The Well-Tempurred Clavier?

Here's a novel idea for all you music lovers--if not you cat lovers: the cat piano.

The cat piano was the work of a German scholar over 350 years ago. Athanasius Kircher designed the cat piano and documented it in the Musurgia Universalis in 1650. The piano was designed to raise the spirits of an Italian prince who was too stressed out. The musician would select cats whose voices were at different pitches then arrange them in the pens accordingly. The piano delivered sharp pokes into the tails of the cats.

Not that I would ever endorse such a thing as cruel as this--but you have to admit, it is kind of funny.