Posted on 07/07/2015 7:14:45 AM PDT by C19fan
The other night, before my wife and I put our 2½-year-old twins to bed, she began reading them one of their favorite books, Where the Wild Things Are. Juliet, in Dalmatian pajamas, asked, “Mommy, where are the wild things?” My wife glanced over at our gray-and-white tabby curled up on a chair nearby. “Well,” she said, “Jasper’s a wild thing.” Juliet looked incredulous. “Jasper’s not a wild thing,” she said. “He’s a cat!”
The dispute is understandable. Though cats have lived with us for nearly 10,000 years and are the world’s most popular pet, experts disagree about whether they’re actually domestic animals. Our feline companions don’t really need us, after all: They can hunt for themselves, and they go feral without human contact. A scientific paper published last year uncovered some of the first genes responsible for domestication—all in the cat genome—yet still referred to cats as “semi-domesticated.” Other scientists vehemently disagree with that designation. “There’s no difference between a domesticated cat and a domesticated anything else,” says Greger Larson, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford who has studied the domestication of pigs, dogs, and a variety of other animals. “Good luck trying to get a goat or a sheep to spend the night in your house.”
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Our indoor cats only know how to catch geckos and bugs. however, they do watch our outside boyz bring rats and mice up near the back door and disassemble them. Not catch, but take apart, so they are at least familiar with that aspect of being wild. Catch one and how to kill it, dunno if they could figure that out. Some of those rats are large.
What are you feeding them? Cats can have food allergies.
My dog is an example. The vet recommended a puppy food when I got my Golden Retriever. Poor pup! His hair fell out, and as the puppy food had ground corn in it and Goldens are, in general, allergic to corn, I fed it to the birds. So I started feeding him lamb and rice mix. He is now 5-years old, 80-pounds and all play!
Cats, unlike dogs who are generally tolerant of tubers and rice, cannot digest grains. You can feed them the following: finely ground chicken, fish, or rabbit, mixed with eggs, yogurt and human-grade calcium. You can make this in batches and freeze it, as it freezes well. Best of all, if you have a fishing license and raise your own chickens and meat rabbits, this is a good way to save money and improve you cat’s health.
Two things you will immediately notice is that their litter boxes will no longer stink of ammonia and their feces are very small. Your cats will not eat much because they will feel full sooner than they would eating kibble.
I got a cat at about 12 weeks. I think she’s a little feral,and like yours, she doesn’t tolerate being held. She will cuddle. She’s doing that right now. Doesn’t bite or scratch. Uses her box. Not a bad kitty.
I agree completely. Years ago I read a book called The Tiger On Your Couch (or something like that) which put forth the exact same idea.
Efficient little killers! They’re cool like that.
I think they show it differently than dogs do, when they do care."
Agree.
I had a cat that didn't like to see me sleep. I don't know if he thought there was something wrong with me, or what. But now and then I would lie down on the couch and pretend to be asleep, while watching with my eyes slitted.
The cat would sit there looking at me with this---I swear---alarmed expression. After a couple of minutes, he would walk halfway over and sit again, and resume concerned staring. Then he would come over, stand on his hind legs, and pat my face with his paw.
If you feed high-carb dry cat food, that could be the problem. Cats can’t digest carbohydrates.
From what I understand. all-meat diets do away with the sensitive cat stomach.
Oops, I see you beat me to it.
Actually, I’ve been around some cats that truly seem to be affectionate. Experts would say they are doing what they’re doing for other reason(s).
Exactly the same look.
Cats can also control their weight. Watch a cat float from the floor to the top of the dresser, then experience the same cat jumping from the dresser to your stomach. Must be a tenfold difference in weight. They think it’s funny.
They are!
Yes! “Don’t mess with my food if you know what’s good for you, human.”
My husband looked this up recently. East of the Mississippi they are more commonly called donkeys and west of it they are called burros.
I have come to the conclusion that cats are not aloof or withdrawn but it is that people treat them that way and so they respond in kind.
This is likely because west of the Mississippi, many of the donkeys are descended from burros. Mexico has about 3 million, and the semi-wild but friendly burros are a major tourist attraction in the town of Oatman, Arizona.
Here is a website loaded with trivia, mostly entertaining, but gives a better description of things.
http://tbnranch.com/2012/01/13/donkey-ass-burro-mule-hinny-what-they-all-mean/
Thanks!
Sounds like kitty is trying to bring up a hairball. Mine will do that from time to time. Just a lot of clear fluid until finally up comes more fluid, with the hairball. Try feeding some hairball remedy or put a little Vaseline on the paw for kitty to lick off. It will help pass the hairball out the other end. ;)
God made the cat to give man the pleasure of stroking a tiger. – François-Joseph Mery
The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo Da Vinci
A loving cat can mend a wounded heart. - Anonymous
'No Heaven will not ever Heaven be; Unless my cats are there to welcome me'.- Epitaph on an ancient tombstone in England
< One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.- Pam Brown
What greater gift than the love of a cat? - Charles Dickens
Time spent with cats is never wasted. ~ Colette
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer
It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can’t see. ~ Eleanor Farjeon
Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat. - Mark Twain Notebook, 1894
The cat, it is well to remember, remains the friend of man because it pleases him to do so and not because he must.” — Carl Van Vechten
To respect the cat is the beginning of the Aesthetic sense. — Erasmus Darwin
For a man to truly understand rejection, he must first be ignored by a cat. - Anon
I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its visible soul. - Jean Cocteau
There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat. - Tay Hohoff
With the qualities of cleanliness, affection, patience, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats? - Fernand Mery
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. ~ Robertson Davies
There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats- unknown
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. - Winston Churchill
There is the little matter of disposal of droppings in which the cat is far ahead of its rivals. The dog is somehow thrilled by what he or any of his friends have produced, hates to leave it, adores smelling it, and sometimes eats it...The cat covers it up if he can... - Paul Gallico
Beware of people who dislike cats. - Irish Proverb
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