Lost Cat

Lost cat sign - photo by emilybean

Losing a cat is an experience many people have gone through, even for indoor cats. Indoor cats can get out. Some indoor cats want to get out, while others place an invisible barrier in the way, even when the door is open and freedom beckons. Or they are simply happy where they are.

My mother has lost a cat on at least two occasions. What I mean by a lost cat, is one that has disappeared, and not a cat that has gone over the rainbow bridge.

I was prompted to think about this for two reasons. Firstly, I now have two stray cats that have decided to come into my home without any prompting and encouragement. One who I have called Timmy is an unaltered (unneutered) boy cat. Well, I am guessing that he is "whole" as he is jowly (a kind of thickening at the sides of the face). He comes in for food, a sleep and some TLC. I guess someone lost a cat or lost their cat for a part of the day. Maybe he has no home and is a complete stray but he is socialized so I believe that he comes from a person's home, at least originally.

Recently, a relatively small black cat (a moggie, as is Timmy) has found her (I think she is female but I haven't got close enough to confirm) way into the home. This cat has a collar but no name or number on it. She is hungry and it is cold outside. Someone is in the process of losing a cat. I can only guess the owners of these two cats are not that involved with their cats. They appear to be neglecting them; gradually pushing them away and eventually losing them.

I don't particularly want to pick up the pieces as I haven't the facilities and I have my own cat who may be put out by these other cats coming in. I owe her a quiet and undisturbed life. Cats have emotions.

A story from America is another reason why I am posting about a lost cat. Some lost cats are going to be stolen, particularly the desirable purebreds. When Bengal cats were a novelty in the UK there was a spate of thefts (see Bengal Cats for Sale). This post concerns what seems to be a purebred Siamese cat (although often cats are not purebred, even though they have the appearance of a purebred). The cat is a Traditional Siamese cat. The cat is called Merlin and I presume he is an outdoor cat. (see cats indoors or out)

Essentially, it seems that the neighbors of Merlin's owner stole the cat. At least this had been alleged and their actions bear this out. They seem to have taken a fancy to Merlin. They took the cat, housed the cat and treated Merlin as their own with no intention of returning Merlin despite knowing who the owner was. OK, it looks like straight forward theft and lets remember the domestic cat is a "chattel" (an object, such as furniture) in the eyes of the law. See Cats and the Law.

The police were called out but in time honored fashion washed their hands of the matter. Why? Because the neighbors who had taken Merlin had expended their money on vets bills and had then placed a "lien" over the cat. This is allowed in the State concerned, namely Oregan.

A lien is a kind of mortgage. The neighbors who created the lien were saying that they should be allowed to possess the cat until the money expended on Merlin was reimbursed by Merlin's owner. This form of legal charge clearly scared the police into doing nothing as they declared the dispute a civil matter. Police like to do that as it gets rid of their problem very efficiently.

This meant protracted legal proceedings and legal costs. Fortunately, Merlin's owner found a generous lawyer (yes, there are some) who seems to be a cat and animal lover as he waived the majority of his charges.

The owner got Merlin back eventually. The whole matter could and should have been dealt with as a criminal matter. The police could have recovered the cat. The alleged thieves could then have sued in the civil courts to recover the money expended, if they wished. They would not have done this as their money was spent without the the cat owner's consent.

The police could then have sensibly dropped any idea of prosecuting the alleged offenders on the basis that is was not in the public's interest and the whole matter would have been resolved in about an hour. Sometimes a lost cat is a stolen cat but you'll be damn lucky to get any police force where ever you are to get them to do anything about it.


Lost Cat

From Lost Cat to Cats and the Law

Lost Cat Photos: second down is by Whiteleaf. Both are published under creative commons:

Cats and Cars

Photo by karolina michalowska

Cats and cars can go together in a nasty way. I'm not thinking this time of the fraught journey to the vet in our car with our cat becoming anxious (and us too) in the cat basket on the front seat and panting (the cat I mean).

No, I mean winter, cold weather and warm cars. This is when oudoor cats and cars are a dangerous combination. We know cats like to sit on car hoods (bonnets in the UK) to benefit from the warmth that gently rises from the engine. We see it all the time and if we don't actually see the cat on the bonnet we can sometimes see the muddy paw prints.

The trouble is, cats sometimes like to get a bit closer to the heat, which means getting under the bonnet and this is not to do some repair work. They will sit there keeping warm. It might be the neighbors cat or a stray cat who finds his or her way to a warm spot under your car's hood.
I was reminded of this in part because of the cold weather in London and a story about a cat who disappeared for 3 days only to return with half the skin of her face hanging off. She was still chirpy and friendly but distinctly shocking to look at (for a human at least). Her name is Edgar. She was 4 years old at the time of the accident. 

