certainly without cats the synthesizer would never even have come into existence AS WE KNOW IT.

few know that robert “moog” really was a cat! his name is more correctly spelled “mewg,” but changed to hide his real identity.

he had a cute little sporty car with the license plate “moog,” which he parked on broadway near columbia university in the riotous good old days [late 60s, early 70s].

people used to stand around and stare, and through the fog of “herbal” smoke, proclaim knowingly: oh, man, he is SUCH a cool CAT. and btw, end the war but sieze the dean's office first.

i suppose you're wondering how he got away with being a cat and having a drivers' license.

apparently there was a motor vehicle office back in the 60s, on central avenue in white plains [near the county center where i went to music camp in the summer of '59]. the employees in that particular office were unusually corrupt [driven insane by the music camp's awful band rehearsals] and would license “anybody” who showed up.

so that's how bobby the cool cat got to drive a car on broadway.

true story — parts of it anyway.