Domestic dispute: man allegedly threatened to drown woman's cat

BELLINGHAM USA-NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a classic case of the vulnerable domestic cat becoming a victim at the centre of a domestic dispute. It is annoyingly common for men to either threaten to abuse or abuse a woman's cat companion in domestic disputes as leverage to get her to do something or to emotionally hurt her.

Image: MikeB - free to use.

In this instance, the Bellingham Police Department booked a guy called Kapier Akana Robinson, 27, who was extremely angry (as is always the case) on suspicion of first-degree animal cruelty (domestic violence), harassment (domestic violence) and third-degree malicious mischief (domestic violence). Quite a catalogue of alleged crimes.

It is alleged that during an argument with his presumed girlfriend, Robinson threatened to drown her cat. He held the cat in the bath with the water running. The cat managed to get away which is unsurprising to me because when cats are under those sorts of situations they find a way to escape as they are so athletic and strong.

The woman, "the victim", took her cat and escaped the property. The police officers spoke to the woman who reported the threat against her cat. Allegedly, Robinson had also threatened in text messages to kill her cat in other ways and to hurt the victim.

After the incident, the woman returned to her apartment and found that the bathroom door was broken off its hinges and the doorknob had penetrated the wall. This accounted for the loud bang that she heard when she fled the apartment.

The police officers obtained Robinson's cooperation by threatening to taser him. Until then he was uncooperative. He was placed under arrest at that time.

It is mean and nasty for men to leverage their argument against women with threats of harm against womens' cats. It is cowardly. Perhaps sometimes the man thinks that their girlfriend prefers her cat to them which drives them crazy. Or the man believes that the cat gets in the way of their relationship.

To a lot of women, cats are better friends than boyfriends!

Source: The Bellingham Herald. My thanks.

Jet black mom and her dozen jet black kittens with luminous golden eyes

This photograph has been banging around the Internet for a while I think. I picked up on it quite late in the day. I don't know what to make of it to be honest. It looks as though it could be photoshopped but you never know nowadays. It just seems a little bit artificial, to put it mildly. And this is one litter of kittens. I have counted a dozen kittens which is at the very top end of the number of kittens for a domestic cat litter. Anyway, I don't know but it is an interesting image which I think needs to be featured on this website. 

The cats are all jet black with gold, luminous eyes. If the kittens are genuine, the photographer has creatively placed them in a pumpkin bed which is a hint of Halloween. Black cats go with Halloween but often in the wrong way. I'm sure you know all about the potential hazards for black cats during that holiday period. It's a ridiculous throwback to witchcraft and it amazes me that witchcraft still has a place in society today. Some people even believe in it which tells you how inherently superstitious humankind is.

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Founder effect in the creation of a cat breed

In terms of community and domestic cats, the so-called "founder effect" is apparent in, for example, two cat breeds that come to my mind quite quickly namely the Manx and the Turkish Van. There are others. Both these breeds were moggies at one time living in the communities from where they orginate.

Manx cat was created via the founder effect on the Isle of Man many years ago.
Photo copyright Helmi Flick.

In relation to domestic cat evolution, the founder effect works when a population of domestic and community cats are in a certain area and confined to that area. Some early members of this group of cats become the foundation cats for all the cats in the area. It's a bit like the creation of a breeding line when cat breeders selectively breed for a certain appearance. They choose a foundation cat and use that individual throughout their entire breeding programme and indeed other breeding programs. There is a loss of genetic variation.

The meaning of “lines” in cat breeding

Manx

This sort of thing can can occur naturally in a confined space. For example, the Manx cat was confined to the Isle of Man which is about 30 miles long. A genetic mutation for a missing or short tail occurred in one cat on that island. It was passed through inheritance to other cats. The original mutated domestic cat with a short tail became a foundation cat to all others until there was a large population of short-tailed or no-tailed cats confined to a 30 mile long and 10 mile wide island.

Turkish Van

Turkish Van. Photo: Helmi Flick

The Turkish Van was created in an isolated population in the north-eastern mountains of Turkey  - the Lake Van region. Their appearance was perpetuated by their "founder" characteristic of orange-and-dominant white. Particularly, there is an inverted 'V' on the forehead between the ears, and the tail is coloured while the rest of the body is all-white. The appearance of the early foundation cats had a powerful influence over resulting generations of cats in that area.

