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Examples: Variations: Origins: The legend about the microwaved pet has been with us since 1976, but its antecedents were around long before that. If lore is to be believed, foolhardy old ladies have been attempting to dry wet pets in clothes dryers and conventional ovens long before the invention of the microwave oven. A 1942 tale in which a roasted cat is discovered in a wood-burning oven has been pointed to as a predecessor to this more modern tale about current domestic technology. In it, however, the cat gets into the oven under its own power; its mistress has no idea it is in there until she later discovered the crisped kitty. A related Russian legend tells of a mother whose custom was to bathe her child in a tub of warm water. She places the tub (with Junior in it) on top of the unlit wood stove, and goes to speak to a neighbor. The gossip session stretches out longer than anticipated. Upon return to her kitchen, she discovers a draft through the open back door has caused the fire to rekindle under the child and her baby now lies dead in the tub. These older variations on the same theme cast doubt on the widely-accepted theory that this legend is about fear of new technology. Other cooked to death legends include: Although there have been a few verifiable cases of pets subjected to microwaving, each of them were deliberate acts of cruelty, perpetrated by twisted souls who knew all too well what they were doing. Micropoochings arising from a lack of understanding of the technology, however, are still incidents of lore only. Depending upon how this legend is viewed, there are two different interpretations: If seen as a fear of new technology legend, the little old lady of lore becomes a symbol of technological incompetence. Both female and old, she is the stereotypical embodiment of someone who could have little possible interest in how new things work and thus highly at risk of fatally misusing newfangled contraptions. Her misadventure serves as a warning to not place our faith in the new over the time-honored. Convenience be damned; the old ways are safer, says the legend. Stick with what is known. But there's another possible interpretation, one that fits the older tales about pets dying in conventional ovens and clothes dryers. In the stereotypical world of urban legends, little old ladies are seen as lonely figures unduly attached to their animal companions. By casting an elderly woman in this tale, the loss of a beloved pet is seen as that much more catastrophic. We picture the old woman as having done in the one thing she had left in her life to lavish love on. Under this interpretation, the legend becomes one of that gives voice to our fears of growing old alone. Sightings: You'll spot this legend in the 1984 film The Wild Life and in the 1998 movie Urban Legend.
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