My sweet lady lioness

[sovay]

So I knew that musical instruments had been found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. I did not know they had ever been played in the modern era, much less broadcast by the BBC. (Thank you, strange_selkie!) I am fairly certain they were not used by the Eighteenth Dynasty to blow British Army bugle calls, but the sound is still striking and haunting.

The cats were in the dining room, circling the table and their new toys (a pair of plumily feathered mouse-fish, one spotted black-and-white, the other blue and electric lime green. The former looks like a sort of fluffy lionfish; it's been shedding all over the house as they bat it from end to end. The latter is plainly a denizen of tropical reefs, the peacock of the sea). At the first notes of the silver trumpet, they stopped what they were doing and gazed raptly at my computer. They paced. Then the bronze one sounded. Hestia laid back her ears and charged into the kitchen. She ran back and threw herself at derspatchel's office door, which she opened with the quick twist of her paws that is becoming simultaneously amazing to watch and really annoying.

The armies of Sekhmet are on the march.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I suppose they recognized a tribute to their divine selves? And... um... then ... well maybe the bronze one (which the BBC announcer called the copper one) just didn't appeal as much. Only silver will do.

I applaud Hestia's door-opening skills! Jiji stands up and puts his paw on the doorknob and doesn't understand why it won't Do The Thing, since it does when we put *our* paws on it.

Your fish mice sound adorable.

[zdenka]

That's fascinating. I love the sound of them, especially the copper trumpet.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I suspect that Tutankhamun rode not to hounds but to cats, when hunting crocodiles.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That is awesome in more ways than I can describe.

EDIT: Aaaaand it appears the bug applies to me, too!

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Oh my. That Tumblr is a rabbit hole down which I do not have time to fall right now. *marks for later*

I am very grateful that my resident Feline Overlords don't actually know how to use doorknobs. As it is, they've discovered that if they both throw themselves against a door (they have a combined weight of at least 30 pounds) sometimes it will open anyways, even if the Humans are not around to Do The Thing with our paws, and they make shameless use of this ability.

And I made my comment disappear

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Though I think that was me. I am checking to see if I can post with a non-default icon while I reconstruct the original comment. If it's Crazy Harry instead of Count von Count, we'll know it worked.

Without further ado...

I am fairly certain they were not used by the Eighteenth Dynasty to blow British Army bugle calls, but the sound is still striking and haunting. ... And now I know exactly what to do with Phariza.

(On a related note, how do you make a pheromone? Make fun of his mummy.)

(Please don't kill me.)

I wonder, not for the first time, not even for the first time today, what those little beasts (in general) must think, or, in this case must hear in the difference between the silver and the bronze, and also, if you don't want to do a poem about cats and horns, I will, but I think you should do it.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

...and there's apparently a legend that anytime anyone blows one, there will be a war there within eight months?

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

O wow! No wonder the cats wigged out.

Of course, I sent that link straight to B., whose father saw those trumpets lying where they'd lain three thousand years.

And I love that there's a BBC program called "Ghost Music."

Nine

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I'm no musician, but it seemed to me the silver trumpet tended to run a bit flat compared to what Tappern was used to playing, and the copper one a bit sharp. Nevertheless I preferred the sound of the latter (my cat was in the room, but did not react to either).