How to electrocute your cat

All right, I don't actually want you to electrocute your cat. Indeed I don't want you purposely harming any of your pets. But my old friend Ben the electrician did in fact accidentally electrocute his cat one day.

As I said, he was an electrician. Specifically he worked on electric motors. And he had these, well, what he always called jumper wires which he used to power up motors directly, when he was testing whether the wiring might be bad on a unit.

He also had a cat that hung around his shop. One summer day as he was testing a motor the jumper wires slipped from his hands. They fell towards the floor, and they were live. The cat was laying at Ben's feet, as was jolted by the the jumpers which hit him simultaneously. The poor animal shook violently for a second, then went limp as Ben kicked the wires away.

He figured the cat was a goner, but left it alone for the moment as he was quite busy. He intended to take care of it properly later. But in about twenty minutes the cat raised up slowly, shook itself as though tossing off sleep, and meandered to the back of the shop where its food and water were. The cat was okay, and Ben felt better because hadn't actually, severely harmed it.

So no harm, no foul. But that is how Ben electrocuted his cat.