She had warmed herself up against the engine (not sure if it was the owner's car) and when the car was started the fan belt caught her and tore the skin from her face. The story has a good ending, though. The vet stitched her up and she appears fine. A testament to the quiet endurance and uncomplaining nature of the domestic cat.

What to do to prevent this happening? Maybe we should be aware of the possiblity of this happening and honk the horn when we start up the car on a cold morning (hope the neighbors don't mind) or if we have time and want to be more neighbor friendly, check under the car bonnet.  An intermediate method and probably the best is to bang on the hood a few times. A cat under it will probably jump out pretty smartly. Cats and cars can be a dangerous combo...

Cats and Cars to Home Page

Photos published under creative commons license:  

The second photo down is by kalebdf

Amur Leopard

Amur Leopard -- photo by ucumari -- this photographer is very good. He takes the best photographs of captive wild animals that I have seen. See, for example, the Wild Cougar page. This cat has a particularly beautiful coat. This perhaps escalated its demise.

What prompted me to make a posting about this handsome wildcat (and all the wildcats are handsome mainly because of their coats, although the smaller wildcats have coats similar to tabby domestic cats) was a story in the newspaper about captive Amur Leopard kittens at a reserve in England, called the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, located in Smarden, Kent.

Here is a video of them:



This leopard's natural habitat is a forest region in the Russian Far East, known as Primorskii Krai. It is where the river Amur flows, hence the name of the leopard.

Sadly, as usual, loss of habitat due to commercial human activity has caused this wildcat to become almost extinct in the wild. This is a very common scenario throughout the world and particularly in the East. Russia has shown a distinct lack of commitment to the preservation of wild species that by sheer ill fortune and bad luck happen to live there. It could be argued that the current President of Russia, Putin, is at least in part (perhaps a major part) to blame.



The Amur Leopard is ranked as Critically Endangered by IUCN Red List -- see IUCN Red List for Cats for a list of wildcats and their status under this listing.

I am convinced that in the future (for some wildcats, in the not too distant future) a significant number of wildcat species are only going to exist in captivity. Why? Because it is the only way humans can find a balance with nature. Wildcats and other species, no matter how precious and attractive they may be considered, simply get in the way of commerce. This includes deforestation and mining, as examples, that occur in Eastern Russia. Wildcat habitat gets cut up by commercial activity leaving small pockets of usable habitat for the wildcat and where the low populations of wildcats are trapped and are therefore unable to sustain viable populations due to inbreeding.

Between 1970 - 1983, apparently, 80% of the Amur Leopard's habitat was lost. In the 1970s in Russia, 70% of the Amur Leopard's range was lost due to habitat destruction for commercial reasons. Add to habitat destruction by the ever voracious human, poaching and sport hunting and the very existence of this animal becomes doubtful. There is also an indirect impact when sport hunters kill the prey of the Amur Leopard, roe and sika deer.

Underpinning all this, indeed I suppose encouraging it, are Russian politicians led by Putin. There is a distinct lack of commitment to save this wildcat. For example, soon after Putin took office the State Committee for Nature Conservation was abolished. Conservation went downhill from there.

The Amur Leopard's habitat also extends into China and we know about the animal rights/conservation record of China. For those who don't we only have to look at the horrendous bile bear business to remind ourselves of some of the barbarity that is perpetrated in China against animals not to mention the cat meat market.

Another beautiful wildcat, the White Siberian Tiger, suffers the same loss of habitat and consequential population reduction and is also nearing extinction in the wild.

Very late in the day conservation measures are being taken but the initiatives for these seem to largely originate outside of Russia and China. The above mentioned captive breeding program being one example. This, though, is captive Amur Leopard conservation. There is no chance that the cubs born in captivity in England will be relocated into the wild. In fact, there seems little chance of rectifying the damage done to the habitat at this stage. It would seem that we (the world) have acquiesced in its destruction and accept the demise of the Amur Leopard.

This wildcat is nocturnal and solitary. The Leopard's prey is deer, boar, hares, rodents etc. The male can weigh up to about 110 lbs. This is about half the average weight of male humans in America. They must be good climbers as they spend a lot of time in the trees eating and sleeping. This reminds me of the Clouded Leopard, which is one of the best wildcat climbers.

See:

• Laws and Cats
• CITES in relation to cats
  

Amur Leopard to Wild Cat Species

Cat Christmas Present

Looking for a cat Christmas present? Those of us with cats are compelled to prepare a little Christmas stocking for our cats. It is just the done thing. Cats love Christmas. The wrapping paper everywhere to tear up and play in. The Christmas tree to climb in.

