Cat Chit Chat

Evolution of the species. How domestic cats came to be in a nutshell. Screebshot. Some people want to know how domestic cats evolved to where they are today. To answer the question you have to believe in Darwin's theory of evolution as set out in his book On the Origin of Species published on Thursday, 24 November 1859. If you believe in his theory as opposed to creation by a God (creationism) then you have to study the theory of evolution to fully understand it.  Remember that life emerged on Earth 3.5 billion years ago so evolution is a slow process. That's way we have the species we have. It took millions of tiny changes. Also the first early human ancestors orginate from 3.5 million years ago. Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This will allow you understand how domestic cats came to be - the first part of the story. The video below explains it quite nicely I think. It is quite complicated.  Image: MikeB. You can click here too if you want to read about the evolution

Yes, Turkish Angoras can be black as they come in all colors, all divisions of the traditional category. The white cats are favoured both in the West and certainly in Turkey.  The traditional colours are: black, chocolate, cinnamon, blue, lilac, fawn, red, cream and white. Believed to be a black Turkish Angora. Photo: Reddit. The black Turkish Angora bred in America looks like a fairly standard semi-longhaired domestic cat but more refined due to selective breeding. They are an elegant cat with flowing long hair. Their body is described as foreign-type meaning slender. The cat fancy see foreign cats as slender!  The true Turkish Angoras at Ankara Zoo (yes, they are in a zoo as they are very special) look like all-white, doll-faced Persian cats i.e. traditional Persian cats. There may be a connection in history. Perhaps the original Persian cats originated in Turkey. They certainly did not originate in Persia now Iran to the best of my knowledge. Wrong? Tell me in a comment, please.

Harry and Zenta were two jaguars at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Harry is still alive and he is twelve years old. He killed the female jaguar, Zenta, who was twenty-one years old. A mistake was made. They were both put into a holding complex.  Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens poster featuring a jaguar. Is this Harry? Photo: Jacksonville and Gardens. Harry was put there for examination. The mistake was putting them together. Keepers tried to separate them unsuccessfully. As Harry attacked Zenta, they tried to immobilise him. I presume this means tranquilizing. They were unsuccessful and he killed the female who had arrived at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in 2006 they rescued animal from a private zoo. Harry was born at the zoo in 2009. Comment : the question that I have is ,why did the male jaguar kill the female? In the wild male and female jaguar's meet to mate and reproduce. Roaring may function to bring them together for mating purposes. Females can end up being accompanied by s

COMMENT AND NEWS: This is a story from Brisbane Australia. Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, clearly loves cats. She adopted two kittens. She lived in what appears to be a house which he shared with housemates. There appears also to have been some sort of dispute between her and the housemates which was simmering in the background and which came to a head when her kittens or a kitten wandered into one of the housemaid's rooms and scratched the person in the room. Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, outside the magistrates court. She refused to talk to the media. Photo: Daily Mail. It is claimed that a kitten or kittens were thrown across the room as a consequence. This is an allegation of animal abuse. Alexander became enraged and allegedly tried to take the law into their own hands by poisoning her housemates. She reportedly admitted to placing a teaspoonful of mosquito repellent into milk and yoghurt. The repellent is called Mortein Peaceful Nights. My research indicates that if in

This is perhaps an understandable story but strange nonetheless. It appears that a person living in Bangkok, Thailand rescued many cats. Three hundred stray cats were left in cages in two houses in Bangkok. It is believed that the person rescued the cats but could no longer afford to look after them because of a change in her circumstances. Over 300 cats rescued from a cat rescuer who abandoned them in cages in filthy conditions. Photo: Reuters. The change in circumstances was due to the pandemic it is said. The person concerned abandoned the cats. She did not come back to them to look after them. This happened for many months. A neighbour sometimes fed the cats and a volunteer was involved. The more than three hundred cats have now been rescued; those that survived. They had been kept in filthy conditions in cages for a very long time. They become stressed and are being rehabilitated and will be rehomed when suitable. A veterinarian in the area, said that he was confident that the cat

