Image courtesy of Cranky Yellow
When something is nigh impossible we liken it to "herding cats." And yet that is exactly what animal trainer Samantha Martin has done.
Her Acro-Cats Circus of trained felines is a marvel of pet training—when the cats do the stunts they've been taught, that is—and easily goes to 11 on the cuteness meter.
Martin will bring "850 pounds of props, 13 cats, a groundhog, a chicken and five rats in a 33-foot gas-guzzling motor home," as she puts it, to St. Louis next week for two performances that will charm the pants off all comers. (Monday, January 31, and Tuesday, February 1, at the Art Dimensions space at 2720 Cherokee, to benefit Tenth Life Cat Rescue, and sponsored by Cranky Yellow).
The cats are amazing—they jump through hoops, ride skateboards, hoist flags, roll balls and barrels, push carts, ring bells, turn on lights, and walk tightropes. Martin says it's all thanks to an animal-training tool called a clicker, and the reward of cat treats. "The clicker is a communication tool," explains Martin. "You make this little sound with it when the animal does something that you want it to do and you follow that with a reward—it's conditioning. That's how you find a common language between you and the animal."
How did Martin get into, um, cat-wrangling? "I've been training animals since I was 10," she says. "I started with a case full of rats. I became known as 'The Rat Lady of Chicago,' but then I realized I couldn't make a living on just rats, and I wound up building up a small-scale zoo."
She offers her trained animals for use in movies and commercials, and started the Acro-Cats as a way to keep the cats stimulated and in-practice between gigs, she says.
This crazy cat lady admits that sometimes the tricks in the Acro-Cats circus don't come off as planned. "Sometimes you're just standing there going, 'They did it so great at home, and here they are wandering offstage,'" she says. But, she adds, the onstage tricks "pay off whether the cat does it or not—it's a cat comedy show. Every single show is a little bit different from every other show."
One of those unpredictable moments is a "cat vs. chicken bowling tournament" that beggars belief. "Everyone's on the edge of their seats," says Martin. "Who's gonna win? Is it gonna be the chicken, or is it gonna be the cat?"
How do the cats, rats, groundhog, and chicken all get along? "We have to have separate quarters for everybody," says Martin. "Some of the cats are divas, too, and don't get along."
They do get along musically, in theory, during another of the highlight moments of the act—an all-cat ensemble called The Rock Cats that "plays" guitar, drums, keyboard, and tambourine.
"I would describe their music as... free-form jazz," claims Martin. "Maybe a little acid rock. Pinky has a bit of a heavy metal thing going on when she really gets into the guitar."
All is not harmonious in the group, though. "My tambourine player wants to eat the chicken," Martin admits. "We have to keep them out of each other's line of sight."