And, you know, every Christmas there is one toy that is the "in toy", that sells out and which is sourced with great passion by the parents; well I think this is going to be the cat equivalent:



I am not promoting this cat Christmas present for a commission! It just seems pretty cool, easy to set up (you just attach it to a door) and it is battery driven. Hey, with the winter, even outdoor cats are going to get bored stuck indoors so this will at least amuse them occasionally and it requires no effort from us.

We can concentrate on getting fat by overeating and over drinking while our cat gets fitter and slimmer.

I forgot, it's called a Fling-ama-String....

Cat Christmas Present to Home Page

Deaf Cat

This simply stunning Maine Coon cat, stunningly photographed by Helmi Flick is a deaf cat. The photograph is copyright Helmi Flick - please respect copyright. The cat is Cathy Betts’ white Maine Coon "Pale Rider," the very first cat that Helmi photographed at her very first show and a portrait that she is still be proud of today. And rightly so, I say.

This post is about one of the causes of a deafness in cats. It's about white fur and deaf cats.

I have already touched on this in these posts:

Odd-eyed Cat
Cat Coats White

But this post has some more detailed information. White fur and deaf cats is about hereditary deafness in cats. The inheritance of pigment genes (the genes that cause white fur) is not the only cause of deafness in cats. And the process of deafness caused by the inheritance of genes that cause white fur is complicated by incomplete penetrance (in which all aspects of "deafness syndrome" are not present). Also environmental factors may play a role to complicate things further.

Certain genes that produce white fur have been identified. They produce white fur by suppressing melanocytes. The picture below is published under Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. User: Arcadian.



Melanocytes are cells located in the bottom layer (the stratum basale) of the skin's epidermis and in the middle layer of the eye (the uvea).....The melanocyte is a cell derived from the neural crest. During embryogenesis, the melanocyte migrates to the epidermis, hair follicles, eye (choroid, ciliary body and iris), inner ear (stria vascularis), and the leptomeninges (medulla)......Through a process called melanogenesis, these cells produce melanin, which is a pigment found in the skin, eyes, and hair. (src: Wikipedia® - this section is a Wikipedia® verbatim copy of a part of a larger article)

So, the genes that produce white fur do this by indirectly suppressing the production of pigmentation that results in colored fur. This can be by way of stopping migration of the cells from the neural crest and/or their maturation on arrival at their destination from the neural crest and/or their survival, once there.

For cats the genes that do this are the dominant allele of the white gene (W) and possibly the piebald gene (S), which is recessive. Both these genes can be modified by other genes, which are yet, as I understand it, to be fully understood.

_____________________________

Cat breeds with the dominant white gene (W):

White
White Cornish Rex
White Scottish Fold
White Devon Rex
European white
White British Shorthair
White Turkish Angora
White Manx
Foreign white
White Exotic Shorthair
White American Wirehair
White Persian
White American Shorthair
White oriental Shorthair

_______________________________

The white pigment gene in cats is autosomal dominant over genes that produce color. It is not related to albinism. Cats that are W gene homozygous are more prone to have blue eyes and deafness. There is a correlation between the number of blue eyes and likelihood of deafness. Although cats that carry the Siamese (CS) dilution pigment gene as well can have blues without deafness. Are purebred cats less oftern deaf that moggies? Apparently, there might be a higher prevalence of white, longhaired cats than the equivalent shorthaired cats. There is no reported deafness with the piebald gene (S) apparently (is this still true?).

When the W gene is expressed strongly deafness appears. The deafness is brought on because the melanocytes in the stria vascularis play a role in maintaining the ionic environment required by the cochlea hair cells in the inner ear. These hair cells are part of the process of translating movement into auditory signals. The stria degenerate. The hair cells die and the cochlea structures collapse. The auditory nerve fibers degenerate. Thus is created the deaf cat with white fur. A deaf cat can still cope well but people need to be aware of the deafness. Our behavior should be modified accordingly. This is an example of where the cat can dictate of modify the behavior of humans. Usually, human behavior dictates the behavior of cats. For an indoor cat a cat's world is entirely the human world.

The Stria vascularis is shown in the following picture published under Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. User: Dicklyon.




Deaf Cat - Source: Tufts' Canine & Feline Breeding and Genetics Conference October 2-4, 2003, Sturbridge, MA

Deaf Cat - Wikipedia Licensing:
Click on this link to see the Wikipedia® License src: Wikipedia® published under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version, November 2002 Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA - - no other conditions to the license are added.