The following are the rules for "Summon the Ear."

The purpose of the game is to "summon the ear," or get the cat's ear turned in your direction, without getting the cat to turn his head or his eyes to look at you.

At the start of the game, the cat has to be looking away from you and his ears have to be pointed away from you as well. To summon the ear, make some odd noise that attracts the cat's attention. But not so odd or interesting that the cat has to visually inspect.

You get five chances to summon the ear. If you make a noise and the cat doesn't react at all, you lose one of your chances and have to try again. If the ear turns toward you, you get a point and the turn goes to the next player. If the whole head turns to look at you, you get no points and lose your remaining chances.

If you make a noise and the cat does not react within three seconds, any motion by the cat after that point does not count. If you successfully summon the ear, and the cat turns his head more than three seconds after the ear turns, the point is counted.

The winner of the game is the person with the most points at the time the cat turns around to glare at you.

Copyright © Mike O'Brien
December 28, 2001