Bright Eyed Melanistic Savannah Cat

Melanistic Savannah Cat, a photo by broadsurf on Flickr.

This is a high hitting Flickr photograph of a melanistic Savannah cat that I created a couple of years ago now. I think she was female. She is a breeding cat and her mate was a conventional coated cat (spotted tabby as I recall).

She was living in an inside/outside enclosure. She would not have had much interaction with people and it showed. She wanted interaction with people because when I entered the enclosure quietly and sat down and did nothing to allow her time to adjust she looked quite startled.

She soon got accustomed to my presence. I had put my glasses high up on the cage and she immediately climbed up to check them out.

She then gradually approached and then began to lick me. She licked me so much I became wet with her saliva. She was very cute.

Her appearance had a wild quality. I felt that she was semi-wild. Her eyes are startlingly beautiful set against the rich melanistic coat. When the sunlight shone through her coat you could see the rusty coloured melanin pigmentation. Black is brown in the cat world.

What is surprising is that this photograph has received by far the highest number of views by visitors who come to my Flickr pages (channel). I am not sure why.

It is licensed by me for reuse "as is" meaning anyone can republish it provided they don't adjust it. You also have to provide a credit and a link back to the Flickr page.

I hope you like the photo. She was a great lady cat. I remember my time with her with great clarity. She must have made an impression on me. I think she was fourth generation from the wild (F4).

Need To Measure The Success Of Trap Neuter Return

It is time to accurately measure the success of trap-neuter-return programs on a large scale. The studies should be long term and scientific in manner.

In order to shut out counter arguments, there should be no weaknesses in the studies in respect of methodology.

The need arises because it is time to demonstrate to people who can fund TNR programs (e.g governmental agencies) that it works in the long term. Well documented success stories would also counter the arguments of the bird lobbyists and others who want to see the feral cat exterminated. They say that TNR fails and feral cats are a hazard to native wildlife.

Apparently, TNR as a means to manage feral cat numbers was devised in South Africa and Denmark fairly recently in the 1970s. The method was exported to England and thence to the United States, Canada and many other countries.

There are a great number of feral cat TNR programs in the United States, Canada and Europe. There have been a good number of studies as well on the outcome of TNR. Alley Cat Allies says that "Multiple long-term studies of Trap-Neuter-Return have shown that the size of managed colonies decreases over time" (see Alley Cats Allies page).

But my reading of the situation is that we don't have enough solid data on the efficacy of TNR as a humane means of managing and reducing feral cat colonies. A highly reliable source, The Welfare of Cats, edited by Irene Rochlitz, says that, "it is impossible to quantify the extent and success of TNR in most locations". The book quotes a substantial number of TNR programs in various countries including Israel (where declawing has recently been banned) in coming to this conclusion.

The book refers to success stories such as a TNR program that commenced in Florida in 1995. Six years of information indicated that despite a 33% increase in human population, euthanasia rates at shelters and complaints dropped off over the study period. Yet, as far as I can tell we don't have hard figures for this or hardly any other TNR program.

Alley Cat Allies, themselves, could take the responsibility of ensuring that TNR programs with which they are connected collect and collate accurate data on success and failure rates. More rigour needs to be injected into TNR. I would expect positive data, which can be used to accelerate activity levels of TNR across America.

Google Search Slowing Down?

1st April 2012: Slow Google.com start up? Not an April Fools' prank! Are you getting stalling problems at the beginning of a search when you try and type in what you are searching for? I am and it seems to be do with the Google page syncing up to something on Google Plus or some other add on nuisance. In other words what was once a very simple super fast loading Google search page (Google Classic) is now slow and this slows down my search while I wait for Google.com/ig (iGoogle) to load.

iGoogle is the Google home page that contains lots of extras. It syncs up to things. And it appears to be syncing up to too many addons. Whereas at one time iGoogle was slower than Classic Google it is now almost unusable for me.

It may be the fact that I have recently opened a Google +1 home page "thing" (no idea what it does, already bored with it). I was encouraged to do it by Google. Google desperately wants us to use Google +1 and constantly searches for ways to get us to use it. I guess people prefer the Facebook like button despite all Google's efforts.

For me Google are pushing people away from using Google search. I prefer Bing now sometimes as it is simpler and more direct.

