This is a nice photograph from F1 Savannahs in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is described by them as "all the colours of Bengals". It actually isn't but it is a damned good photograph nonetheless. These cats are amazing in their variety of colours and patterns. You have super-high contrast solid spots and donuts (doughnuts - spots with holes in the middle) with a three silver cats and three golden brown cats of different shades. Awesome breeding.  Rainbow of colors and patterns of Bengal cats. Photo: F1Savannahs At least some of them look like second filial Bengal cats which means they have a lot of wild cat Asian leopard cat DNA in them, if I'm correct. They may all be F2s but I am not sure. I have a full page on the Bengal cat and many other pages on this popular cat breed so I won't go over the same ground here. If you'd like to explore more please click here (a range of pages on the Bengal cat coat) and here (a single comprehensive page) and here

There is one major difference between Savannah and Bengal cats which dictates all the other differences: the wild cat genes of the Savannah cat are those of a serval while the wild genes of the Bengal are those of an Asiatic leopard cat.  Difference between Savannah and Bengal cats? Photos (left: Jim Child - right: Kathryn Stucki) They are both wild cat hybrids. Therefore they both have some wildcat in them. The amount depends on whether the cat concerned is a kitten from a mating between a serval and a domestic cat (first filial or first generation) or if the cat concerned is several generations from that offspring (fifth filial for instance). But they all have some serval in them. The same basic rule applies to the Bengal cat only the wild cat element is a much smaller wild cat: the Asiatic leopard cat aka leopard cat. The serval is quite a large wild cat and much larger than the leopard cat. And the serval has a different character to the leopard cat. So taking the first filial

Baltimore in the USA had done something radical. Baltimore's top prosecutor has decriminalised the possession of all drugs, along with prostitution and other minor street crimes. The objective: to improve public safety in what was one of America's most dangerous cities. I say "was" because it has worked. In this city the drug war is over said Marilyn Mosby. They have, in the words of the mayor, "reimagined public safety". In other words they have taken a completely different position on how to improve public safety. And I'm going to argue in this post that if you improve the safety of the public you also improve the safety of companion animals who live with the public. Baltimore, USA. Image by  emitea  from  Pixabay   And the safety of companion animals, particularly domestic cats, is my overriding concern. Baltimore won't even prosecute criminals who possess heroin. They don't prosecute for non-violent crimes of attempted drug distribution, p

Humans eat more lion body parts than any predator of the lion. I am going to take an odd approach in answering this question. I know people want to know which animals eat lions and I suppose there are referring to lion cubs being attacked by hyenas and perhaps leopards. The lion cub is vulnerable to predators, there is no question about it. But the adult lion in Africa has no predators and there is little chance that they'll be eaten by another predator unless they are very infirm and elderly. Humans eat more lion body parts than any other animal. Pic; Getty Images. But the point that I want to get to is this: by far the biggest eater of lions are humans. The question doesn't ask what animals eat lions; it asks what eats a lion. And if you wanted to add up the amount of flesh and bones that come out of a lion which is eaten by people the tonnage would be far in excess of any other animal or perhaps all animals combined. This is because people like to eat lions. They eat lion

The child, Datse, who acted like a cat. Photo: Ministry of the Interior. This is a story from Russia, specifically a town 80 miles north of Moscow called Taldom. A girl, Datse, aged six was living with an adult man and woman. It is believed that the woman is the child's mother. The mother appears to be obsessed with neo-Nazi ideology. There are pictures of her performing the Nazi salute. All three lived in a disgusting and filthy apartment with 19 domestic cats.  Mother who treated her daughter as a cat. Photo: East2West The child apparently moved around the apartment on all fours, responded to the call "kitty kitty" and ate cat food. She has an older sister aged 12 who can't remember going to school. She had difficulty walking and doesn't know how to speak properly. The girl looks as if she is about three years old, half her real age. It appears that the police stumbled upon this disastrous scene when they spotted what they believed was a suspicious man. When

Well I think everyone knows why domestic cats and even the bigger cats, and every cat in between, love laser pointers ( big cats aren't stimulated by them ). But for the sake of complete certainty here goes. It is because their brains are hard-wired to respond to the kind of movement laser pointers make: fast and jumpy as the 'prey animal' tries to evade the cat. Why do cats love laser pointers? Because they elicit the predator response. Picture: Pixabay. Laser pointers trigger the predator response which is deep within them. The defect with laser pointers is that they are silent and they can't be caught and killed. Domestic cats are also very attuned to the sounds that prey animals make, especially mice. They can accurately pinpoint the location of a mouse from the sound the mouse makes. The fact that cats can't kill laser pointers is bad news because they will eventually become turned off by the device. Perhaps the solution is short bursts.  Are they unfair on

