As many overloaded Sacramento animal shelters know, this is the prime time of year for people to adopt a kitten or two. Kittens are very entertaining to watch, especially given the speed at which they operate - or don't operate, as the case may be.
In general, kittens have an internal switch that allows them to be in either ON or OFF mode. No middle settings, no gray areas, no happy medium.
Imagine yourself on the best day of your life; you would be energized, happy and full of absolute joy. Nothing could ruffle your feathers, so to speak, and you'd probably be filled with love for everyone around you.
In your mind you have now traveled to the magical world that exists for kittens when they are in the ON mode.
They race at top speed from room to room, leaping wildly after things that only they can see, wrestling madly and crashing gleefully into things with the full confidence that they are made of immortal Nerf material.
They have a marvelous time going full tilt, but are always willing to spare a moment or two to stop and shower you with love. Then they are off at a soft-shoed gallop again, noisy purrs fading into the distance as they run.
All of this blissful activity has taken place in about four minutes.
Then for no discernable reason, that internal switch clicks to the OFF position.
Suddenly the rambunctious baby feline drops into a deep sleep as if someone has pulled the plug on their power supply. Ask almost any cat lover and they will claim to have seen a kitten fall dead asleep while still in midair.
It happens that fast.
Chalk it up to short attention spans if you like, but you have to give kittens credit for giving 100% to everything they do.
And the best news is that you only have to wait four or five minutes for the switch to flip again. Watch the video to see signature kitten behavior in action; the "actors" in the video are all available for adoption from HART animal rescue in Sacramento.
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