Cat Project Archives for November 28 through December
28, 2016 - "Most cats are not shy about letting their
people know what they want." - Karen Duprey
Gratuitous Kute Kittiness: Same pose, different years.
Mewvie: "Okay, I'm coming!"
Art: "Cat and Pear", artist unknown.
and the hunting instinct.
by Ron Mergl
My 17-year-old cat, Oreo, is pretty sedate these days, but just recently
I spotted him peering behind the couch in a crouched hunting position.
Inching forward, he suddenly pounced and outran one of the younger cats:
the chase was on!
Is this predatory behaviour or just innocent play? All cats have a desire
for stalking and hunting. This is usually played out with other cats
in the household or with toys. But a toy just lying on the floor is just
dead prey and will not fulfil the stalking and hunting drive. Engagement
from the cat’s human is necessary to move the toy to mimic the
movements of natural prey.
Dogs like toys thrown to them but cats like to chase after a toy that
is thrown away from their sight line. Using obstacles to allow your cat
to use their hunting instincts also adds to the overall playtime.
Predatory behaviour is not aggressive behaviour. Stalking, pouncing and
chasing is part of being a cat, and when these desires are unfulfilled,
it can lead to aggression — both to the other cats and to the humans
in the household.
Cats are very subtle at first with their aggressive signal and the change
in body position can go unnoticed. Once the aggression mounts, the ears
go back flat against the head and the cat will start to growl. Aggression
can be the result of frustration in the household and lack of an opportunity
to stalk and hunt. Other causes include sensing a threat, territorial
reasons and redirected aggression.
Threats can be perceived by your cat from the presence of a new person
or animal in the home. Most cats will usually run and hide from a perceived
threat, but some react with fear aggression and can actually lash out
and attack with their nails and teeth. Leaving the cat alone until it
calms down is the best advice in this situation. Obviously, avoiding
repeating these situations if possible makes sense, as it can lead to
further development of aggression.
Cats are territorial and will rub their faces and chins on household
objects to mark their territory. They will also patrol their area, and
rarely urinate to mark their space (un-neutered cats do this more commonly).
A cat owner must be aware of their own cat’s personality and desire
for territory when it comes to the decision of adding another cat to
Redirected aggression is expressed when a cat cannot reach the cause
of the agitation, and will inadvertently attack a human or an innocent
pet. Seeing another cat outside, hearing high pitched noises, smelling
other cats’ scents on the clothes of a household member, or having
made a trip outside the home are all examples of potential redirected
aggression. In my household, redirected aggression is often turned on
Minnow, my black lab. She, of course, does not understand this feline
quirk and turns the other cheek.
Cat bites and scratches to humans can be a health risk, especially for
immunocompromised people. Deep puncture wounds from a bite can cause
the development of cellulitis, a bacterial infection that can extend
deep into the muscles. Cat scratch fever is also a very rare possibility.
All wounds should immediately be scrubbed and washed out with soapy water
and then given medical attention. Often antibiotics are required to treat
Understanding your cat’s psyche and the need for a different type
of play than dogs will help keep your cat healthy and avoid aggression.
However, if aggression develops, you should always seek out veterinary
care. There are medical conditions that can cause aggression and these
need to be differentiated from the external environmental causes of aggression.
Although our cats have been domesticated for thousands of years, they
still retain their hunting instincts. Take time to observe your cat’s
behaviours and enrich their lives with the playtime that they enjoy.
29, 2016 - "Cats are kindly masters, just so long
as you remember your place."
- Paul Gray
Gratuitous Kittiness: "Mind if I come with?"
Mewvie: "Love that iPad!"
Feline Art: "Cat" by
30, 2016 - "Some people say that cats are sneaky,
evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities
as well." - Missy Dizick
Gratuitous Kittiness: "Closer... closer..."
Mewvie: "Hey! Kool-Aid!"
Art: Cat-themed bento box.
facts about cats.
Written for the BBC
1. When night falls in the Disneyland theme park, 200 cats are released
to catch all the mice.
2. A group of cats is called a clowder.
3. Cats sweat through their paws.
4. Cats will normally eat something confidently on the fourth go after
tasting it uncertainly three times. So stick the antibiotic in the fourth
bit of ham…
5. Cat nap. On average, cats sleep for 70% of the day.
6. Unbelievably their urine glows in the dark.
7. Every single domesticated cat can be traced back to one of five African
8. Cats can't taste sweet things.
9. Female cats are more likely to be right-pawed, and male cats left.
10. A cat has no collarbone.
11. Isaac Newton invented the cat flap.
12. The technical name for a hairball is a bezoar.
13. A female cat is called a molly or a queen.
14. Cats can drink sea water. Their kidneys do something complicated
to filter out the salt.
15. In the Dutch embassy in Moscow, the embassy’s cats kept clawing
at the walls. Investigation revealed microphones hidden by spies.
16. Cats are responsible for the extinction of 33 different species,
including mammals and birds. They are listed among the top 100 most invasive
Basically, we’re living with a bunch of super intelligent aliens
who could wipe us off the face of the earth with one swipe of a paw.
If they could be bothered. Which thankfully, they can’t.
1, 2016 - "One is never sure, watching two cats washing
each other, whether it's affection, the taste or a trial
run for the jugular."- Helen Thomson
Gratuitous Kittiness: "Copy-cat!"
Mewvie: The bold, bouldering kitty.
Feline Art: Lego cat.
2, 2016 - "If cats could talk, they wouldn't." -
Gratuitous Kute Kittiness: "It's Friday."
Mewvie: A new "Simon's Cat".
Art: "Julie Manet " by Pierre Renoir, 1887.
2000 year old cat cemetary.
by Sarah Laskow
In ancient Egypt, where cats were first domesticated, they were often
buried in a ritual, religious fashion. The cat burials found on the site
of Berenike, an Egyptian town on the Red Sea that thrived 2,000 years
ago, were different, though.
As IBTimes reports, these cats were not mummified or buried with much
adornment—only a handful had a trinket found in their graves. Nor
were there any signs that the cats had been killed, as in some religious
burials. These looked like domestic cats who had died natural deaths.
Writing in the journal Antiquity, the archaeologist Marta Osypin´ska
suggests that these features mean that these cats were not buried as
part of “sacred or magical rites.” Instead, she writes, this
site should be considered “a cemetery of house pets.”
For millennia, cats were worshipped in Egypt, one of the earliest places
where they were domesticated. But by the beginning of the first millennia
A.D., the cult of the cat was falling out of favor. The cat skeletons
in Berenike that were found buried with items had either iron collars
or ostrich shell beads by their necks. In this one area, 86 cat skeletons
were found, and most of them were single burials. The ones that were
paired were an adult and a juvenile skeleton, suggesting that they were
buried together on purpose.
The other skeletons—nine dogs and four monkeys—discovered
in this spot also suggest that it was used as a burial ground for beloved