Not long ago I proposed genetically engineering feral cats to make them infertile as an alternative to TNR programs which includes spaying and neutering. But it might be a better idea to genetically engineer feral cats. That would seem to be a more elegant way to control the feral cat population. I don't know whether it's been discussed but what is also being discussed is genetically engineering cats to modify their behaviour, to stop their urge to kill. Photo: Pixabay That would mean altering the most fundamental aspect of a cat's behaviour which is to hunt, stalk, attack, kill and eat prey animals. In the case of domestic cats that usually means small mammals such as voles, mice and even rats occasionally (plus reptiles, birds and insects). I'm not sure if it is viable. I'm not a good enough scientist to decide how you'd go about doing that. The obvious initial downside is animal testing. I can see animal testing taking place which would be cruel. I could n

An experiment was carried out some time ago at Kyoto University, which has been reported widely in online news media websites. I'll summarise it. Both cats and dogs observed a person either helping or not helping their owner. Dogs observed this difference in approach and were uncooperative to the person who would not help their owner whereas cats remained cooperative with these people. It appears that the cats were unable to evaluate third parties who might be hostile or friendly. Dogs, in contrast, were able to evaluate them and decide whether they should receive their friendship and cooperation or not.  Cats are disloyal?? Photo: Brittney Gobble The experiment clearly indicates the evolutionary nature of these different species. Dogs are utilitarian animals. They've been used over centuries to help and work with people. Domestic cats, in contrast, are companions to people. They do not really have a utilitarian role to play. And when an animal works with people they natural

Dr Bruce Fogle says that cat owners often ask if he will use antibiotics to treat their cat's diarrhoea. The answer is that the vet needs to know the species of bacteria in the gut to be treated or if the intestines are severely damaged. Administering antibiotics in other circumstances to treat diarrhoea risks upsetting the good bacteria in the stomach and making things worse. A vet might suggest probiotics. Do you use antibiotics for cat diarrhea? No unless you know the species of bacteria to treat. Photo: in public domain. ANTIBIOTICS FOR CAT BITES CAN PUMPKIN HELP CATS WITH DIARRHEA? Your vet will tell you the causes of diarrhoea. There are many possibilities. If your cat goes to the toilet outside it can hard to know if she has diarrhoea. Vomiting often accompanies diarrhoea and the remains of poop stuck to the fur on the cat's backside is a giveaway.

Just a quick note on the grisly and sad topic of cat and dog meat. It is still big business in Vietnam and Southern China and elsewhere in Asia. At one stage Vietnam had a rat infestation problem and believed that the cat meat industry was allowing rat numbers to increase so they introduced a government directive to end 'cat-meat eateries' (Directive No.09/1998/CT-TTg). That law was revoked a year ago. It failed clearly. The sad and disgusting cat meat trade can expose people to zoonotic diseases. Pic in public domain in my view. So there appears to be rumblings in parts of Asia on the subject of how to change people's habits in eating people's pets. It is deeply engrained. How it got to that stage is beyond my comprehension. It is obviously immoral.  But a reason to stop eating people's pets goes well beyond morality. It is all about human health and wellbeing. The coronavirus pandemic tells us that when humans slaughter animals in an unregulated way in open mar

I am referring to domestic cats. My personal research indicates very clearly that during mating when the female struggles or complains the male tries harder and continues beyond the point at which he'd normally have stopped. Savannah cats mating at a cat breeder. Photo: Mike B You know that the male prevents the female moving away by grasping her by the scruff of the neck in his mouth (as seen in the photo above). It is quite a brutal process. It sort of looks a bit like rape as it includes violence of a sort. The biting of the females neck to keep her compliant and the barbed penis raking her vagina when it is withdrawn. It's not a loving event, let's put it that way! My cat likes to have sex on my arm when I am wearing an old fleece dressing gown. This is not uncommon. Or this sort of vestigial sex is seen in various forms by male domestic cats and dogs even after neutering. Testosterone is not the only motivator for sex. But if I move my hand when he is about to stop,

A very cute  young cat for your entertainment. A lot of people say that he is very cute. I think he is male but I am guessing. His ears are flattened indicating some Scottish Fold genetics but he does not look like a Scottish Fold. A lot of people say that this cat is super cut. Photo: Twitter. What makes cute? Answer: baby-like features such as large, round eyes a round head. Also he needs to be fluffy and innocent with a charming character. He has it all.

