Thirsty cat adopts bizarre posture to drink from water basin - NO!

The title to this post is the title given to the video on YouTube but it is inaccurate. This is not a bizarre posture but a very clever and natural posture which allows the cat to stretch over to this large receptacle of water and drink from it. 

Skinny tabby cat uses his athleticism to drink from a large receptacle. Screenshot.

I love the athleticism that this skinny little tabby stray cat demonstrates. It is another example on video of the extraordinary athleticism of the domestic and feral cat. 

You probably know that domestic cats prefer to drink from what appears to us to be dirty puddles and polluted water but which in fact is pure from the cat's perspective than tap water. Tap water contains chemicals to keep it pure and to protect the health of people but domestic cats can smell this, they can smell the chlorine and fluoride that is in it and prefer rainwater although it might have collected some pollutants in the air as it falls to the ground. 

They don't mind these perhaps because they can't smell them. I believe that cats pick up the unnatural smells of tap water which puts them off. They overcome it because they often drink tap water but sometimes they shun it for muddy puddles.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. I actually expect this video to disappear within quite a short space of time because I do not think that the person uploading it is genuine. I have a suspicion that he or she is downloading the videos of other people and then uploading them to his YouTube channel. I could be wrong and if I am I apologise.

Can domestic cats live outside in the winter?

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. These are cats who've lost the ends of their legs to frostbite.

Domestic cats are very stoic and enduring. They will put up with very cold weather as the stories testify. But they'll be hurt sometimes and sometimes they will quietly die. We don't see stories about that. How many domestic, stray and feral cats died or were injured by the recent devastating Texas big freeze which claimed the lives of many people because of heating supply problems?

There are no hard and fast rules on whether domestic cats can live outside in the winter. No one's counting and no one has done a study on it. If a domestic cat is forced by unfortunate circumstance to live outside all winter and they live in Canada where it is bloody cold, it is distinctly possible that they will die of hypothermia particularly if their food supply is scarse and they become underfed.

Cats are good survivors but a relentless series of days when the temperature is below freezing will harm and kill domestic cats but it does, as mentioned, depend on the circumstances. In the urban environment there are opportunities to find some warmth and some sustenance.

Kind people feed stray cats. Some make individual shelters for ferals and strays out of cooler boxes for example. Some take the cats in and adopt them. There are food scaps around the place and many unwanted stray domestic cats make their way through cat flaps to 'steal' cat food inside homes. This is common actually. So, yes, when the circumstances are right a domestic cat can live outside in the winter. They'll gradually become feral.

They will lose their health and coiffed appearance. They'll become ragged and sometimes dirty. Their lifespan will be shortened but they might survive.

78-year-old woman persecuted by condominium administrators for feeding a cat or cats in common areas

NEWS AND VIEWS - THIS IS AN OPINION PIECE: This is a classic case of an elderly lady who is tenderhearted and decent and as a consequence she is feeding a cat or cats at a condominium: Tampa Racquet Club Condominium in Florida. Her name is Joan P Hussey. She's been in dispute with the administrators of this condominium before over this issue.

This image is for illustration purposed only. This is not Joan. Picture: Pixabay.

Hussey claimed that she only feeds a black-and-white cat that she ensured had been sterilised years ago. This cat's name is Cleo. The condominium say that she is feeding cats in the plural against their rules in and around the common parts of this condominium as reported by Tampa Bay Times.

They argue that she is attracting other animals and creating an wanted health issue for the neighbours and tenants, blah blah blah. It's the usual stuff if you are familiar with this sort of litigation and argument. It's usually the big, classy condominiums with expensive apartments who end up pushing around old ladies when they feed a couple of cats on the manicured grounds. And it's usually one or two leaseholders who complain about a little old lady who can't help herself feeding stray cat or cats. She's too nice to see cats starving.

Hussey says that she puts down a bowl of dry food under her car in its covered parking space. After her cat, Cleo, has eaten she picks up the food. She does this to avoid being accused of attracting other wild animals. She appears to be monitoring the feeding carefully and sensibly. She said that she is very surprised to be sued and that she looks after the cat respectfully.

The condominium administration say that she's been asked to stop several times and doesn't comply. The matter went to arbitration as it has to under the law but Hussey didn't attend the arbitration process because she was confused by all the jargon and papers. 

However, an order was made against her in her absence which required her to stop feeding the cats. She had, inadvertently, dug a bit of a hole for herself. Although she could probably get that hearing reheard and appoint a lawyer to attend a fresh one.

In the interests of justice a fair hearing needs to take place and it didn't for whatever reason. Now she's being sued in the courts and the condominium administrators want the court to issue an injunction against her. This would be an order to stop her feeding the cat or cats. It is not clear to me from the story whether the condominium are telling the truth about the number of cats or whether Hussey is.

The condominium are also asking her to pay their reasonable lawyer's costs and fees. The hearing is yet to be set and in the meantime the condominium administrators, through their lawyer, are saying that Hussey must comply with the arbitration order.

Hussey feels persecuted and concerned. She said: "I go to bed at night and I can't sleep, thinking about this thing."

It's the big machine against the little person. It's keeping a fancy residential complex tidy against what some consider to be unsightly community cats or a sole community cat wandering around. It offends the eye of some leaseholders. They want everything picture perfect. They don't see the need to be tender and decent towards what appears to be an abandoned animal which needs the help of somebody. That somebody is an old lady of 78 and she is paying the price for her kind heart and her tender actions.