Pandemic Funk

For the last week, Kaposvár has been shrouded in an early morning fog; it burns off by mid-day, most days, but not to-day. And I feel as if my noggin is in a similar, metaphysical fog. I've read it called, "Pandemic Funk," which is not to be mistaken for my dear friend, Charles Funk. [In Hungarian, the word for 'donut' is 'fánk,' pronounced like 'funk,' or a close approximation. And, I have to say, a donut sounds real good right now; it might go a long way to relieve my 'funk.'] This morning, I read the following from a 'good news' article, you might say. One thing I did not know: that 'cat cafés' were a thing. And the last sentence certainly made me smile. 

• A new study in Japan found that, while a cat can stay in one spot, it is likely tracking its owner's location in the home, specifically by using the owner's voice. Saho Takagi, the first author of the study, says she's always been a cat person, but is particularly interested in their hearing abilities. 
• Cats have very sensitive ears, and move them in different directions to follow sounds. Takagi said, "I saw a cat with only one of its ears tilted back, listening to the sound behind it, and felt that cats must be thinking about many things from the sound." The study took place in both a home setting and a cat cafe to observe how cats would react to a speaker playing their owner's voice. 
• Cats in the study were surprised when they heard their owner's voice from a different spot, leading the scientists to conclude that cats have 'socio-spatial cognition,' which means they can visualize where people are using cues. Takagi also said that this indicates that, while cats pretend to be aloof and disinterested, they are mentally keeping track of your whereabouts at all times -- what's not clear is if this is out of affection, or as part of their plan for world domination.