WASHINGTON (PNN) - June 29, 2026 - In the 1960s the Central Intelligence Agency spent $20 million turning a cat into a spy in something called Project Acoustic Kitty. An actual cat. surgically modified. with a microphone in his ear canal, a radio transmitter at the base of his skull, and a wire antenna woven through his fur all the way to his tail. the project was called Operation Acoustic Kitty.
The idea: cats wander freely near embassies and parks without raising suspicion. A cat sitting near two Soviet diplomats on a bench is just a cat. A cat with a transmitter in its skull is an intelligence asset.
The technical challenges were enormous. This was the 1960s. No microchips. The CIA had to miniaturize a microphone, transmitter, battery and antenna small enough to fit inside a living animal that still had to look like a normal cat.
They solved most of it. Then they discovered that the cat kept wandering off whenever it got hungry, so they performed a second surgery to suppress its hunger drive. The CIA surgically rewired a cat's brain because it wanted snacks.
Five years and $20 million and additional hunger-suppression surgery. The cat was finally ready in 1966.
In Washington DC. at a park near the Soviet Embassy on Wisconsin Avenue; two men are sitting on a bench. There are CIA agents in an unmarked van filled with surveillance equipment. They opened the door and released their operative.
The cat walked ten feet and was hit by a taxi. The CIA's internal memo described the project as a "remarkable scientific achievement" and praised the team for proving that cats could be trained to move short distances. The memo that declared a $20 million program dead called it a remarkable achievement, then concluded that given "environmental and security factors" cats would "not be practical" for intelligence work.
The CIA spent five years and $20 million to discover that cats don't follow orders. Anyone who has ever owned a cat could have told them that.