Cat lovers: keep your fingers and everything else crossed because Assemblywoman Susie Martinez has introduced a bill into Nevada's legislature to ban declawing across the state. New York State was the first in and they did it some time ago (2019). There are 9 cities (as I recall) who have also banned declawing. All bar one are in California. The ninth is Denver if my memory serves me correctly. Martinez is not a cat lover but she is clearly a decent person. She regards declawing as inhumane and cruel - correct! Her bill will be a classic declawing ban. All declawing will be prohibited except when it is in the interests of the cat's wellbeing and health, which is the way it should be if the veterinarians obeyed their damnable oath which means almost nothing. READ ABOUT THE COMPLICATIONS OF DECLAWING. REMEMBER IT IS NOT DECLAWING. IT IS AN AMPUTATION TIMES 10. There will be a penalty for violators: a $1,000 fine as a starting point apparently, according to the website CarsonNow.c

 The first domestic cats in North America? No cats visible in the  picture! But there were some and they were the first domestic cats of North America. Picture in the public domain (assessed). We don't know exactly the date of the first domestic cats in North America but it's likely that the English and European settlers who first arrived in 1607 and thereafter in the 1700s brought domestic cats. These were the first domestic cats in North America. They settled at Jamestown which is located as per the map below: Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas on Oct 12 1492 but we don't have any record of cats being aboard that ship! What if there was a ship's cat and it came ashore? It would have been the first domestic cat in North America. He made landfall in the Caribbean. The Europeans settled on the east coast such as Maine. These cats were the forerunners of the Maine Coon cat. I have nothing more to say as I have answered the question. I hope! :)  -- I forget t

A study published on July 28th 2020: Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet , states that 'the early migration of the Near Eastern cat...preceded the known establishment of housecat populations in the region by around 3,000 BCE (Before Common Era). The Common Era means AD (Anno Domini). So 3,000 BCE means 3,000 BC (Before Christ). African wild somewhat like the first domestic cats of Europe. Photo: Pixabay. To recap, they believe that the Near Eastern wildcat migrated to Poland around 4,200 years before Christ (BC) and after around 1,200 years the first Near Eastern wildcats in Poland were domesticated or semi-domesticated. The first domestic cats worldwide are estimated to be dated at 9,500 BC on Cyprus. It is believed that this cat was similarly a domesticated Near Eastern wildcat that was imported into Cyprus by ship with its owner. One theory is that the wildcat followed the migration of farmers into Poland as 'sy

Cats' whiskers are made of keratin. This is the same substance that makes our finger nails and the claws of our cats. And a cat's fur is made of keratin. A rhino's horn is made of keratin too, by the way, which is why it is so strange that some people think it has medicinal properties. It does not. The reason for the gradual extinction of the rhino is because people think eating rhino horn is beneficial. They might just as well eat their finger nails. It would be a lot cheaper and it would protect the precious rhino. Cat whiskers are made of keratin. Image by Pexels from Pixabay Keratin is also the material that makes an animal's scales, feathers, hooves and calluses. So what is keratin? It is a fibrous structural protein. At the cellular level the production of keratin is called 'cornification' which is the process of 'forming an epidermal barrier in stratified squamous epithelial tissue'. Yes, it is very technical. Keratin has to be strong and it is

Yes and yes is the response. Neutering of male cats removes the testes. This removes the organ that produces testosterone. How do they feel emotionally going forward? I did an article about how a man feels when castrated to try and get inside the head of a cat. Click here if you'd like to read it . Do neutered domestic cats hump and get boners? Yes and Yes. Testosterone is not the only trigger or motivator for a feline's desire to have sex. It is a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular, and endocrine (hormone) factors, and is associated with sexual arousal.  I guess that losing the ability to create one important hormone, testosterone, is not enough to stop a male cat's desire to hump and get an erection. But this be a personality issue too. It'll depend on the individual cat. My male cat humps my arm when it is in a fleece dressing gown. He loves it and it substitutes having sex with a female cat. He was neutered when very young as is normal for res

A caricature of a Maine Coon - super-large with overly long fur. Pic: Pinterest. A  caricature  of a Maine on a cat exercise wheel which he dwarfs because of his size. This is a strange and large cat looking like a shaggy Maine Coon. This cat looks like a lynx but it is not. The fur length is too long for a Maine Coon. The ear tufts are correct. The tufts of hair sticking out between the toes are correct but outrageously long. The cat is a characture of the real thing. A living cartoon character of a Maine Coon. Apologies for misspelling caricature in the first attempt! Working too fast. Here is the video. No doubt it will go wrong at some time in the future as they nearly always do. If it does not work try clicking on this link.