The American Shorthair cat is not rare in an absolute sense. It's a regular purebred cat born out of a standard American moggy. This cat breed is a refined American moggy which is great and it is a very good purebred cat suited to indoor living and good with kids. But it's impossible to consider the cat as being rare.  American Shorthair - classic tabby. Photo copyright Helmi Flick. That said, the meaning of the word "rare" is elastic. In terms of the overall number of domestic cats in America you might argue that the American Shorthair is quite rare. However, in an absolute sense it is not rare. You will see them in households around America. You will not see cats of this breed probably in Europe that much whereas you will see the more popular and perhaps better known American cat breed, the Maine Coon, more frequently in Europe. So perhaps you might argue that the American Shorthair cat is relatively rare in Europe but much less so in America, the home of their orig

The Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, has 2 cats, Ding Ding and Yuan Yuan. They are both grey. One of them, who I believe is Ding Ding has partially folded ears which indicates to me that this cat carries the Scottish Fold gene or a variant of it. The ambassador adopted both cats in the Philippines during the pandemic.  Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats. This is one of them possibly Ding Ding. He adopted them as kittens. He took them to a veterinarian to have them checked thoroughly. He says there now strong and healthy. They love each other but sometimes they fight and are a bit naughty. He likes their company during his work and he finds them comforting. He said the work hard during the pandemic. Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats. This is  possibly Yuan Yuan. He wants cat lovers to guess which cat is called Ding Ding in which cat is called Yuan Yuan. I haven't got an idea about that! The Chinese word &q

A study carried out by Japanese scientists at the Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University , Japan, in 2015 found that domestic dogs evaluated people who interact with their owner. If these third parties were not helpful towards their owner they treated them in a way which indicated that they felt the person was hostile or less than friendly. This indication came from the fact that the dogs were less willing to accept food from the person who had failed to help their owner when help was requested. Dogs evaluate third parties and cats don't. Pic in public domain. Words added by MikeB on PoC. I DISCUSSED THE STUDY IN A DIFFERENT WAY IN ANOTHER ARTICLE. CLICK HERE TO READ IT IF YOU WISH. In 2021, the same or similar team of scientists headed by the same scientist, Hitomi Chijiiwa, carried out the same test on domestic cats. In summary, they found that "cats might not possess the same social evaluation abilities as dogs". The cats did not rea

I think that it is ridiculous that anybody can find the time to ask if cats are narcissists. It's an absurd question but I'm going to try and answer it other than simply decry it as ridiculous. In order to answer the question as  to whether domestic cats are narcissists you have to first define the word "narcissist". It means, "a person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves". Incidentally, I realise that I am being unnecessarily serious because the question is meant to be a bit of a joke but there may be a slightly serious element to this which is why I'm discussing it a bit more than simply knocking it on the head. You can see the obvious, which is that the definition starts off with "a person". This immediately cuts out of the equation all cats at a stroke! The concept of narcissism is exclusively dedicated to humankind. It is a condition created by people for people and defined by more people. It has nothing to do with

No, so-called "hairless cats" are not truly hairless because various parts of their bodies maybe nude but the remainder e.g. the muzzle and the feet (often) are covered by fine down, fuzzy hair. Sometimes hairlessness progresses with age. There is a fine covering in the young adult cat which gradually disappears leaving a bare, wrinkled skin over much of the body of the full-grown adults. Bicolor Sphynx. The fine down hair strands in the hind legs are pigmented I believe, which is why there is a dark patch and the tail  is dark too. This is melanin in the down hair strands. There is a bit of discussion about whether hairless cats can have a pattern on their skin. You do see 'bicolour' Sphynx cats with the two colours being the skin colour and the other colour being an inky darker colour.  I had thought that the darker coloration was due to the pigment producing cells, the melanocytes, colouring the skin but I now believe that this is due to fine down hairs having t

Not all Ragdoll cats are sweet-natured, laid-back, blissfully content, and beautiful cats! They are, after all, pretty normal domestic cats although they do indeed look beautiful nearly always. But there will be times when they have a right to be angry, irritated and annoyed. They have a right on occasions to hiss at somebody or another cat. If they didn't they wouldn't be felines. It's their nature. The photo below is of a classy, cat show Ragdoll cat. Ragdoll cat Blossom Baby Sage. Photo copyright Helmi Flick. Selective breeding can achieve so much. It can achieve a character which is predisposed towards being relaxed and confident but it cannot eliminate from the inherent and innate character of the domestic cat the desire to hiss or growl and attack when needed. If you could do that through selective breeding you would be in the Frankenstein world. And I'm not sure we even want that. The first photograph below is of Merlin. I believe that that is his name. He loo

