Azzie is....well, how do I put this delicately. He's very adorable, in a Nermal kind of way (all big-eyed and fluffy and cute) but he is unlikely to ever win a battle of wits against an overripe tomato. Let's just say that where normal kittens usually figure out the whole cat-in-the-mirror thing by about ten weeks of age, Azzie didn't get it until he was about two or three years. And we will not even discuss how he can get himself lost behind the (see-through) shower curtain. I merely mention this to provide background for the story.

Azzie is enamored of the DVD player. Ever since we got it, he loves to watch the drawer open and close. It fascinates him. Every time we watch TV, he comes scurrying into the living room just as we are about to get up because he is convinced that us in the living room = magic DVD drawer opening/closing. Naturally, because he is so very cute about it, we usually oblige him (also, it's hysterical to watch). Every time the drawer opens he gets all quivery and excited, and hunkers down and gets all wide-eyed and he does this Every. Single. Time. The beauty of having the brain power of an overripe tomato is that the whole world is exciting and new every time you wake up.

So last night, we were doing the usual DVD-drawer play time, him hunkering down, and even occasionally scooting up to rear up on his hind legs, prairie dog-like, to wave one paw at the drawer, and I was busying myself in the kitchen, when Richard starts laughing hysterically and telling me to come quick. So I come back into the living room, and there is Azzie, in front of the DVD player, flopped over on his side, in the classic 'cat submission' pose. I'm not sure *why*, or what inspired him to suddenly decide to surrender to the mighty DVD player, but there he was, flopped over, feet in the air, tummy exposed.

Clearly, whatever the confrontation had been, the DVD player has now won. However, I do not know whether to laugh hysterically when I think about it, or fear for the safety of our planet. It's a sad, sad world when your household appliances can dominate your household pets.