About the cat-cam movie

The idea to put a camera on my cat was born when he went missing for 3 heart-wrenching days. "If only I could see what he's seeing, I might know where he is," I thought. Concern turned into curiosity when I finally found him, locked in the neighbor's crawlspace. Since he's an outdoor cat, I wondered where he went all day and what kind of mischief he was getting into when I wasn't looking.

Surprisingly, the greatest challenge with the cat-cam was NOT keeping it attached to the cat. Squeaky remained utterly nonplussed while wearing his new "jewelry." It was amazing how eager he was to comply, happily ignoring my 9-volt battery medallion. He was more concerned with going about his usual activities, which is just what I wanted.

The problem with the cat-cam was signal interference to the wireless camera. The "mini spy-cam," as it is advertised by online resellers, is made in China and cost about $70. It boasted a 300-foot radius and even had sound. But if you live in a congested city like Los Angeles, where there are cordless phones, internet signals, and whatever else, you will not be able to get a perfect signal. While the camera had excellent image-quality for its tiny size, its lack of signal quality and motion stability made most of the footage unwatchably useless. Because the sound quality was pure static for the most part, I had to overdub the human sounds and add a soundtrack. OK, so that's not true "Dogme 95" filmmaking, that's why it's called "catme."

But I did discover one thing I didn't know about Squeaky: he likes to hide in the basement of the house next door. With his camera on, we watched on our video monitor as he sat in darkness for 25 minutes, then emerged out the broken window and came running home. Now's that's science!

In the search for a better wireless camera that isn't outrageously expensive (like the ones used by wildlife researchers), I found out that it apparently doesn't exist. Perhaps if Squeaky and I lived in the signal-free countryside, the mini-spy cam would perform optimally. But we don't, so if anyone can recommend a better camera setup, I welcome the information. The requirement is that it be light and small enough to attach to his collar safely.

Email Squeaky: squeaky @ kat-cam.com

Thanks to Sean, Gordon and Michael Dean.

- Julie