This feline takes quite the pleasure of playing "hide and seek" with her family, and now she's got the internet joining in on the fun.
New York-based journalist Kate Hinds was volunteering at an animal rescue group when she came across a young gray and white cat. By some force of nature—probably the Felidae species' magical ability to secretly brainwash humans—Hinds immediately knew she had to take her home. "After she came in, I called my husband up and said, 'I think I found our next cat,'" she told The Dodo. "He said, 'Are you asking me or telling me?'" And that was it, the smart little kitty moved into her new home and she's been there for 10 years now.
Ten years ago today we brought this beauty home from a local rescue. One of the best decisions we ever made. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/IXaJimFin3
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) May 17, 2020
"My daughters adore her," said Hinds. "Some days I feel like my cat has a full-time live-in staff of four people." Well, clever Norah definitely knows how to keep her humans wrapped around her bushy tail. There's never a dull moment in the Hinds household with Norah around, thanks to her habit of setting the stage for a game of "I spy: feline edition" every now and then. Her fanbase expanded substantially over the past few months after Hinds began posting photos of Norah's out-of-the-way sleeping spots on Twitter, encouraging her followers to find the cat in the image. Like this one:
The photo left thousands of Twitter users stumped as they scanned the image for signs of fur in a shelf packed with plants, books, household items, and picture frames. With over 230k likes and 53k retweets, Norah spread her magic across the internet with only a handful few managing to actually spot her without looking up the answer among the tweets. What about you? Do you see where she's hiding? No? Look closer:
Do you see her now? Hinds explained that Norah is somewhat of an expert at squeezing into tight spots where she feels the coziest. "During the day, she sleeps in whatever spot she's in the groove of," she said. Still can't find her? Perhaps this will help:
"Lately, it's behind the television, which is one of her favorite summer locations. If we can't find her we'll say, ‘Norah must be in her summer home,'" said Hinds of Norah's new favorite sleeping spot. Even though their apartment is on the smaller side, she said, Norah still manages to pull a Houdini on her mom sometimes. "We know 99 percent of her hiding spaces. Usually, I can find her right away. But sometimes she'll find a new spot," Hinds explained. "When my daughter went to college, Norah took to climbing the ladder and sleeping in her bunk bed — that took me a couple of hours to figure out."
"She also sometimes sleeps behind my plants, which can be very risky, because sometimes she'll knock them over when she jumps off," Hinds continued. "And yes, I've arranged my plants so that the poisonous ones are out of her reach."
Live shot of my cat, whose nickname is “the dangler” pic.twitter.com/ULxlAAIOGC
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) July 1, 2020
Despite her knack for hiding, Norah loves spending time with her family. "She'll sit with us at the dinner table," Hinds revealed. "Then she'll settle in the living room and sit on my lap while I read or watch TV. She purrs like the engine of an old VW Beetle. It's the best."
My cat and I have built up a lot of trust with each other over the years — see how close she is to the wheel of my chair? pic.twitter.com/5h8hrxMbv0
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) June 10, 2020
Here are some of Norah's relatively easy "spot the cat" moments:
Today in #findthecat, video edition pic.twitter.com/cOquFRhwfA
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) July 20, 2020
Now try finding her in these:
Today in #findthecat (messy home office edition) pic.twitter.com/T1fGHjmW0U
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) July 13, 2020
Any luck? No? Go on, look closer.
Psst... here's the answer:
And, now, I leave you with this:
Today in #findthecat.
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) June 29, 2020
(Caveat: IMO this one is brutal, but my family overruled me.) pic.twitter.com/0Gy1yDA3pV
Good luck!