Black cats and Halloween

It's that time of year again when black cats better hide. Halloween harks back to an ancient Celtic festival. There is a tenuous connection between black cats and Halloween. The original festival was a celebration at the end of the harvest. The Gaels believed that on 31st October the dead crossed the barrier of death and could affect the lives of the living. They did things to protect themselves. This seems to have been the start of the black magic/horror movie tradition of Halloween.

But where did black cats come in? Black cats were persecuted in the Middle Ages as were people who were considered witches. Cats lived with so called witches and were therefore tainted. Witches, death, magic, cats you can see how black cats and Halloween became connected. There was a lot of superstition about in the Middle Ages. There still is unfortunately. Because the black cat still suffers at the hands of idiot people.

Cat rescue centers historically do not release black cats to people at this time of year for fear of abuse being perpetrated upon them by idiotic and abusive people. That wise policy has been changed by one organization in Canada, however, the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society. They have one of the largest animal shelters in South Western Ontario.

Because of the increased numbers of cats being brought to the sanctuary their policy was changed. The number of cats brought in up to October was the same as for the entire previous year. And of the 5,300 cats dropped in 4,000 have been euthanized. That is a staggering 75%. They do a great job, obviously, but the reality is that they are forced to do a lot of killing. When will the killing stop?

Euthanasia is not killing in the conventional sense, it is killing gently and painlessly or that in any case is meant to be how it is done. Not all euthanasia is painless however.

No kill cat shelter
Are these actually no kill? This post is deliberately provocative.

Euthanize a cat
A morbid and ugly subject but considering it is done over 2 million times in the United States every year it needs to be discussed. How is it done and is it painless?

Black cats
Some more on black cats and superstition plus some great Helmi photographs.

Black cat names
Here is a comprehensive list.


Black cats and Halloween to Home page


Black cats and Halloween - Photo by JustUptown of a black feral cat. Watch out and hide. Published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

Yukon cat and animal laws

Yukon is a territory of Canada, there are three in total. It is next to Alaska, north west. It looks remote up there (look at this fine photo by Studiolit). I'd bet there is masses of space and a low human population. Plenty of wildlife and hunting.

This is probably why the Yukon cat and animal laws designed to protect cats (my area of interest) and other animals are relatively lax. In Canada there is federal criminal law but it is overlayed with the laws of the provinces and territories. But federal law is supreme. There shouldn't be a clash between the two.

In Yukon there is talk and petitions (I believe) to change the animal protection laws, to tighten them and make the punishment stronger and the enforcement easier (extra rights to the police for example to search and enter). One area that seems to be lacking in Yukon cat and animal laws is the obligation to provide adequate care to animals in a person's charge. This is covered by UK law under section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. This kind of legislation helps to create an environment in which people's views on animal rights are gently altered, which leads to better treatment of cats and animals. Is it possible to change a society's views and behavior through the application of criminal law? - I think yes.

In fact there would seem to be a ground swell of feeling that the laws protecting animals be strengthened generally across Canada. In a direct comparison with the UK cat and animal protection legislation, Yukon cat and animal laws are substantially lighter certainly. For example, the sentence on conviction in the UK for causing unnecessary suffering is a fine of no more than £20,000 ($39,000 Canada Dollars at Oct 2008) and/or imprisonment no longer than 51 weeks. In Yukon the crime is causing "distress" and the fine is $500 Canada Dollars and/or a maximum of 6 months imprisonment. There will also be the hidden factor of lack of enforcement. Weak laws encourage a sloppy approach to enforcement.

This is something that is not apparent on paper but on the ground even if the legislation is strong and efficient, if the police force is demotivated or lack the will to enforce the laws they become useless. I'd expect some police officers in Canada to be lets say a little right of center in their thinking. This may lead them to like firearms and hunting which in turn may mean some police officers lack the sensitivity towards animals that is required to be motivated to protect them. This is certainly the case in the UK. I have no faith whatsoever in the UK police. They used to be respected; not anymore.

I am all in favor of strong animal protection laws, obviously. Cruelty to animals is known to be a precursor to cruelty to fellow humans. The crime of cruelty to cats and animals should be taken very seriously indeed. Not just for our sake but (for me) the cats and other animals.

A civilized country looks after its animals. See cat animal cruelty laws Canada. Sweden has better animal welfare laws.

Yukon cat and animal laws - Photo: The Aurora at Lake Scwatka, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Photo by by Studiolit and published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

