telepathic cat

Thanks to gengineering, the old joke about cats being telepathic but too haughty to deign to communicate with us is now at least half right. Researchers were initially overjoyed when their thirty sixth test subject finally communicated telepathically. Then they noticed the cat wasn't speaking to *them*, and realized their first thirty five "failed" attempts were actually successful--the cats had merely never deemed the researchers worth talking to and were subsequently released, thereby introducing the genetic modifications into the general population. The phrase "as useful as a telepathic cat" entered the vernacular shortly thereafter.