Wild cats

[Taomeow]

15 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

I wouldn't want to mess with either of them, man or cat.

 

It's true that they both look like uber villains, but appearances are deceptive.  Knorozov was a kind and generous man, someone who would, e.g., give his colleagues and students his most valuable possessions as gifts, because "who wants to get as a present something the giver doesn't value."   In the most unlikely place at the most unlikely time, Stalin's Russia, he was exploring ancient shamanism and his own life had many twists and turns that look like classical quests of a shaman on his way to knowledge and power.  As a scientist he was a brilliant trailblazer in several directions, and the deciphering of the Maya script that brought him fame and recognition was, in his own assessment, a rather minor accomplishment within his broader work scope.  What Asya the cat thought about it was never documented though.       

[liminal_luke]

7 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

appearances are deceptive.      

 

So true!  To my mind, there's something admirable about a person -- or cat -- whose spirit and personality can't be casually divined from an internet photo.

[silent thunder]

Bit of a non cat related side road you guys have reminded me of...

 

I'm reminded again of the storyteller who seemingly abides along side my every observation.  The storyteller who at a moment's glance of an interaction between perfect strangers in a grocery store, or traffic incident, will bring into full bloom an elaborate setting and background for a random event.

 

This storyteller has revealed as an endlessly complicated process for me as this storyteller seems at times indistinguishable and intimately linked with genuine intuititve insight.  At times bringing invaluable and seemingly accurate actionable information while at others being little more than elaborate, biased, projective fantasy.

 

There are countless stories I still vividly recall of moments of intuitive insight that arose in awareness unbidden, which turned out to be keenly accurate subtle perceivings of what was occuring about me. 

 

Myriad others though, reveal as little more than biased assumption and projection based on the conditioning of my previous experience and concretized belief structures.

 

While there are clear moments of insight and fantasy that lie beyond doubting, mostly I observe that I've danced along an ephemeral line of rejection and immersion through the medium of doubt in my relating to this storyteller process.  Doubting has become a constant and welcome companion in recent years.

 

It can be as fascinating and engaging as unsettling.  An endless dance of observing the storyteller and what are nigh on always, unsought tales and the potential of their relevance, or not, in my awareness.

 

edit to add:

and while not wild... here's a little cat sharing, that's a favorite of mine.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by silent thunder

[liminal_luke]

2 hours ago, silent thunder said:

 the storyteller

 

 

Is that an actual picture of you in your avatar, silent thunder?  With that Gandalfesque beard and stylin' glasses you seem quite an imposing presence, a cool cat so to speak. I can feel my storyteller start to spin.  And yet, like Yuri Knorozov, I suspect there's a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Edited September 3, 2023 by liminal_luke

[silent thunder]

6 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 

Is that an actual picture of you in your avatar, silent thunder?  With that Gandalfesque beard and stylin' glasses you seem quite an imposing presence, a cool cat so to speak. I can feel my storyteller start to spin.  And yet, like Yuri Knorozov, I suspect there's a lot more to you than meets the eye.

Yup, that's me a few years ago and the beard is considerably longer these days.  Haven't trimmed it since before the pandemic started.

[Gerard]

Just like their domesticated counterparts, it turns out feral cats can’t resist playing with a dangling feather boa. 

 

Feather boas lure feral cats, study finds

 

But the wedge-tailed eagle, unreal. He is boss and smart as just by the way he looks at the camera. 

[silent thunder]

 

 

[Taomeow]

[Taomeow]

Walter Molino (1915--1997).  An artist who understood wild cats.   

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Taomeow

[silent thunder]

I have often marked how readily some 'domestic' cats may flip from affection to aggression in a sub-instant.  And then I'm re-minded that the 'domesticated' cat is still and always remains seemingly wild at source and the domestication arises and abides on her terms and time table and may be rescinded or reestablished by her, at will in any given moment.

 

This is perhaps what I most appreciate and respect about the nature of 'domestic' cats.

They choose us.

[Taomeow]

This month's article in the Scientific American titled "Cats Are Perfect. An Evolutionary Biologist Explains Why."

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-are-perfect-an-evolutionary-biologist-explains-why/?fbclid=IwAR25DIlR7Uf19VFoU6FMlXWhhR9r7O35cND4o8TggLzuabGDL5QwhUE8Y9M

 

Its last paragraph: 

"You can’t just casually try to be a cat. You have to commit. Cats have committed to being cats. Everything else is just sort of dabbling, and it doesn’t work."

[Nungali]

Secrets of Pyramids revealed .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Taomeow]

Florida Man's cat.   

 

[Nungali]

That would stop the possums eating them .

[Taomeow]

5 hours ago, Nungali said:

That would stop the possums eating them .

 

Possums don't prey on cats anyway.  Coyotes, on the other hand, do, may their sins be punished and their wild habitats expanded.   

[Nungali]

11 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

Possums don't prey on cats anyway.  Coyotes, on the other hand, do, may their sins be punished and their wild habitats expanded.   

