Mum, pleeeeeaassee can I have a cat.
MY MOTHER’S trying to convince this allergy-suffering household it needs to become home to a cat.
Sounds harder than trying to persuade a three-year-old that no, it’s not chocolate she can smell on my breath (caught again today!).
However, this is no ordinary cat.
The ball of fluff she has in mind won’t cause the sniffles, won’t scratch its privates in front of guests and can be turned off when the ‘’new kitten’’ phase wears off.
It is … Talking Tom Cat, a pet feline with an annoying Smurf-like voice who lives in iPhone land. Yes, some of you may already be aware of what has becomes one of the most popular apps going around.
Tom not only repeats what you say, but can also be fed milk, KO’d after a decent smack to the head, purrs when patted and ‘’yeows’’ when you pull his tail.
Princess Ella can’t get enough of him on her Nan’s iPhone, especially bonking him on the noggin.
Just like some men believe Pamela Anderson is ‘’real’’ (come on, does she have any of her original self left?), Ella believes Tom is also a living being.
Here’s an actual transcript of one of Ella and Tom’s conversations _
Ella: Can you stand like a flamingo?
Tom: Can you stand like a flamingo?
Ella: Yes, I can. I’ll show you.
Tom: Yes, I can. I’ll show you.
Ella: OK, you go first.
Tom: You go first.
Ella: Oh. I’ll go first then.
Tom: I’ll go first then.
Ella: How about we do it together?
Tom: How about we do it together?
Ella: OK, let’s do it (by this stage her mouth’s too far from the phone for Tom to pick up her voice). See, cat. You stand on one leg. See. You’re not doing it, cat.
This conversation went on for 45 minutes.
It then resulted in a slight tantrum when it was time to go home and Tom couldn’t come with us.
Makes you wonder what on earth they’ll think of next.
I had real cats (they kept being replaced because they ended up flat on the Riana road) and it wasn’t ‘til I was in late primary school that I got my first taste of a Commodore 64 (that’s a games console kids, not a type of Holden).
The debate is still going in our household as to whether we download Talking Tom Cat.
The clincher is that I don’t have an iPhone (poor me), so there could be daily tantrums when the bloke in The Shed has to take Tom to work with him each morning.
So, how are your kids coming to terms with technology?
A video of Ella and Tom having a conversation.
