. Despite Bella's grumpiness, he's never dejected and always happy to try again. He's a giant ball of fluff and happiness.”
Chris said he found it fascinating and hilarious seeing what everything looked like from Ralph’s perspective
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
In the end, he decided to build Ralph a catio since his cat missed being outside
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
Chris told in his video that the area they currently lived in wasn’t safe enough to let Ralph wander around—therefore, he had no choice but to keep his cat at home.
Since Ralph spent so much time looking through the back door and into the garden, Chris decided that the best thing he could do for now was to build Ralph his own catio that would allow him to observe birds and feel like he’s outside.
Ralph’s owner also noticed that Ralph secretly enjoyed munching on his house plants, so he decided to grow some cat plants as well
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
Chris said that in the future he is planning to make another video featuring Ralph and his adventures once he’s done building Ralph’s new catio
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris
You can watch the full video depicting Ralph's adventures here
Image credits: HalfAsleepChris