From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, Roy Witt!
I read your message from 14.06.2013 15:29

I wonder what the cats are thinking, when during washing
suddenly freeze and a few seconds looking into nothingness?

<skipped>

I believe the correct version is this: With black humor: I wonder
what the cats are thinking when during washing THEY suddenly
freeze and for a few seconds look nowhere?

I'd re-phrase it to:
I wonder what cats are thinking while cleaning themselves, they
suddenly freeze and for a few seconds, look stupified.

without black humor: I wonder what the cats are thinking when
while washing THEMSELVES THEY suddenly freeze and for a few
seconds look nowhere?

The answer is of course that nobody knows. But looking at the
cats' faces during such moments we certainly can suppose that they
are deep in thoughts.

Deep in thought would go hand in hand with stupified.

But "while cleaning themselves" and "during washing" means quite
different things. And the verb must be as different. IMHO, "stupefied"
means absence of thoughts (because of amazement or shock). While "deep
in thought" tells us of thoughts.

If we consider the first variant we can suppose that when a human
washes a cat the whole life flashes through its mind and a state
of consternation is the aftermath of the washing process.

The best way for a human to wash a cat is to pour some liquid soap
into a toilet bowl, open the back door of the house, insert the cat
and close the lid. When the rukus dies down, lift the lid. The cat
will air dry on it's way out the door.

Until ruckus comes down? Well, only we must make, just in case, a
kind of lattice in the bowl. To make sure our cat would not go along the sewage. Pay attention, that it can return back and smear the floor! ;=)

<skipped>

After all people are often deep in thoughts after scratching their
heads. ;-)

I sometimes scratch my head while in deep thought. 8^) Afterward, I
have a hard solution to a problem or a blueprint on how to deal
with it...

An old Russian anecdote:

A son asks his father: "Daddy, why they say that clever people
scratch their foreheads, but fools, back of the heads?"
Daddy, scratching his nape: "Well son, let me think...."

Bye, Roy!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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