During the Cold War, the CIA launched one of its strangest espionage experiments: turning a cat into a surveillance device. The program, called Project Acoustic Kitty, began in the 1960s. Engineers surgically implanted a microphone in the cat’s ear, a transmitter near its skull, and an antenna running through its tail so it could secretly record conversations. The goal was simple: release the cat near Soviet diplomats and quietly listen in. After years of development and an estimated $20 million in research and training, the CIA finally tested the idea in Washington, D.C., where the cat was supposed to approach two men sitting on a park bench near the Soviet embassy. But the plan quickly fell apart. Cats proved nearly impossible to control in real-world environments, often wandering off or getting distracted. By 1967, the CIA concluded the concept simply wasn’t practical and shut the project down #hosted #pubity #viral