The Amazing Acro-Cats @ Seattle Center, 6/21/14
Review by Dana Easterling
Photos by Dagmar
The Amazing Acro-Cats‘ Tuna
As a single woman living with cats, I’ve become an expert in navigating that fine line between providing a really good home to a couple of furry freeloaders that I honestly couldn’t live without and earning my Crazy Cat Lady membership badge. I have the maximum number of cats that is appropriate for a single woman living in a two bedroom apartment (two), my social media updates are typically related to actual social events, and no cat of mine has ever worn a sweater or a Halloween costume. I’ve felt a certain smugness in the fact that I have a pretty fantastic and full life, and also happen to have cats. Crazy Cat Lady? Not me! There are crazy cat ladies in the world, and I (smug smug smug!!) am not one of them! I am, however, a self-proclaimed-not-at-all-crazy-woman-who-happens-to-have-cats who willingly sat in the front row at a cat circus without realizing the impact that this might have on my street cred. Ahem.
It started simply enough. I received a text from a friend with a link to an article about the Amazing Acro-Cats and the Rock Cats band with one sentence below it: “We have to go to this!” I’ll admit that I was mainly interested in this event because it sounded like a mess. Cats doing tricks, and – even better – the people who pay to watch cats doing tricks. My reply was swift. YES. So, what do you do when you find yourself in a small theater deep within the Seattle Center Armory as a woman in cat ears stamps your “paw” as entry to a cat circus? Your first realization is that you’re at the cat circus. You can no longer be smug about the prospect of observing the audience at the cat circus, because you are one of them. You find a seat in the front row and determine that seeing cats jumping through rings and playing musical instruments is the best thing you could possibly be doing on a Saturday afternoon, which it is. You wear the cat ear headband that your friend buys for you to wear so that the two of you match. Your friend also buys a Tuna the Cat “More Cowbell” T-shirt and matching tote bag. You do not. You clap and cheer as cats are coaxed to jump through hoops or navigate obstacles for treats. You take great pleasure in watching the cats that refuse to perform their tricks and occasionally wander off of the stage mid-act. They are, after all, cats. You cheer for Tuna the Cat to win the bowling match played against Cluck Norris, the resident chicken at the cat circus. You spend a lot of time thinking about whether a cat named Pudge will fit into your purse. By the time a small group of the Acro-Cats forms their band, the Rock Cats, you are ready to go but you sit politely as they play their instruments. You realize that Oz the cat is a better guitar player than you are. At the end of the show your friend takes a picture with the Rock Cats. You do not.
Buggles of the Amazing Acro-Cats
There you have it, folks. What can you, the readers, learn from my story? First, if you have an opportunity to see the Amazing Acro-Cats, you need to go. It is a really, really fun way to spend an afternoon. Second, as you leave the event I highly recommend that you remember to remove the cat ears that your friend purchased for you to wear earlier in the afternoon. Why, you ask? All I’m saying is that when two grown women walk through Seattle Center wearing matching cat ear headbands, they attract a lot of attention.
The Amazing Acro-Cats @ Seattle Center
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