This interesting photograph could, to the uninitiated, be of a Toyger purebred cat but it is not. It is far too much like a tiger to be a Toyger. You may have heard about this rare cat breed called a Toyger. If you haven't you might like to click here to read about it. Essentially, it is a breed of cat which is meant to look like a miniature tiger in your home. The idea is to bring the tiger into your home. However, it's proved very difficult to replicate the anatomy of a tiger in a domestic cats through selective breeding as you can imagine. Toyger purebred cat? No, photo-editing of tiger cub + domestic cat. Photo in public domain. You can only go so far with selective breeding but, that said, some cat breeders go too far and breed cats to extreme. Perhaps the Toyger breeders could have done a better job. Perhaps they gave up because the breed cannot, in honesty, be described as a success. There was a discussion on the Internet about whether this photograph is of a Toyger.

Here is a nice montage of a couple of side-by-side, before and after photographs of a cat who lost a lot of weight. His owner praised his cat. I praised his owner! It takes persistence to get this effect and it should be a slow process to avoid the possibility of feline hepatitic lipidosis (fatty liver disease). Slow cat dieting is the order of the day if it has to be done. Before and after pictures of a cat who lost a lot of weight. Photo: Reddit. Senior cats should be on a reduced calorie diet. Before dieting a cat it may be wise to consult your veterinarian in case there are no medical reasons for the obesity. An estimated 40% of cats are obese. As many cats turn carbohydrates into fat, a low carb, high protein and high fat diet will help her lose weight. This sort of diet may be more effective than a low calorie, high fibre diet. A high protein diet takes a domestic cat back to her natural diet. Food should be provided in a measured way 2 or 3 times per day and no more. No gourm

This short video has been described as showing a cat who wants attention but is too shy to ask. I disagree. It is a female cat who is inherently timid and her owner - out of frame and doing the filming - is enticing her cat towards her with a cat tease. The cat sees a prey animal and wants to attack but this desire is resisted by her innate timidity. She therefore edges cautiously forward by placing one paw ahead of the another while placing them gently. It is cute. Timid cat edges forward cautiously wishing to attack. Screenshot. I prefer to see confident cats as they can live fuller lives and interact more freely with their owner and other visiting people. This is both good for the cat and the humans. Note: sometimes videos like the one above stop working for reasons beyond my control. If that has occurred I am sorry.

Scared cat seeks solace in human companion. Screenshot. The video shows a ginger tabby cat on a sofa, clearly very frightened about something. We don't know what it is. Her ears are back in a protective position. The sort of body language that you see before a cat is about to fight only the general bod language indicates that this cat feels oppressed and she/he is submissive. She wants to crawl away and hide somethere, anywhere and seeks reassurance and comfort on the shoulder of her human companion.  Why was she filming it though? She is making a video selfie. She has the face of Mona Lisa. I can't get the video to work. I uploaded it to Google Blogger and at first it worked but now...nada. It might work again but in the meantime here is another video which I know will work at least for the time being. It is similar. A cat who needs the comfort that comes from human contact and reassurance: It is a nice yet sad video. The person looks oddly serene as if it has happened before.

Wales seems to be a country where there is a preponderance of big cat sightings and as such there is an open secret that there are big cats roaming North Wales attacking sheep and leaving broken and bloody caracasses in fields. There have been reports from: Buckley, Corwen, Denbigh, Llangollen, Mold, Mostyn, Pentre Halkyn, Pontybodkin, Pentre Halkyn, Rhuallt, and Talacre in 2020 and 2021 according to Leader Live. And also Chester and Ellesmere Port. Big cat sighting in Italy is probably genuine. An escaped pet melanistic leopard but 99% of sightings are fake. See this story by clicking here . It seems to be agreed that a formal, government managed process needs to be in place to investigate these big cat sightings. Once it is suspected that a big cat is present a formal investigation will take place. It sounds as if they will be detailed and thorough including a post mortem examination and a visit to the site of the attack. The Welsh Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths said: &quo