The Real Turkish Angora

Polydactylism

The founder effect is why short tails were perpetuated in the isolated populations on the Isle of Man, as mentioned, and in Japan and the Kuril Islands (Kurilian Bobtail). And the founder effect also accounts for the high percentage of domestic and community cats in Boston with extra toes known as polydactylism. The original cats with extra toes procreated to create more and the genetic mutation did not dissipate among the general population but was confined to the Boston area. This allowed for a quite high percentage of cats with extra toes to be present in that area.

Why are Maine Coons polydactyl?

Bengal cat

All Bengal cats orginate in very few first generation leopard cat x domestic cat hybrids created in the 1970s as I recall.

Breed personality

You can find certain personality characteristics within cats of a certain breed because one male individual founder cat has passed on their inherited character to many cats within that breed because an individual founder cat was used by a number of breeders. Perhaps, this is why the Ragdoll cat is known to be laid-back. I don't know how many foundation cats in total exist for the Ragdoll cat breed but I suspect it is a very few and there may be one individual cat which started off that breeding line for all the cats of that breed which means their personality has been handed down for generations.

Video: cat snuggles up to toddler friend

This is cute. Domestic cats don't differentiate between adult humans and toddlers. They have no conception of the difference. Humans are companions or to use a scientific term: conspecifics or associates. The former word means of the same species. I believe that domestic cats almost certainly see us as fellow cats. They don't query why we look different and why our behavior is non-typical. 

Cat snuggles up to toddler friend. Screenshot.

They instinctively accept and adapt. The cat does not want to look at the cartoons being watched by the toddler! He just wants to be in contact with the girl. They've formed a close friendship. It is very nice to see. The girl will love cats all her life and other animals too I'd expect. She'll be a useful advocate for animal welfare I hope.

Senoko Energy, Singapore, have an enlightened approach to feral cats

The Straits Times reports that 20 feral cats have made the Senoko Power Station their home last August, in the middle of the Covid pandemic, because adjacent food processing factories had closed. It is pleasing to note that the CEO and president of Senoko Energy, Mr Graeme York, is a self-professed animal lover. He understands how to deal with feral cats in a humane way. He understands TNR and he also allows some feral cats to occupy his business premises.

Beautiful feral cats trapped from Senoko Powerstation under a TNR program. Photo: Cindy Lim.

He said that he is not against a small population of cats occupying the power station provided they are cared for. And quite rightly he says that it is important that they are neutered. The 20 cats that have come across from other businesses included individuals who weren't neutered.

This was picked up by Miss Cindy Lim, the senior vice president and head of legal and compliance at Senoko Energy. With other employees, she cares for about 10 resident cats at the power station. She said that she noticed "a few pregnant cats among the new strays. This got me worried  as, if left unchecked, cat numbers can easily double or triple in a few months."

The site is not ideal because there's lots of heavy machinery and bulldozers. There are rusty metal objects lying around and a couple of cats have suffered injuries resulting in the amputation of limbs. Notwithstanding that, they are being cared for by an enlightened management.

The company contracted with a professional cat trapper who works with the Cat Welfare Society. The unsterilised cats were trapped and sterilised and then returned as per TNR methodology. The Cat Welfare Society say that they have a backlog of TNR cases because of Covid restrictions.

There is no doubt that Covid has had quite a deep impact on TNR feral cat colony management because volunteers have been restricted in their movements. The president of the Cat Welfare Society said that they have a problem and that often businesses with unsterilised feral cats on their sites do not allow them to enter to trap and sterilise them because they are uninformed about TNR.

There seems to be need to educate certain sections of the business world in Singapore on the benefits of TNR which is also described as TNRM, with the last letter denoting "manage".

I'm just pleased to read a story about senior management in a big company being enlightened about how the deal with feral cats on their property. Other businesses would do well to learn from them. Not infrequently, the news media reports on business management employing a contractor, a pest controller, to remove and kill feral cats. This is both inhumane and less effective I would argue because you create a vacuum and more feral cats move into it. The more decent and sensible approach is to manage the population. The cats provide a service in keeping down the rodent population.

The Senoko Power Station is the largest station in Singapore. It is owned by Senoko Energy PTE Ltd. It began operations in 1976. Senoko Energy PTE Ltd is owned by Lion Power Holdings which in turn is owned by a consortium of enterprises led by Japan's Marubeni Corporation.