Cats Are Jerks. Discuss

Cats are jerks that's what some people say. They compiled a list of cats being jerks on a major website and every occasion can be explained in terms of natural cat behaviour on the one hand and the human's rather peculiar desire to be amused by the domestic cat on the other hand.

Name me an occasion when a cat is being jerk and I will name you the reason why the cat is not being a jerk. And the person who described the cat as being a jerk is really the jerk.

There are countless examples. To name a couple. Your cat is lying on your computer keyboard. He is in the way. He's a jerk. No he's not. He just wants to be near you. Or the keyboard may be warm because it has been used a lot. He likes the warmth. He does not know that he is on a computer keyboard. I guess that is obvious even to the biggest human jerk.

Recently, or not so long ago, there were a whole range of videos about cats being scared of cucumbers. Some people might say the cat is behaving like a jerk but I'd say the cat was simply temporarily scared of a strange object put down behind him. This is normal. The person who put the cucumber on the ground behind the cat knowing that the cat would be frightened is the jerk because he did it for his amusement at the expense of making his cat frightened.

It all depends how you look at it. A lot of people, most of them are probably non-cat owning people, turn to the domestic cat as a source of entertainment on YouTube. They're looking for cats behaving as jerks which they find entertaining. It's all a question of perception. Some people will find some aspects of the cat's behaviour as strange and as a consequence they describe the cat as being a jerk.

I see cat behavior as cause-and-effect; as natural behaviour caused by any form of stimulus or circumstance. All of it can be explained as natural behaviour quite obviously. You can't describe natural animal behaviour as bizarre because it is normal. If it is natural it must be normal and if people see normal behaviour as bizarre and jerk-like then there is something wrong with them in my opinion.

I hate to say it but it's human behavior which can be unnatural and deviant. People who behave like this are the jerks.

How can cats see in the dark?

How can cats see in the dark? The answer is that they have a reflective layer behind the retina of the eyes which bounces back light into the eye, onto the retina, boosting the reception of the light. You can see this reflective layer on occasions when a light is shone into the eyes of a cat. It is noticeable at night when driving, if and when you see a cat looking towards you. The car lights are reflected in the eyes of the cat and you see this green, sharp glow-"cat's eyes". Cats have developed this in order to hunt more effectively at dawn and at dusk or during the night. It is an evolved anatomical development of the eye to improve survival. It is Darwin's survival of the fittest in action. This evolutionary development took place in the North African wild cat, the ancient wild ancestor of our beloved domestic cat.

How much are cats at petco?

How much are cats at Petco? People ask this question on the Internet. It is a bad question¹. People should be asking, "what's the best place to adopt a cat from?" And the answer will always be a rescue centre. That is the only place one needs to go to to adopt a cat and you will feel better about it because not only will you have adopted a cat for yourself but you will have probably saved the life of a cat. It's a win-win situation and when you adopt a cat from a rescue centre you do more than adopt a companion animal for your benefit, you will have benefited in a small way the entire population of unwanted domestic cats on the planet. It will have been a gift to the world. You'll feel better, so it will be a gift to you as well.

Note 1 - if Petco only have rescue cats then I am wrong ;)