Play with unadopted cats over the internet

[mew]

More shelters should have this, I think it's a cute idea (much better than all of those useless ones people have where you can turn their lights on and off). You have to use internet explorer to do it and it asks you to install something I didn't install it and thus wasn't able to play with the cats, but if you open it in IE you can still watch other people using the internet catroom control.
http://www.oregonhumane.org/playroom/

Edit: Apparently you can view it just fine in Crome but you can't "Play Now" unless you are in IE.

[Rachmaninoff]

I'm at work but I'll have to try it out... on a side note your dogs sig is memorizing

[Belloc]

That dog sig is amazing.

[Braundo]

This is probably the first thing I have ever come across on the internet that has made me want to install Silverlight.

EDIT: Once I installed that, it works just fine in Chrome for me.
EDIT EDIT: Whoops, you can view the cam, but you can't click the "Let's Play" button unless you're in IE.

[Aubade]

I played with the kitties =]

[lythac]

OMG A KITTEH JUST CAME UP TO THE CAM!!!!

SQUEE!!!

[Braundo]

Kitties are sleeping, all tired from playinggggg oh man

I got one to play with the snake a bit but then he went back to sleep. oh my god so cute

[Gorlando]

Now I want to drive to Oregon and adopt all of them.

[Nikachelle]

While this whole concept is absolutely amazing, when Invis and I were watching it, some asshat controlling it decided to pan over the HUMANS fiddling around the cage, and not the cats.

[Barathorn]

/bows.

Earthlings are such foolish creatures.

[Koatanga]

My first thought was "what a great idea - I can play with kitties in the other hemisphere". Then I thought of what my world would be like if I lived in a room where things moved around at random intervals all day and all night, and I had a sad.

I hope those toys are disabled at times so those kittens can get some sleep. Take the "a human is controlling this" aspect out of it, and there is no way putting a cat in a room where robotic arms swung snake things all day and all night would be considered humane.

The cats can't see a human controlling it - from their perspective it's just robotic arms waving things.

[bldavis]

apperently when i clicked the link i had just missed chow time and they are all sleeping

CURSE YOU ALLERGIES! if it wasnt for you id be able to have a kitteh!

on a side not, i used to like about 5 blocks from one of thier shelters in Portland

[mew]

My first thought was "what a great idea - I can play with kitties in the other hemisphere". Then I thought of what my world would be like if I lived in a room where things moved around at random intervals all day and all night, and I had a sad.

I hope those toys are disabled at times so those kittens can get some sleep. Take the "a human is controlling this" aspect out of it, and there is no way putting a cat in a room where robotic arms swung snake things all day and all night would be considered humane.

The cats can't see a human controlling it - from their perspective it's just robotic arms waving things.

I had that thought too at some point when one of the cats jumped because it got scared when of one of the toys moved and touched it as it was walking past. I'm sure they have to turn the lights off for the cats at some hours so they probably turn the objects off too I assume? Or no one would play with them because they couldn't see anything anyways.
But I don't think the lack of knowledge of a human controlling it is a big deal.

[Aubade]

If you guys read the website they only let you use the robotics during visiting hours, so like 8-AM to 6 PM or something like that.

[Koatanga]

I logged in during my evening, which is 3 hours behind Portland time (and a day ahead, but let's not split hairs), so it would have been around 11-12 at night. The camera has IR as well so you can see them at all hours. Toys were active.

Either the camera makes enough noise for them to notice, or has a light on it. When I first took over the controls (thinking how cool it all was and not thinking that it was the middle of the night there), all I had was a blue box for the video. I hit the camera control buttons, but no change. So I refreshed the site and did it again, and when I logged in one of the kittens was staring at the camera. Either he does that all night, something made him look at the camera.

I hit the toy buttons, as one would when running accross a new toy, but the kittens had no interest in playing. That's when I got that "Oh, I woke you guys up, didn't I" feeling. Then I realised that they would probably get woken up a lot, and have the damn toys waved at them all the time.

That's when I got a bit sad and came to the conclusion it's not a good idea after all.