I Was Hugged By A Cougar
Many, many, many years ago when I was involved in television production I had occasion to be hugged by a Cougar – as in the cat.
At the time the Mercury Cougar used live cats in commercials. Most of the time these commercials were produced in Los Angeles where they had adequate studio space and handlers for the cats.
One day, however, when I came into the studio I was working for in Seattle. I was confronted by one of the local Seattle dealers and his pet Cougar which he proudly announced would be shooting a commercial in our studios, today.
He was also very proud of the fact that he had trained the cat to “Yowl” on command (just like in the national spots of the time).
He had also brought in his own director, so I was relegated to camera one. I didn’t mind all that much. The cat was on a pedestal and ten feet away from me and all I had to do was maintain a long shot.
Every thing went well for about the first fifteen minutes until the hot lights heated up the studio. The cat became lethargic and definitely uncooperative so we decided to shut down the lights and cool the studio before we started again.
We all assumed the cat was napping so nothing could go wrong. (Right!)
Since we were going to be shutdown for about thirty minutes I sat down on the studio floor and took out my sandwich. Suddenly the Cougar lunged off its pedestal, came up behind me and hugged me while also licking my ear.
I wasn’t sure how old the Cougar was in cat years, because I was only about 21 at the time. If she were older I was hoping the hug wasn’t leading to anything sexual. I was hoping she was more interested in my sandwich, since I really don’t like tuna.
The dealer was sharp enough to come to my aide, pulling the cat aside.
I volunteered to be in the production booth for the remainder of the shoot.
A week later the chief engineer gave me a Playboy magazine. The center fold was a full length picture of the cat.
The View From Here is published every Sunday.
Copyright © 2010 Moody Publishing Co
All Rights Reserved
Feedburner
-
