Infographic on 5 categories of hazard in the home for domestic cats

It is my belief that a lot more domestic cats are being quietly and unknowingly harmed inside the family home than we imagine because a lot of cat caregivers are unaware of the full range of hazards that are dangerous to cats. I have a page in fact on a full list of cat poisons which you can see by clicking on the link below:

230 cat poisons (list) - a very long list as you can see.

Probably the most poisonous item in a home are lilies of the Lilium species as one drop or two of pollen from the stamen can kill a cat if it lands on a cat's fur and is subsequently ingested. Although some lilies are safe for cats it is wise to avoid lilies entirely if you have a cat. No risks should be taken as they are potential killers.

There are many pages on PoC concerning items that are toxic to cats. Please click on the link below to see the full list of articles:

Toxic to cats

Hidden chemicals that are potentially toxic are fire retardants and carpet chemicals which are designed to extend carpet life. There are many household cleaners and disinfectants which can poison cats such as products containing phenol.

The list is extensive. 

Infographics on 3 cat companion behaviours that need correction plus training fear out of your cat

 

I am thankful for Jackson's thoughts on this. He has his own language for describing cat behavior. I am not sure that the Infographic needs to be expanded on but I will add some words. 

Fridging and cocooning?

Two of these behavioural traits: liking to be on top of the fridge or underneath furniture which Jackson exceeded describes as fridging and cocooning respectively, are due to anxiety even fear. They are not that uncommon. 

Domestic cats have to be quite wary in some homes where the environment is not really conducive to a cat expressing their natural behaviours.

So, if a cat caregiver sees this kind of behaviour, they might accurately presume that their cat is anxious. Other signs might be over grooming themselves even to the point where they barber the hair from the inside of their legs were on their belly, both easily accessible places.

Treatment

Jackson Galaxy, American's favourite cat behaviourist, suggests that in order to allow a domestic cat to gain their confidence and become less timid, the cat caregiver should provide a cocoon for them which is a transformational place. 

This is a hiding place which is more open to the possibility of them interacting with what is going on around them. It is an intermediate location where a cat can feel secure and when it suits them integrate into general household life.

Train to reduce fear in a cat

Here is another infographic on a similar topic.

Infographic by MikeB at PoC.

Republicans in America demand the release of FBI intelligence surrounding the origins of the Covid pandemic

The Covid pandemic story is still running. There is something outstanding and that is an answer to the question: from where did the virus originate? We still don't know because China has been uncooperative. They are being defensive. This is to be expected because one thing is clear: the virus did start in China. It is simply a question of whether it started in a wet market in Wuhan or in a bio laboratory in Wuhan.

Christopher Wray, FBI Director. Image in public domin.

And I've read a lot about this and some scientists think that the DNA structure of the virus indicates that it has been manipulated in the laboratory. This argument is counteracted by that of The Times' science editors: Tom Whipple and Hugh Tomlinson. They say that the virus has not been manipulated in a laboratory. Or there are no signs that it has.

They also state that it has been established that a cluster of infections of people occurred around the Wuhan wet market. Those are the first signs of the virus infecting people in the world. This of course strongly indicate that it started at the Wuhan wet market. That market has been cleaned up as have 22,000 other wet markets in China or that is the report that we have received.

However, the Republicans in America are asking for the FBI to release their information about the origins of the virus because Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI said that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan was the probable cause of the pandemic.

Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas said that he was pleased that the FBI was "finally coming forward with their assessment that Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan laboratory."

The problem is that there is no consensus about where it started thanks to China's defensiveness. In the West we simply do not have sufficient information or sufficient clarity to assess the origin with accuracy.

Therefore, Christopher Wray's statement doesn't really help. In fact, it muddies the water further.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman said that there was no consensus within the Biden administration on the origin of the virus. He said:

"The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this. There's not been a definitive conclusion. What the president wants is facts."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said:

"A lab leak is extremely unlikely, and that's the authoritative scientific conclusion reached by a joint team of experts from China and WHO after they had visited related labs in Wuhan."

However, the WHO investigation was hobbled by China's defensiveness. Their investigation was widely criticised for involving people with links to the Wuhan laboratory and its scientists and for the lack of access to materials. Therefore, we cannot take with any seriousness what the spokeswoman said.

There needs to be a further study and there needs to be access provided by China to make any further study meaningful. The outstanding question as to how it started is a question of world importance.

Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease. That's why it caused a pandemic. It jumps from animals to people and back to animals. That means all our pets and everyone on the planet is vulnerable to it and mutations of it.

However, it seems that China is more interested in protecting their interests rather than helping to protect the animals and the peoples of the planet.

All the world's pet dogs weigh 10 times all the world's pet cats

Interested? Perhaps not but I think the statistic in the title is mildly interesting. Perhaps the more interesting statistic is that the weight of all humans on the planet at present is 18 times more than the weight of all land based wild mammals. 

But ants weigh about four times more than wild mammals! Those pesky ants are almost weightless as individuals but there are an awful lot of them.

Infographic my MikeB.

Perhaps the more extraordinary statistic from a study (The global biomass of wild mammals) by Prof Ron Milo and colleagues of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel is that the total biomass in tonnage of humans is almost 18 times more than all the wild mammals on the planet combined. 

To that perhaps remarkable statistic we have to add the 630 million tonnes of livestock kept by humans and other mammals that would not exist without us such as urban rats.

As the Infographic shows you, the biomass of all land-based wild mammals is about 22 million tonnes.

Extraordinary totally white dog with a solid black head (video)

Screenshot.

Get this. Very unusual. In cat fancy language the distribution of white and black fur is due to the white spotting gene. It is probably the same for dogs.

RELATED: