When Philip II, the king of Spain, visited Brussels in 1549, he brought with him a cat piano. This strange instrument consisted of twenty narrow boxes, each containing a cat whose tail was tied to a specific key. When anyone played the instrument, the cats’ tails were pulled, “producing a lamentable meowing each time.”

Why anyone ever thought of making a cat piano just shows how strange humans can be. Perhaps this cat piano is the reason why cats today make their own music by knocking things over just to hear their humans scream in harmony that’s music to their ears.

To learn more about this strange cat piano, click here.