Not sure why the question is being asked by someone because domestic cats are not meant to live outside in the winter! They are not designed to do that. They live with people inside their homes. That said the domestic cat is rugged and enduring but they will be hurt by some winters. It depends on what kind of winter it is which depends on where they are. NC kitten rescue: This procedure was used to successfully ‘thaw out’ frostbitten stray kitty Siberian cat is the first in the world to be fitted with four titanium prosthetic feet Siberian cat lost limbs through frostbite (see link above). Image: PoC. There are stories of domestic cats getting frostbite and losing their toes and part of their feet as a result. Horrible - see picture above for instance. I have read stories of domestic cats being frozen to the ground by ice. They have been injured by the cold. And sometimes ear flaps can suffer frostbite leading to amputations. You might have seen domestic cats with prosthetic legs. T

There are two key aspects to this story from Ohio, USA about cat abandonment and subsequent rescue. Last Thursday a bag full of six newborn kittens and their mom were left outside the main entrance of a church in New Miami, Butler County, Ohion, USA. They had been abandoned in freezing weather. It genuinely was freezing as there are icicles hanging from the church's guttering. Six newborn kittens and their mom abandoned outside church in freezing conditions in Ohio. Photo: Butler County police. That's the first point to make. Who in their right mind would do this? Newborn kittens must be kept very warm, almost hot by human standards to avoid them becoming chilled and dying. There was a real risk that the person who did this was passing a death sentence on these kittens. She or he got lucky. The second point is that the bag looked suspicious. The bomb squad were called out. They must have been surprised when then discovered the kittens. But there was danger there too wasn'

This is an interesting looking cat to say the least. The word 'blaze' in the title refers to the sharp line down the nose demarking the boundary between the dark fur and lighter fur. I never know how to spell this strange word. I sometimes spell it 'blaise' but that's wrong apparently. I have no idea where the word comes from. Picture of a calico cat with a memorable blaze. Photo: Imgur Tortoiseshells and tortoiseshell-and-white cats can have it to varying degrees of impact. Sometimes it is broken and sometimes it is stark and high contrast. The reason for its existence must be genetic and the migration of melanin (dark pigment) within the hair strands as the unborn kitten develops in the womb. 'Calico' is an Americanism for tortoiseshell-and-white. This cat has a particularly impressive face. Full of impact, not solely because of the blaze but the gold-dusted eyes and the rest of the pattern and colours which are outstanding. Almost all calicos are femal

In Oct 2017 I wrote about a pretty, young, narcissistic Asian woman who killed her pretty but not narcissistic white cat in her washing machine (click here to read it). I figured that she lives in the south of China where they have a dubious relationship with cats as they like to eat them en masse for superstitious reasons . Horrible. Mad. Narcissistic Asian woman who killed her cat on social media for fame. Her social media page. But have they caught this mad, pretty woman? Probably not. She committed a crime by normal standards. She should be arrested and punished. The trouble is that in China they don't have any meaningful animal welfare laws so she has not committed a crime in her country. Even if she had she'd get away with it because of police apathy. She had the temerity to post her film of her killing her cat online, on social media. That is why I say she is narcissistic. It is that self-indulgent desire for 15 minutes of fame. Some youth of today can't bear to

Felines are cats and canines are dogs. Who's the strongest? Neither. It depends on the species. Size dictates mass and muscle mass dictates strength. The largest cat, the Siberian tiger (about 210 kg), is much larger than the largest dog, the Great Dane (90 kg). No contest on that basis. But the humble and ubiquitous coyote in the US, which is a species of dog kills many domestic cats who are unable to get away. No contest there either. Lynx squares up to wolf. Image: Vadim Sidorovich Cats have more fast twitch muscles than dogs I would say. Cats are sprinters. Dogs are endurance runners. Cats stalk and pounce (sprint) to catch prey. Dogs wear down prey animals over many miles. Does this affect strength comparions? No I don't think so. But the concept of strength is flexible. There is strength of mind leading to persistence which is a factor in overpowering another animal. However, the question is probably asking if the mucles of cats are stronger than the muscles of dogs. T