Yukon cat and animal laws to Cats and the Law

Munchkin kittens

Munchkin kittens - This is an offspring of "Milton" a fine solid Cinnamon, longhair, male Munchkin dwarf cat. Milton is a TICA Champion. This cat is a chip off the old block. Photo published with the permission of Terri Harris. Photo copyright Terri Harris. You can see Milton one of this cat's parents and a lot more on the Munchkin on this page: Munchkin -- founding dwarf cat. You might like to read this page and click through some of the links before thinking of adopting Munchkin kittens. First things should be first. What is a Munchkin cat? A lot of us might know that the Munchkin is a dwarf cat or a small cat. There is, of course, a difference between a dwarf cat and a small cat. A dwarf cat is a normal cat with abnormally short legs due to dwarfism. A small cat, such as a miniature cat or a teacup cat is simply a very small cat. A cat breed that is not is neither a miniature cat nor a teacup cat but which is a the smallest cat breed is the Singapura cat. What gives Munchkin kittens their short legs? This is caused by a dominant genetic mutation. Sometimes the presence of mutant genes can result in defects in a cat that go beyond the the outstanding characteristic that distinguishes the cat from others. The classic case is the Manx cat. The gene that makes the tail short or eliminates the tail can also produces some health concerns: see Manx cats health. In the Munchkin and for all dwarf cats there are potential health concerns caused by the mutant gene, but dwarf cats are generally healthy. See dwarf cat health issues. The Munchkin is the founding member of the dwarf cat family of which there are at least eleven (11). Yes, a large number. All of the dwarf cats have been breed from the founding cat the Munchkin. This is the full list of 9 dwarf cats with Munchkin genes in them (the link to the Munchkin is above): Bambino -- a cross between a Munchkin and a Sphynx Dwelf -- a cross between a Munchkin, Sphynx and an American Curl Genetta a cross between Munchkin, Bengal, Savannah, Domestic Short Hair and Oriental SH Minskin a cross between Munchkin and Shynx, Devon Rex and Burmese Knooks a cross between a Kinkalow and La Perm Lambkin a cross between a Munchkin and Selkirk Rex Napoleon a cross between a Munchkin and Persian Skookum A cross between the Munchkin and LaPerm. Appearance - short legs and curly coats and an interesting origin to the name Kinkalow A cross between the American Curl and Munchkin - curled ears short legs You might like to see pictures of them and read about these rare cat breeds before going further? Click on this link to read about dwarf cats and miniature cats generally. And if you want a short cut to see all the dwarf cat breeds (bar one that I hadn't seen before, Fantasy cats) before buying Munchkin kittens, here is a video on the dwarf cat breeds. The video contains one deliberate error (actually it was not deliberate just what could be called "brain fade"). The first cat, the Elf cat, is not a dwarf cat - sorry: From Munchkin kittens to Home

www.cats.com

Cat (Siamese) and Ferret - they love each other - photo by _schadenfreude

www.cats.com has been around for ages and never filled its potential. How can I say that? The domain name is impossible to buy now. It's been impossible to buy for a long time. Yet www.cats.com is Alexa ranked 400,000. With a domain name like that and the time the site has been on the internet the Alexa ranking should be much better. Alexa is an Amazon.com company that measures traffic to a website.

I'd expect the domain name to be worth lots more than the website. People search for the www.cats.com website. I guess that they do this to look at cat breeds and find information about cats.

Well, if I say it myself and I will, Pictures of cats.org is much better. The photographs are by Helmi Flick and the best amateur photographs of cats in the world and the facts are very carefully researched. The facts are not regurgitated "facts" but real information carefully thought out. And if you disagree you can tell me by leaving a comment. That will be fine. I am open to criticism. And the Alexa ranking of Pictures of cats.org is 116,000 at Oct 2008. The lower the number the better the site by the way. Yahoo.com is number 1.

Sure, things could and will change. But www.cats.com should do better and probably will after this post! One last thing. All the money made at Pictures of cats.org goes to cat charities and it made over $700 dollars in October 2008 on adsense alone.

www.cats.com to Pictures of cats home page

Ocicat cat

I have called this page "Ocicat Cat" because the name of this cat breed does not necessarily indicate that we are talking about a cat breed. Below is a beautiful photograph of two young Ocicat cats by Helmi Flick. And great cat wrangling by Ken Flick. Ken and Helmi work internationally: see International Cat Photography - shooting in Japan.

Ocicat cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick

One interesting thing about this photograph is that both of these charming cats are licking their noses. This is displacement behavior. See cat licking displacement activity and cat licking behavior. In brief it is the cat equivalent of us scratching our heads when we are thinking and not sure what to do. Or we bite our nails for the same reason. It just takes away from the slight anxiety and/or confusion of the situation.

There is no doubt that there is a similarity in appearance between the Ocicat cat and the Bengal cat and indeed other so called Exotic cats such as the Savannah. But the similarity is somewhat superficial as the Ocicat is wholly domestic in heritage being a triple cross between the Siamese, Abyssinian and American Shorthair. Although originally the the Ocicat was the result of mating a Siamese with a hybrid Abyssinian (in 1964) the Silver Tabby American Shorthair was introduced later into the breeding program. The Bengal cat, as we know, is a wildcat hybrid, so even SBT cats have some wildcat in them, which shows. However, at a glance the difference between these exotic cats can seem a little confusing.

Ocicat

Ocicat cats have spotted tabby coats. This is due to the presence of the agouti gene. The CFA breed standard calls the cat a large well spotted agouti cat of moderate type. This means a body shape that is balanced and not extreme in any way (i.e. a normal shape that we are used to). The presence of the agouti gene is signaled in the classic "M" mark on the forehead. See the thumbnail picture on the right. This leads to a very large format picture if you click on it or click here.

Ocicats are intelligent and are perhaps more predisposed to being leash trained, for example. Apparently, they make good travelers and can respond to vocal demands. Although most cats will actually respond to the right signals. There behavior will not be the same as the wildcat hybrids which tend to behave in particular ways, sometimes what might seem weird ways.

On health, I have not seen any documents that report genetic defects for this cat. This is possibly because of the wide gene pool from which this cat has been created. Some cat breeds are known to have predispositions to genetic diseases carried in breeding lines due to selective cat breeding. See Genetic Diseases in Purebred Cats.

Ocicat nibbling a large dog

Above pic: friendly and charming play showing how well cat and dog can get on if socialized. Photo by thisisforever

The Ocicat cat although very glamorous looking are as domesticated as the standard Moggie. See much more on this cat breed including history on this page: Ocicat. If you'd like to read about what it is like living with an Ocicat cat try this fine submission from a cat breeder, Sue Threapleton (UK): The Ocicat.

Ocicat cat to Home page

Photo of kitten with dog published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License.