How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

The Atlantic ^ | February 10, 2012 | Kathleen McAuliffe

[C19fan]

NO ONE WOULD accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 63-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire.

Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.

The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis—the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. T. gondii is also a major threat to people with weakened immunity: in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before good antiretroviral drugs were developed, it was to blame for the dementia that afflicted many patients at the disease’s end stage. Healthy children and adults, however, usually experience nothing worse than brief flu-like symptoms before quickly fighting off the protozoan, which thereafter lies dormant inside brain cells—or at least that’s the standard medical wisdom.

[gundog]

FR is known for its cat lovers.

Better known for its' cat fights. In the good ol' days, Sungirl and Fawn could really get the fur flying.

[wyokostur]

Crazy mind control kitteh ping

[wyokostur]

Crazy mind control kitteh ping

[wyokostur]

Crazy mind control kitteh ping

[wyokostur]

Crazy mind control kitteh ping

[wyokostur]

Crazy mind control kitteh ping

[Hot Tabasco]

ok

[Hot Tabasco]

ok

[Hot Tabasco]

ok

[Hot Tabasco]

ok

[Ronin]

You’re luck, I have five of the furry little bosses to please.

[autumnraine]

I think you just described our house.

Although the kids would be upset I’d imagine. Me? Meh...

[chessplayer]

Oh, just great. One more reason for cat haters to torture and kill cats.

[chessplayer]

Oh, just great. One more reason for cat haters to torture and kill cats.

[chessplayer]

I bet you would make a good target.

---

I think axeslinger would make a good target, too.

[chessplayer]

I mean one more EXCUSE for cat haters to torture and kill cats.

[A_perfect_lady]

From the article:
Indoor cats pose no threat, he says, because they don’t carry the parasite. As for outdoor cats, they shed the parasite for only three weeks of their life, typically when they’re young and have just begun hunting. During that brief period, Flegr simply recommends taking care to keep kitchen counters and tables wiped clean. (He practices what he preaches: he and his wife have two school-age children, and two outdoor cats that have free roam of their home.) Much more important for preventing exposure, he says, is to scrub vegetables thoroughly and avoid drinking water that has not been properly purified, especially in the developing world, where infection rates can reach 95 percent in some places. Also, he advises eating meat on the well-done side—or, if that’s not to your taste, freezing it before cooking, to kill the cysts.

[Axeslinger]

Really? FR is KNOWN for its cat lovers? And all this time I thought it was known for political activism...silly me.

Lord I love tweaking you sanctimonious twits about your little 4-legged demon spawn.

And chessplayer it's proper etiquette to actually ping the person whose murder you're wishing for... But,hey, welcome to the sanctimonious twit club!