Google changed Picasa Web Albums not long ago and that change stopped me using it. It became to complicated in that I didn't know what was public or private. I could not trust it anymore. When you are not sure what Google is doing in addition to what you can see, you start to distrust them.

I'll try returning to classic Google home page for a while.

Criticising The Cat Fanciers' Association

The Cat Fanciers' Association needs to be criticised. I don't want to do it. In the interests of Persian cats in the USA and elsewhere I will do it on this page. I am speaking on behalf of the contemporary Persian purebred cat with the brachycephalic short head.

Other cat breeds that follow the CFA breed standard that requires a cat that suffers from flat head syndrome, brachycephaly, are the shorthaired Persian known as the Exotic Shorthair and the pointed Persian, called the Himalayan. The Burmese in American also has head shape problems that can affect health in a serious manner.

The breed characteristics or phenotype of the contemporary Persian, Exotic SH and Himalayan demand a brachycephalia short head that is big and round with a short, broad nose. The elements of the face should be in vertical alignment. I'll quote the CFA breed standard just so you know exactly what I mean:

"HEAD: round and massive, with great breadth of skull. Round face with round underlying bone structure.....When viewed in profile, the prominence of the eyes is apparent and the forehead, nose, and chin appear to be in vertical alignment."

In the most extreme cases the "upper part of the nasal plate is higher than the level of the lower eye-lids" (The Welfare of Cats, edited by Irene Rochlitz ISBN  978-1-4020-6143-1).

I discuss the health and subsequent welfare problems associated with this breed standard on this page: Persian Cat Health Problems.

The CFA breed standard for these cats is almost an act of criminal conspiracy to cause animal cruelty. I am a bit surprised that no none has considered prosecuting the esteemed Cat Fanciers' Association under animal welfare laws.

Also, as I understand it, the overall, underlying CFA breed standard insists that breeding should not produce unhealthy cats. This is in conflict with the breed standards of these three cats. In defence the CFA say that "it is possible to breed a beautiful Persian with a very short nose that breathes and tears normally".

I like the phrase, "it is possible". It is possible to fly to the moon but very few people have achieved it. The same applies to the creation of a totally healthy ultra type Persian cat.

Recommendations: (a) change the breed standard but do it over time so that there is a gradual shift back to normal characteristics without the CFA losing face (b) show cats that are over bred should be excluded from cat shows (c) cat show judges should be advised to make subtle changes to their judging criteria to start a shift away from the success of extreme bred cats (d) unhealthy cats should be penalized or excluded from cat shows (e) medical examinations should take place at cat shows and breeders given due notice. The notice period should be generous to allow change.

See: 19 Years of Persian Cat Experience - this neither supports of goes against what I have said.

Four ways to reduce the high feral cat population

If we agree that the high feral cat population is a problem then here are four pointers to reducing it. They are actually common sense, well know ideas but I think it helps to restate them.

Firstly, it is worth making the point that cats are good rodent catchers. It is the reason why wild cat domestication took place about 9,500 years ago. I think we forget that. Might it be that feral cats provide a useful service in keeping the rodent population down and that we don't realise it? We might discover that this is happening if we got rid of the feral cat.

Four points to reduce the feral cat:

1. Increase trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs. Make them more widespread. This will need government funding. When conducted in a coordinated and widespread way it can be successful but the TNR process is open to criticism if conducted piecemeal. I have a lot of admiration for the volunteers involved in TNR programs.
2. All domestic cats should be identifiable so that if they become strays they can be returned to their owner. Owners who recklessly allow their cats to become strays and ferals should be punished and forbidden from keeping cats. Only highly responsible cat caretakers should be allowed to keep cats. Strong stuff, but do we really want to reduce the feral cat population? If, yes, something tougher needs to be introduced.
3. All domestic cats should be sterilised. This should be obligatory in law. It is regrettable that we need to neuter the domestic cat. Personally I like the whole cat. It is more natural and fair. But practicalities need to take over and idealism placed on the back burner.
4. Education, education, education...obligatory cat caretaking classes should be in place for people who keep cats. People have to pass a driving test for the safety of other drivers. Perhaps there should be a cat caretaker's test and license. Enforcement and management of such a program is its biggest obstacle. But car owning is managed nicely by government bodies so why can't cat ownership be managed in a similar way?

There is a distinct lack of will to deal with the high feral cat population. Lots of people moan about it, mostly the bird lobbyists. Yet there is no commitment to resolve the problem. If it is a problem.