Rich i must agree with mark only because i studied the history as i do many
creative designs of man.
The cat organ was a popular entertainment of the late sixteenth century to
early eighteenth century wich was devised of narrow boxes confining cats of
movement . there tails left out so a string (chord) attached to keys of an
organ like structure may be pulled by the striking of the keys thus giving an
amusing sound array to the audiances. only till later seventeenth century had
prevailled the training of cats to sing on cue rather than on pull