Two true Ukrainian Warrior Cats (video)

I believe this is Shaybyk one of many warrior cats fighting with the Ukrainian soldiers and making their lives a little better. Image is a screenshot from the video below.

The first Ukrainian warrior cat I'd like to mention is "Syrsky the Cat" and he is named after the Ukrainian Army Land Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrsky who's known as one of Ukraine's most effective combat leaders. The naming was a coincidence! 😇

Syrsky the Cat's human caregiver or fighting human companion is Roman Sinicyn, a Ukrainian army officer.

Roman Sinicyn says this about his adorable cat:

Most of the locals evacuated, so the cats took over. We caught Syrsky and food-persuaded him to stay with us. He helped to solve our mouse problem. The mice run over you while you sleep, they get into your stuff. They chew everything. We had to throw out two boxes of our packed rations because of mice. I took him home when we left that position. Now he lives with my family in Kyiv, but he continues to help the army. We used his social media popularity to collect €147,000 for Mini Shark UAV complexes for adjusting artillery.

Shaybyk the lover

Here is a cute video of another true Warrior Cat. Not from the Erin Hunter Warrior Cats series of books and role play games on the internet but the real thing working with Ukrainian fighters to make their lives more bearable in the trenches on the front in defending their country against the invading Russian army.

Shaybyk is another fighting Ukrainian trench cat killing hundreds of mice. I understand that Oleksandr Liashuk is his human companion. He says this about his cat:

Shaybyk had the biggest charisma. It was getting cold, so I took him with me one night into my sleeping bag. And that’s when I fell in love with that cat. He’s not just my best friend, he’s my son. Once we were at the position in the forest and he caught 11 mice in one day. Sometimes [he] brings mice to my sleeping bag.

There are others. The two mentioned are examples of how Ukrainian fighters are making friends with stray cats who are proving to be invaluable in trench warfare.

Here is a video of, I believe, Shaybyk:

Let's praise these cats and all others serving their country. They are in danger.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

The skin of a cat is not tightly attached to the muscle below

This is about how small cats - the wild cats and the domestic cat - are able to better protect themselves in the event of a fight with another cat over territory thanks to their anatomy.

Small wild cats and the domestic cat are able to protect themselves thanks to their anatomy. Image: MikeB

Small cats try and avoid physical fights to avoid harm which, in turn, ensures that they remain as fit as possible to be the excellent predator that they are. Injuries can blunt their predation and even lead to starvation. 

They avoid other cats by marking territory with scratch marks, urine and faeces. Also they can sometimes scream loudly at their neighbours to tell them not to encroach on their home range.

In short a range of methods are employed to achieve a result without actually fighting.

When there is physical confrontation between small cats over their home range, they will try to avoid fighting by sumo-style standoff signalling using sounds and body language postures. If effective the weaker cat slinks off very slowly. Job done.

The last resort is an actual fight and under these extreme circumstances the small cat has an anatomy which helps to protect them.

RELATED: ChatGPT on animal welfare, sentience, cat anatomy, declawing, speciesism and more.

Here are some aspects of the small cat anatomy adaptations to inter-species fighting.

1. The skin of the small cat is not tightly attached to the muscle below.
2. The cat's body is very loosely enclosed within their skin.
3. The muscles move and slip within the skin.
4. Small cats seem to be able to rotate their body with their skin allowing the cat to often squirm free.
5. The cat's fur protects them.
6. The cat's fur seems to slide when grasped.
7. A combatant's teeth and claws might penetrate fur and skin but they a less likely to penetrate muscle.

These aspects of the small cat anatomy helps to thwart the grip of a combatant. The odds are that a couple of small cats fighting over territory will come out of a fight without serious injury. You see ears mangled sometimes for example but that won't hinder survival.

They often return to their home ranges and continue to patrol it diligently as before.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.