Why is this young tabby cat sitting on his haunches as we see humans do in Asia. They do it because it is a comfortable way to be in a restful position but you have to be flexible and therefore slender. It is impossible if you are overweight. Domestic cat likes to sit on his haunches. Why? Video screenshot. It is the first time I have seen a cat sit on his haunches like this and the cat's owner said that it makes her uncomfortable. She does no explain why. It's probably because she's worried that there is a health reason behind it.  But he looks relaxed, comfortable and healthy. Comfortable On the basis that I am correct in that assessment there is only one reason why he is squatting like this: it is comfortable for him ( but see possible health issue below ). This is very unusual but cats are individuals and this image on Twitter proves the point. Domestic cats vary tremendously in their likes and dislikes, their vocalisations and general behavior. There is a common thr

There has to be a warning about this video which you can also see on Twitter. It's a short video of a warble (the lava of a botfly) being extracted from the nose of a young kitten. It looks gruesome and it is pretty gruesome. You don't want to watch it if you've not got a strong stomach.  Botfly larva being removed from a young kitten's nose. Screenshot. It is a curiosity because it's quite rare but in the US and Canada (also in Mexico and the neo-tropical regions) there is a species of fly, Cuterebra, which lays eggs near or in the opening of rodent and rabbit burrows. These eggs develop into larvae and the larvae can burrow into the skin of cats, kittens and dogs. They might enter the cat through the nose, mouth or a skin wound. 🚨 WARNING: Video may be too graphic for some- viewer discretion is advised. 🚨 More info: https://t.co/Ns042YOPcI pic.twitter.com/mNDGLBogQs — Nebraska Humane Society (@NEHumaneSociety) July 20, 2016 The lava develops in the skin as

These days I get itchy eyes sometimes. I have a sniffle. The symptoms are like a very low level cold. But it happens almost all the time, on and off. It is not confined to the winter or the summer or any other season for that matter. How do I know if my sniffles are due to an allergy to my cat or because I have a mild cold that my immune system is managing to deal with? Allergy to cats versus common cold. Image: PoC. I think it is very difficult to tell the difference between "the sniffles" (a low level viral infection which your body deals with and eliminates) and a low level allergy to your cat. The only way to find out is to remove your cat from your life for a while and see what happens. I'm not prepared to do that so I'm not going to find out! Different cats produce different allergic responses. It depends upon the concentration of the allergen in their saliva which is called Fel d1 as you might know. Male cats who have not been neutered tend to produce more o

Facebook knows that they need to do more to stop the sale of animals on their website. This is a perpetually difficult topic for Facebook administrators it seems to me. They have similar problems in trying to stop pictures of animal abuse. FB policy on selling animals. It is banned but abused. Screenshot. It took me a while to find this FB page. NOTE TO FACEBOOK: PLEASE DON'T PUNISH ME FOR HIGHLIGHTING THIS PROBLEM AT 21ST FEB 2021. THE REASON FOR THE POST IS TO IMPROVE ANIMAL WELFARE. The first point I want to make is that it is very difficult to find Facebook's policy on listing animal sales on their website. If you search for the policy on Facebook you can't find it. If you search for their rules or policy using Google search you are more likely to find it. That tells a tale in my opinion. Several people have asked for information about the rules but the responses are often very thin and weak and unhelpful. I eventually found an answer and I have provided both the rul

PETA has to force change to improve animal welfare. They set out to shock people to achieve this goal. They want to force reality down the throat of the complacent public. There is apathy and ignorance about a lack of animal welfare in society. People live blinkered lives and PETA wants to open their eyes. I agree with their philosophy but personally I cannot look at the photographs which accompany their 'horrific outside cat stories' on their website. These are photographs of cats that are truly suffering with terrible injuries and illnesses. They are normally feral or stray cats. PETA is against the existence of feral cats. I get that too. They don't want to see feral cats suffering and in the past it seems to me that they have recommended that all feral cats be trapped and euthanized. There was uproar in some quarters about that and this philosophy does not seem to be universally accepted among all senior PETA staff. I digress...because this your post is about forcing