The acoustic kitty was a project launched by the CIA in the
1960s. They attempted to use a cat in spy missions. Some of
their targets were the Kremlin and the Soviet embassies. A
battery and a microphone were implanted in the cat along with an
antenna in its tail. It would have allowed the cat to record
information and sound from its surroundings inconspicuously. The
problem was that the cat would get hungry and get distracted
because of it. To fix the issue, they put it through another
surgery attempting to correct its behavior. The Surgical and
training expenses were estimated to have been up to $20 million.
The first mission for the cat was to eavesdrop on a conversation
between two men in a park outside of the Soviet compound on
Wisconsin Avenue in Washington D.C. The cat was released nearby,
but hit by a taxi cab and killed almost instantly. All other
tests after that failed. Soon after the project was declared a
total loss and was completely cancelled by 1966.