"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's..."

Super creepy!

Houston, we have lift off

Yes, the hot topic of the week for animal lovers and remote controlled helicopter enthusiasts alike: The Orvillecopter, or as I like to say, Helli Kitty.
The story's been all over the news and web: Dutch artist and model aviation fan Bart Jansen's beloved Keetain Orville is hit by a car (death by some jerk speeding in his Zenvo ST-1 being reason no. 1 on my list of why cats should be indoor pets only). Jansen keeps the carcass in the freezer for six months, either because he can't part with it or wants to be sure he has something stored away should he feel a little peckish.

Then it dawns on him - a way to keep Orville forever and ever.  And before you can say Norman Bates, Jansen trots the remains off to his local taxidermist.

Now, when a beloved pet goes to the Rainbow Bridge (not to be confused with the Rainbow Connection but just as saccharine), it is certainly not unusual for the bereft owner to preserve its memory by preserving its body in some fashion.  One might cremate a cat and keep the ashes in an urn -- perhaps mixed with a little kitty litter or Meow Mix.  Some urns are even cat-shaped so you won't confuse Morris's ashes with Uncle Morris's ashes.  You can also have your kitty freeze-dried in an attitude of repose and plop him in your spot on your favorite chair, where he spent most of his life anyway.

Jansen decides to stuff a Lotus T580 motor with Turnigy Plush 30 amp Speed Controllers and HobbyKing Multi-Rotor Control Board V3.0 and 4s LiPo inside his cat's spread-eagled body, fasten propellers to his paws, and fly him off into the sunset, putting up videos of his feat for all to see.  Some think it ingenious, some - like myself - clever, but really, really creepy, and others have their panties all in a knot about it.

If you think this is disconcerting, you should see the hatch that opens up in Orville's back

Jansen writes of his creation, "Now Orville flies with the birds." Apparently certain animal rights groups would like to see the Orvillecopter's creator sleep with the fishes.  I don't know why.  I guess they feel Orville has been robbed of his dignity or, worse, that this act will inspire a rash of copycats (nyuk nyuk) turning other felines into motorboats, cars (the irony!), trains, or the Starship Enterprise.  Perhaps they fear that there will be a black market in stolen cats that seem to be particularly streamlined.

In my opinion Jansen has a right to do whatever he likes with the empty shell of what was once Orville.    Lord knows people have been stuffing other creatures for centuries.  We even stuff (well, actually plastinate) ourselves - go see Gunther von Hagen's Body Worlds or the Chinese knock-off called Bodies.  Now that is art.

Orville himself certainly doesn't care.  He's waiting on what he thinks is the Rainbow Bridge, wishing that stupid frog would stop singing already.