My cat, Roscoe, is nearly perfect. Not bad, for a $20 donation to the Humane Society. (They were having a Valentine’s Day sale on cats.)
But… can he compete with Qoobo?
From the Qoobo website:
Qoobo is a therapeutic robot in the form of a cushion with a tail. When caressed, the tail waves gently. When rubbed, it swings playfully. And, it occasionally wags just to say hello.
It’s comforting communication that warms your heart the way animals do. Begin your “tail therapy” today and wrap yourself with fuzzy love.
Technology is a wonderful thing, and it appears that the engineers at Yukai Engineering, a robotics startup in Japan, has every intention of developing products that befit its company slogan.
Copied directly from their website: “Make the world a fun place to in with robotics technology.” I suppose we all wish for the world to be a fun place to in.
According to recent press releases, Qoobo is available in the three colors, ‘Husky Gray’, ‘French Brown’, and ‘Silky Black’, and the cleverly designed tail can wag in 80 slightly different patterns. They’ve given it a faint heartbeat sound you can hear and feel when you snuggle it. The company believes the Qoobo provides its owners with “comfort” — something we could definitely use, going into 2021.
Can Roscoe — who was available in only one color — hope to compete with Qoobo (and the Chinese copies that will certainly arrive in short order)?
One thing I noticed right away about Qoobo: it will not sharpen its claws on my sofa, because it has no claws. It also doesn’t need to be fed, or make use of a cat box. It can run for over 8 hours on a fully-charged battery. It doesn’t need a flea collar, which is a good thing, because I’m unsure where you would fit the collar.
“As many are having to stay inside and some may be more in solitary conditions, we feel that many are looking for items that could function as a companion,” said Yukai’s Saaya Okuda in a recent news article.
We have traded away many precious gifts, as we’ve made our deals with technology. We’ve traded away actual conversations with ‘friends’, for daily memes posted on Facebook. We’ve traded away peace and quiet, for a cell phone constantly in our pocket. We’ve traded away the healthful benefits of walking, for a heated seat in our SUV.
Are we now poised to trade away our cats… for a pillow with a wagging tail?
Roscoe is not concerned about this threat to his livelihood. He understands (I am guessing) that Qoobo will never be able to keep tabs on the mouse population in my kitchen.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.