What do you think about this? The cats are undeniably impressive. They are almost bound to be because domestic cats are so athletic. Training them is not that difficult as long as you have the patience and the commitment to see it through. Trained cats perform tricks on America's Got Talent. Screenshot. On the downside, you could argue that it is not a great example of cat welfare. Although I don't know how much the cats dislike doing this. They probably actually quite like it or certainly do not dislike it. And when you train cats you have a very close connection to them which is good for both the cat and the person. And also when you train a cat to do these circus tricks they are challenged and fully occupied. One of the great problems, I think, of modern day life for a domestic cat, particularly full-time indoor cats, is that they do not have enough to do. They are not challenged enough. Training them to do things, and it need not necessarily be circus tricks like we see in

I am in awe of these people. The guy who is walking his dog and decides to swim across a canal fully clothed to rescue a cat perched on a pole on the opposite side. He didn't set out that afternoon to go for a swim in a canal in his clothes. He did it to save the cat and I suspect he did it without a second thought. And the cat disappears without a second thought as well! 8 cat tense cat rescues provokes admiration for the rescuers. Screenshot. And the guy who climbed a tree to fetch down a cat. See the camera pointing down towards the ground. I don't have a head for heights and that viewpoint disturbs me! I certainly couldn't do this but he did it with a smile on his face. His patience was awesome. And when he came down he just said to the lady "You're welcome". And what about the young woman who, without compunction, without thinking about it for more than a couple seconds, climbed into a roadside drain to fetch out a kitten because no doubt she heard the sq

This is a video that I missed when it was first aired on February 28, 2018. It is a dramatic cat rescue and it is quite hard to watch because the cat is clearly near the point of death having been pulled out of what appears to be an apartment fire which killed three people.  Cat revived from near-death by firefighter in Volgograd, Russia. Screenshot. The cat appears to have been poisoned by inhaling smoke. We don't know whether the cat also suffered from heat exposure. Both smoke and heat can have long-term effects upon the health of an animal or a person. We know that firefighters can suffer from heart attacks due to constant exposure to heat and of course we all know that people can die of suffocation in fires because of the smoke and fumes. Therefore, this cat's rescue is quite special. It is also nice to see firefighters attempting, often times successfully, to rescue companion animals from fires. In these acts they are treating companion animals on an equal footing to huma

This is a quick follow-up to a story that went viral. The Thai Navy saved 4 cats from a sinking boat after the engine caught fire. The cats moved to the bow of the ship and the men got off and were rescued but the cats were left behind. In an act of great enlightenment and a delight to animal lovers the Thai Navy rescued all 4 cats. It was great to see animals given equal rights to humans under the circumstances. PETA grants "Hero to Animals Award" to the Thai Navy for their rescue of 4 cats from a sinking boat. Photo: Thai Navy. It wasn't an easy rescue. It's quite hard to take hold of 4 cats on a large boat that has almost sunk and transport them across about 30 yards of water to the Navy's ship. It was quite a dangerous operation. The cats cooperated which indicates how frightened they must have been and they appear to have been appreciative of the rescue. You can read about the story by clicking on this link . The senior vice president of PETA, Jason Baker sai

Yes, cats can be piebald. In fact they are very common. They are referred to as 'bicolour cats' or cats with a 'solid-and-white' coat. But the cat below is not common. Not by any stretch of the imagination. This cat is amazing. I think this rare cat is a piebald but a rare pattern. Very unusual, in fact strange, piebald coat. Photo: Facebook The word piebald is an amalgam of 'pie' from magpie (a black-and-white i.e. two coloured bird) and 'bald' meaning a bald or white patch. Unsurprisingly the gene that causes the piebald or bicolor coat is called the piebald gene. It is also referred to as the white spotting gene . People ask if cats can be piebald because we are far more familiar with the word being used to describe a horse. You'll see the piebald coat pattern on many animals including dogs too. The location of the white fur and how it migrates during development of the cat in the womb is governed by the piebald gene and how it operates on the