 

 

I meant ... having a cat sit on top of your bunch of bananas  would stop the possums eating the bananas .

 

None of our possums are carnivorous .... you need a  native 'cat' ( Quoll )  for that .

 

 

[Taomeow]

Erwin Schrödinger trying to convince his cat to participate in the experiment

 

[Gerard]

If I have to choose one this will be my friend:

 

https://www.thesprucepets.com/abyssinian-cat-breed-profile-4797632

 

Cat or extraterrestrial?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[silent thunder]

Cats choose.  You do not.

[old3bob]

cloud leopard travelling upside down.  (unique rear ankle's)

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by old3bob

[S:C]

What’s the appropriate cat food?

[Taomeow]

27 minutes ago, S:C said:

What’s the appropriate cat food?

 

Cats are obligatory carnivores.  Aside from this being a much-ignored axiom, there was this study with cat diets done by Francis Pottenger, MD, in 1932-1942.  Of the thousands of cats divided into groups they fed different diets, the only diet they found adequate (resulting in perfectly healthy cats with perfectly healthy posterity) consisted of 2/3 raw meat, 1/3 raw milk, supplemented with cod liver oil.  All cats that received versions of different diets (with cooked meat, pasteurized milk, or some combo of raw and cooked/pasteurized) fared much worse.  And that was the era before commercial cat food, so those cats didn't eat what today's cats eat: corn, wheat, soy, artificial preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, carbohydrate fillers (aka cellulose, which deer and goats can digest but cats can't), sweeteners, vegetable oils, and something the labels call "animal digest" which is cattle manure.   

 

A long time ago, I did an internship working with patents, and saw many that were for chemicals designed to make what cats wouldn't normally eat attractive to them.  Complex neuroscience behind each of those!  Best scientific minds working on fooling cats, compromising their health and shortening their lives.  

[Mark Foote]

2 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

Cats are obligatory carnivores.  Aside from this being a much-ignored axiom, there was this study with cat diets done by Francis Pottenger, MD, in 1932-1942.  Of the thousands of cats divided into groups they fed different diets, the only diet they found adequate (resulting in perfectly healthy cats with perfectly healthy posterity) consisted of 2/3 raw meat, 1/3 raw milk, supplemented with cod liver oil.  All cats that received versions of different diets (with cooked meat, pasteurized milk, or some combo of raw and cooked/pasteurized) fared much worse.  And that was the era before commercial cat food, so those cats didn't eat what today's cats eat: corn, wheat, soy, artificial preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, carbohydrate fillers (aka cellulose, which deer and goats can digest but cats can't), sweeteners, vegetable oils, and something the labels call "animal digest" which is cattle manure.   

 

A long time ago, I did an internship working with patents, and saw many that were for chemicals designed to make what cats wouldn't normally eat attractive to them.  Complex neuroscience behind each of those!  Best scientific minds working on fooling cats, compromising their health and shortening their lives.  
 

I dropped by Mickey D's the other day to pick up a double bacon cheese burger for the cat.  She likes the bacon and beef from the sandwich.

I take the breading off a couple chunks of the sweet and sour pork and shred 'em, she loves that.

She'll eat cream cheese, if I make small pieces out of some.

Likes chicken, but not fresh-cooked, for some reason.  Needs a day in the refrigerator.  Tonight she gets a little of the salmon, her favorite (aside from the double bacon cheese burger).

Oh, and she eats canned catfood too.  A little bit of expensive cans...

Sophie the cat.

 

 

[old3bob]

many cats will know in a second or two if you are cat person or not...

[blue eyed snake]

16 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Cats are obligatory carnivores.  Aside from this being a much-ignored axiom, there was this study with cat diets done by Francis Pottenger, MD, in 1932-1942.  Of the thousands of cats divided into groups they fed different diets, the only diet they found adequate (resulting in perfectly healthy cats with perfectly healthy posterity) consisted of 2/3 raw meat, 1/3 raw milk, supplemented with cod liver oil.  All cats that received versions of different diets (with cooked meat, pasteurized milk, or some combo of raw and cooked/pasteurized) fared much worse.

 

sometime in the seventies I was adopted by a fierce wild kitten. I had let it be known I would like a cat and someone came along with a box, telling me: I have 2 kittens, you want them?

 

So I carefully opened one of the flaps, a red streak jumped out and vanished somewhere in my room.

I quickly closed the box and told her that it seemed the cat had arrived.

 

It was a wild little thing, scared out of his wits, born on a farm mom a farmcat, dad probably a tomcat living in the wild. Had not had any contact with humans apart from being caught and put into that box.

 

Took much patience to earn this trust but eventually we became friends, he even was nice with visitors too.

 

I fed it chopped heart, minced meat and chopped chicken. Every day he licked clean the plate I used to eat my oatmeal from, thereby having added some milk. He grew up to be a beautiful tomcat .