How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

The Atlantic ^ | Feb 2012 | Kathleen McAuliffe

[Mike Darancette]

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.

[Mike Darancette]

Reason for crazy cat ladies?

[SandRat]

Sounds like a scene from a script in a Star Trek movie, I belive it was The Wrath of Kahn.

[Gator113]

It was tough enough for me to quit my hobby of burying libs under my house... I sure wouldn’t want cats to drive me crazy.

No wonder my dog doesn’t like cats.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

I don’t know....never owned a cat. I’m a dog person. :)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well well. The Viking Kitties have microscopic myrmidons too. All part of the feline insidious plan to bend you to their every whim. As if it’s not enough to lay on your hip then turn on their gravity magnification rays (10 lb. cat = 50 lb. magnified) every time you go to sleep.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Cool article. Very interesting as well.

Nice to see a Czech prof getting some recognition; Charles University is a great university, and I’m not just saying that because I taught English there for a couple of years.

So basically, for all you cat-lovers, your pet is, in reality, The Thing.

Bwahahahahahaha!!

[Venturer]

I have always suspected cat people were a little touched.

[HiTech RedNeck]

T[oxoplasma] gondii, reports Sapolsky, can turn a rat’s strong innate aversion to cats into an attraction, luring it into the jaws of its No. 1 predator. Even more amazing is how it does this: the organism rewires circuits in parts of the brain that deal with such primal emotions as fear, anxiety, and sexual arousal.

Now we know why, almost every time a Rat shows up on FR, it runs right into the Viking Kitties' jaws. (A few of them are only played around with by the Kitties.) It could not help the average prowling cat because it's not schmoozing with those rodents.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

~~~~~~~~~~~snicker~~~~~~~~~~~

[HiTech RedNeck]

Probably their cats too.

[Para-Ord.45]

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5UtYIVl1dw

.

[goodnesswins]

THAT is what I wanted to do last night when my husband’s “kitty” shredded my arm!!! (He goes nuclear at night...and I was alone, and he was acting SOOOO sweet)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I don’t know....never owned a cat. I’m a dog person. :)***

You don’t own a cat. The cat owns you.

[Fightin Whitey]

As they say, dogs have owners.

Cats have staff.

[mdittmar]

Cats have been driving me crazy for years,wouldn’t have it any other way.

[thoolou]

You got THAT right.

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They haven't forgotten that...

[CaptainK]

Very interesting article. Those darn viruses can make you crazy !!!

[Delta 21]

Nothing to see here. Move along ,please.....

[AlexW]

I lived in Slovakia for about five years, but moved to the Philippines in Jan. 09.
Czech Republic and Slovakia are great countries to live in.

I have now collected about 10 cats, some of which like to hang out indoors.

[bgill]

Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women.

Nope, not here. Ok, the cat can stay.