Catdow

Catdow (Catfinition): A terrible affliction that causes humans to lose track of time and forget what they were doing while in the presence of felines. The term, coined by Professor Felinus by combing the words, “cat” and “shadow” and dropping the first syllable of the latter, was created to explain what happens to people when cats are around.

“It’s like cats cast a shadow,” Professor Felinus said in a Cat Mystery interview in nineteen ninety-seven. “People caught in a cat shadow, or catdow, forget what they’re doing and focus on what the cat is doing, or what the cat might need. The effect is amplified by the number of cats, or if the cats look directly at the people, and the people see them. Worse, of course, is if the cats are kittens. People have been lost in the catdow for hours when kittens are encountered.”