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they look marvellous

i havnt seen on this thread where anyone is suggesting cats are little humans. marblehead, dont you also possess instincts? yes, a cat has its programming, it is called dna. we(humans) also have dna and our programming, does this mean that we are incapable of thinking to decide how to act? we can take this thread way off topic(maybe idk) how do we know the level of thinking a cat has? on this forum, there have been debates about ; if we have free choice or not, or are we all just programmed. are we going to have this same debate about the level of free will cats have? are some of us experiencing cat issues? i am considering to get one of my own, a bengal cat. today my mom told me something interesting. she has an elaborate bird feeding set up and enjoys watching the birds and squirrels gather up and eat seed, corn, or soot. well this has not gone unnoticed by a hawk or two, and a hawk will occasionally come in and feed on a bird, or even a squirrel. mom didnt like this too much and if she sees a hawk by her feeders, she will go out the kitchen door and shoo away the hawk. today, mom noticed a hawk hanging out and watching the door. mom goes out the door and the hawk shows mom that he has a bird and then he flies off. the hawk wanted mom to see that it had come in and took a bird , despite mom's effort to thwart hawks attempt. doesnt this demonstrate the hawk has a level of choice? he chose to wait for mom. does the hawk have a personality? was he programmed to flaunt his action to mom? do we get bogged down in pure semantics and say the hawk cannot have a personality becoz he is not a human? then dont we also have to say that nothing could be demonstrated unless it is done by a demon?

"Are they reincarnations of people?" this, i am certainly not qualified to speak to. if, we accept that energy is neither created nor destroyed. but, transforms. it still does not address your question. i see paradoxical problems with reincarnation. but my view is very limited. "Should they be considered as important as people?" another tough question. maybe we should treat them with more consideration than we generally do. in nature, there is a lot of competition. how many species have humans directly killed off? let alone indirectly. wouldnt it be cool to have the carolina parakeet around? personality, idk, i think this word is loaded. i think it reflects more, our opinions of ourselves. personification is another word, we tend to want to assign anything as having intelligence, some word that highlights ours. individuals with their own consciousness and intelligence. i am confident to say animals have this. we are animals too. specifically, mammals with opposing thumbs, capable at grasping at straws. we struggle trying to define our own consciousness. it is generally accepted that your cat would most likely eat you if you were mouse size. i think this is because of the nature of the cat. maybe most cats would be curious to see what you tasted like, maybe other just like to kill, maybe some cats would choose not eat you, idk. we all have our own nature, consciousness, intelligence, and individuality.

some cats are better mousers than others. some are sweeter than others. some are loners, some prefer company. some are more aggressive than others. some are mischievous and jokesters, while others are not.some are even more curious than others. when they are meowing, is it only because they want fed? they can meow for many reasons, they have a highly developed language set. sometimes they just want conversation. i am not even a cat person and i am aware of this. why does a wolf pack have a leader? why do some wolves submit to others? why do some jackals choose to hunt in pairs, while other jackals choose to hunt alone? why is it that the same canine handler will have differing results from dogs of the same breed? from the same litter? "mindless automatons"? i used to live on a small dairy farm. only 18 heifers, all holstein. after about a month of meeting up with the cows each day for milking, i could tell the differences between cows, not only by their physical traits, but by their individual traits. excuse my use of the word; but their personality. i knew which ones, if they were having a grumpy morning, might try and kick me. i knew the ones that never would try that. apparently you have never been cursed out by a holstein heifer. bluejays have different individual traits also. 1% will eat robin eggs. some are prone to the Jay! Jay! type of speech and others are much more versatile. some can mimic you. i have mentioned about when i lived in florida (2000-2004, nonchalant) i would go hang out in a live oak in the front yard and each day , without fail, 5 quaker parrots would come hang out and visit with me in that tree. they were each individuals, acted as individuals, had their own unique traits. one would laugh more than the other 4, and one would act a clown more than the other 4. etc it wasnt like every quaker parrot that flew past that tree while i was in it landed and visited. why these 5? edit>>to answer your question; my guess is, your cat would likely eat you because of your stubborn objectivity.

very good stosh. only a person could have a personality with your strict restriction on word usage. i looked up animality, and the definitions i found, do not fit either, regarding the op question. here is what animals do have>>individuality

this butterfly appeared on the doable anarchy thread, courtesy of Daeluin. the anarch

happy 60th to Angus here is the most evil song in all of rock history.. pure evil. induces shivers/shudders and evils

stosh, now that you mention it, very audubon looking, i didnt take it myself. but i liked it and thought i'd share. bluejay are comfortable around me usually, they have come within arms reach several times, if a crow got that close, not sure how i would react lol,, but cardinals, robins, bluejays, sparrow, and sometimes mockingbirds at times come by into my personal space. in florida, the only birds (other than seaguls) to get that close to me were feral quaker parrots.

"As we all know things in life never turn out the way we'd hoped" do not rule out the possibility that things can turn out better than one hope for. good luck with the wanderings, if you ever happen to visit the usa, dew drop in.

"... banned bans and , almost overnight; the forum became much more polite." interesting, isnt it?

circa 1977, pop music was pivoting from classic rock towards disco,,even the stones, fleetwood mac, and the eagles gravitated to disco, stones actually went disco and punk.. or else pop music was heading towards urban depressionism, or new wave. or punk,every country song had that chet atkins sound,, then there was this flautist or is it flutist? flutist it is,,,and marching to the beat of his own flaut. flauting away on the greenness of the new day.. tra la la tra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ua9I8g7TCs

i visited a new member's profile and it showed 5 recent members that had visited that profile and the number given for profile views was zero. profile views count is probably as inconsequential as stars. did you turn off the profile view counter?

dutch bird watching is a little different i am a companion of owls, but this PURMEREND, Netherlands (AP) — A falconer has captured an aggressive eagle owl that terrorized a Dutch town by swooping out of the sky and sinking its talons into residents' heads. The bird earned the nickname "terror owl" in Purmerend, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Amsterdam where it attacked some 50 people in the last year. Some of the bird's victims required hospital treatment to stitch up deep scratches. Residents took to walking the streets with umbrellas or wearing hats to ward off aerial attacks. Purmerend municipality announced that a falconer it hired caught the bird Friday. It said the bird was in good health and is awaiting a suitable new home. Alderman Mario Hegger said the municipality would have preferred to leave the "magnificent bird of prey" alone but "it became too risky."

umm, this reincarnation law stuff http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Dalai-Lamas-plan-to-end-reincarnation-blasphemous-China/articleshow/46504176.cms http://shanghaiist.com/2015/03/10/china-says-dalai-lama-profanes-buddhism-by-claiming-he-wont-be-reincarnated.php

here is one we dont get to see in my neck of the woods that thrived here, noisy flocks of thousands until they landed and became silent. the cherokee called them eastatoe the chickasaw kilenky, bluejays would seem quiet and meek compared to these colorful birds. i think i would have gotten along swell with them. i did include them in a short story i just finished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_parakeet

we can avoid the stampeding herd mentality here?