Alistair,

I just walked into my house and found my four Parakeets at the piano playing Bach’s Italian Concerto together. We shared a long look and I retired to my bedroom in confusion. I could hear hushed tweeting coming from my living room. They have now resumed the concerto. They have obviously practiced a lot and have gotten quite good.

I want to know what is going on here but I don’t want to discourage their playing. How should I approach this situation? Is it possible my cat has hidden talents as well?

Feathered Quartet in Utah

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Feathered Quartet,

Encourage as you would any other talent: honestly appreciate it for what it is. Namely, four parakeets hammering out a tune definitely meant to be played by more than twice that many, given that they’re presumably using their beaks and the music was written for performance by ten fingers. Don’t coddle them, however. The best artists have their starving period (though given that these are parakeets, this starving period should be heavily abbreviated).

Your cat almost certainly has no hidden talents. Cats never have anything to gain from hiding a talent. It isn’t an ego thing; the psyche of cats has no room for ego, id, or any of the other numerous psychological bits and pieces normally residing there.

Alistair