This neat little audio presentation gives us a snapshot insight into cat ownership in Australia. But it depends on the state of Autralia where you live. Nontheless the domestic cat is less popular than dogs in Australia and the feral cat takes a bashing almost daily as it kills precious Australia native species. Of course there'd be no feral cats if there was better cat ownership.  Aussie feral cat with ear tipping. Image in public domain. All feral cats originate in domestic cats. There is an ongoing debate about how to reduce predation by outside domestic cats and feral cats on native species. This particular discussion is about controlling domestic cats. The authorities have already decided to kill as many feral cats as possible. Cruel? Yes. TNR would be more humane but impractical as the problem has gone on for too long. There is a real possibility that an Australian state will introduce a leash law for cats. The authrorities are struggling with the best way to manage indoor/ou

There is a fairly recent study called: Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Extruded Commercial Cat Food , which supports the news media story of 28 dogs in the US dying of aflatoxin poisoning (late Dec 2020). Aflatoxins fall under the umbrella term 'mycotoxins'.  Fungal spores. This is to illustrate the page only. Image: in the public domain. Both highlight a hidden danger in dry cat food which is rarely discussed: the presence of this fungal (mould) toxin produced by the Aspergillus flavus mould. There are other species of mould which also metabolise into mycotoxins. The underlying point is that extruded dry cat food has grain in it. The mould referred to feeds on these grains which is why it ends up in cat and dog food. Why is grain in cat food? Because it is cheaper despite cats being obligate carnivores.  It seems that poor quality grain is sometimes bought by the smaller pet food manufacturers which perhaps increases the risk.  Two scientific studies that I have read indicate to

This is a quick note to record the fact that San Diego Zoo has vaccinated 9 apes, one of them an orangutan named Karen, against Covid-19. The connection to cats is that the vaccine was developed by Zoetis with cats and dogs in mind. Karen an organgutan first non-human primate to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Photo: San Diego Zoo. The reason for the vaccinations? Their lowland gorillas caught the virus. There is a discussion about the potential for animals to form a reservoir for the virus. This is the first time non-human primates have been vaccinated for this virus. All nine apes have had both doses. No adverse side-affects have been noted. A 49-year-old silverback gorilla got the virus last month and suffered from pneumonia. He's recovering after receiving experimental antibody treatment. Eight other gorillas are also recovering after falling ill. Karen is a Sumatran orangutan born at the zoo on 27 August 1994. She is the first orangutan to have open heart surgery.

It claimed that 'cats domesticated themselves'. But what does it mean? Firstly the statement should be amended to read, 'wildcats domesticated themselves'. That makes more sense and is more precise. The cat domesticated itself? This is a European wildcat. The African-Asia version of this wild cat species allowed themselves to be domesticated around 10,000 years ago but they did not 'domesticate themselves' in my opinion. Photo: Creative Commons license on Flickr. Specifically the African-Asian wildcat domesticated itself. But I am unsure if this is correct. The process of domestication takes two parties: the animal and the human. They play at least an equal role and perhaps in this instance the human played the major role. What it means is that wild cats liked to be around farmers' grain stores about 10,000 years ago because there were hordes mice and other rodents there providing a supply of food. It was very attractive to a wild cat and it still is. Yo

Yes, male cats do sometimes mate with their siblings. They are not choosy it seems. Neither are the females as they will mate with a series of males such that their litter might have different fathers. But it depends on the opportunity and the personality of the cat.  Forgive the rudeness of the photo. Cat mating on  a car's hood (bonnet in the UK). Photo: in the public domain. Male domestic cats are often neutered as are female cats. And male cats arrive to mate with a female in heat and then disappear as they are solitary animals. Except when they are forced to live cheek by jowl for example in a rescue setting where many cats live in the same home of perhaps a cat rescuer who has turned into a hoarder. I remember seeing a photograph of about fifty white cats in one home. Clearly the parents had procreated and the male had mated with some of the offspring on a regular basis to create this huge colony of lookalike cats stuffed into the tiny kitchen looking for their dinner. And

Austin City Council could vote to ban the declawing of cats. The video on this page says more or less all you need to know but I'll add something. Austin could follow 9 other cities who've banned declawing (and did so some time ago), 8 of which are in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Burbank, Santa Monica, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Culver City) and the 9th is Denver in Colorado . New York State banned declawing a little while ago . Large parts of Canada have banned declawing.  Anti-declawing poster by Ruth aka Kattaddorra. The first part of the news bulletin is on a different topic to declawing cat but the section on declawing is useful. They mention the pain it causes. It is one of the most painful veterinary operations. It is 10 amputations as you might know by now and there is no medical or other benefit for the cat. In fact the operation is very detrimental to the health and welfare of the domestic cat or kitten. Yes they put young kittens throu