Category: Pets

Advent Calendar

I was in Aldi the other day and I bought my cat, Cort, an Advent calendar with cat treats. I asked my friend Kelly how an Advent calendar worked and she said I was supposed to give him a treat from behind each number for that day in December. Cort suggested that we rip them all open now. I decided to do a little research.

It seems that the modern day Advent Calendar emerged from Protestant Christian context. Advent is from the Latin word adventus, meaning arrival or coming. Beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day and leading up to December 25, Advent is intended to be the time in which to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ.

The popularity of Advent calendars spread with the help of a German printer named Gerhard Lang. Having grown up with a homemade calendar, Lang began designing cardboard Advent calendars around the turn of the century and, later in the 1920s, came up with the idea of cutting out little doors that could be opened each day.

Behind each door, a devotional picture or Bible verse was hidden. With this innovation, Lang is considered the father of the modern Advent calendar.

Sudden Cat Acceleration

This is the scientific term that, my friend, Katie’s father has observed in cats. He is a retired nuclear physicist who worked for EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) conducting testing at their nuclear plants. He has determined that this phenomenon occurs in most (if not all) cats. My cat, Cort, proves this theory over and over.

Acceleration is a vector quantity that is defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity. An object is accelerating if it is changing its velocity.

Physics Definition

While living up to the sleeping, pooping, eating standard, unexpectedly he will accelerate to maximum cat velocity running around the house, to the human, what would seem aimlessly. Sometimes attacking objects, sliding into cardboard boxes, jumping onto tables, chairs and other furniture. Then he will ease back into his normal lull until the next time. This seems to happen a little more in the evening, especially when I’m trying to sleep.