So where do HOUSE CATS really come from?
Some background before we get to the point! The ancestor is the "wildcat" of Eurasia and Africa, Felix sylvestris, which avoids humans and still exists in significant numbers across a huge range. DNA now shows the feline to entail only five subspecies in all (many more have been imagined), spread over Europe (especially Eastern Europe these days but also Iberia and elsewhere), Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. These are, Felix sylvestris sylvestris in Europe, F.s. bieti in China, F.s. ornata in Central Asia, F.s. cafra in Africa's southern cone, and F.s. lybica of the Middle East and much of Africa. (Some wish to say China's F.s. bieti is different enough to be its own separate species, which seems doubtful but is not of concern here.)
All five all very similar and look like a regular tabby cat, though on average they are a bit bigger (at least in Northern climates) and certainly meaner and leaner!
Not only do the above five subspecies look nearly identical, but where their ranges overlap they interbreed, confusing the situation further. (Typical of the other subspecies argued to exist is F.s. "grampia" of Scotland and once you've got the locals worked up, that kind of thing dies hard.) In much of the world, many say the wildcat Felis sylvestris is also significantly interbred with house cats, which some regard as their own subspecies Felis sylvestris catus, and others regard as a newer, genuinedly separate species, Felis catus. (The discipline of taxonomy is filled with varying interpretations and one gets a sense of some subjectivity [like with those Scots!] - but a separate species? We will rid ourselves of the fanciful Felis "catus" baloney further below!)
Let a house cat get mixed up with wildcats, by the way, and in just no time the dominant wild instincts and coloration genes take over and soon the offspring will be tabby-looking, like the wild ones. (If the released house cat is too gaudy, of course, e.g. white, it won't be able to hunt well, and its chances to catch prey, survive, and reproduce will be diminished.)
Okay, but how did they get to be house cats, especially if the still-existing ancestors are so skittish? The answer is fascinating: it is based on mutual interest, like the various cleaner fishes of the oceans. Only here, it is mutual interest owing to changed circumstances.
In what may be called the Neolithic (or Agricultural) Revolution, supposedly one day around 8000 B.C., humankind learned to silo grain. This happened (apparently among other places) in the Fertile Crescent (which consists of the Levant plus Mesopotamia (Iraq) and *not* Egypt as frequently misstated), as a pertinent example. The house mouse had recently arrived there from its native India somehow. And a highly adaptive creature it is, that noxious house mouse! Grain (and village trash) brought rodents to human habitation in the Fertile Crescent in numbers, and while humans struggled before the invention of mousetraps, the rodents also attracted a few braver wildcats, those individuals who could overcome their fear of humans, whereas the farmers quickly learned to appreciate the plucky and useful wildcats. We are talking here about F. s. lybica, the subspecies of wildcat from the Middle East and parts of Africa, known sometimes as the African Wild Cat or more relevantly, Desert Cat. It indeed tolerates many habitats from arid to moist, but not rain forest. Well, those new-arrival house mice could not compete too effectively against native rodents, so under stress, the adaptive vermin began to afflict the human population right in their dwellings, an environment which native rodents avoided. (The house mouse remains highly versatile to date by the way; upon arriving on an oceanic island, a population grew larger in size and learned within a few years how to attack in groups huge seabirds that previously had no mammalian predators.)
Felix sylvestris (wildcats) all over have features that appeal to us subconsciously. Big eyes and rounded foreheads are known to bring out people's nurturing instincts; that's basic psychology. Over time, those Desert Cat wildcats and people clearly got more used to one another, the wildcats started to accept scraps from the farmers, and at some point they began to cadge treats. Plus, people must have occasionally found kittens and sometimes tried to raise the adorable things, also reasoning that if wildcats ate rodents in silos and such places, they might even control the maddening house mice invading their dwellings. And so a few Desert Cats became early house cats, and no longer behaved like typical wildcats, who shun humans (the males living in territories of around 3 sq. km., and females roaming wherever).
The above "domestication" process might have occurred contemporaneously with the other four subspecies in Eurasia and Africa, and there has been a lot of speculation - this is logical as human settlements were expanding in various places. Experts argued it happened the same way all over; wildcats and people simply jointed forces everywhere. We now know that that such did not occur, though, and the house mice that stimulated the whole process, by the way, took some two thousand more years to make it across Europe.
DNA tests have been done recently and a report in 2007 revealed that F.s. lybica and the house cat are virtually indistinguishable genetically (Fs. lybica is not nearly so closely related to the other four subspecies as it is to our house cat). So house cats all came from this one subspecies, and almost certainly from the above events in the Fertile Crescent. People began to travel with their F.s. lybica-bred house cats, such that the remains of a man and his house cat were found buried together in Cyprus a few years ago from around 7000 B.C., yet wildcats are not native to that island. The Cyprus discovery is much older than records in Egypt by the way: you've heard that cats supposedly came from Egypt? That is a real triumph of imagination over logic; all we know from Egyptians is they made pictures of cats! That house cats began there is a non-sequitur, a flight of fancy. Anyway, F.s. lybica-bred house cats soon made it to many lands both as rodent control and as good company, and the other four subspecies did not get tapped for this as there was no need, there being a ready supply of the pre-tamed former. (Plus taming wildcats is not easy -- I got bitten and scratched badly by a badly frightened house cat three weeks ago and it was blindingly fast: my blood was everywhere before I knew what had happened.) There is also anecdotal evidence that subspecies such as F.s. sylvestris of Europe may be overall more wary of humans anyway. And don't be naïve, all of these wildcats are hunted by certain people even now (some countries even have hunting seasons on wildcats): the felines have long had their reasons to be standoffish. Rabbit meat sold in the form of otherwise-skinned rabbits at East European markets is still offered with the fury rabbit feet left on, so that customers know they are not being slipped a cat carcass for dinner.
Still, house cats seem so evolved from wildcat/Desert Cat F.S. lybica, so further along, no? House cats have learned to rub up against their masters when they want food or other attention, for example. Well, as it turns out, that is a reproduction of pre-existing wildcat behavior. Don't flatter yourselves; rubbing is a wildcat greeting, scent spreading through glands, and it can be an ordinary wildcat request, such as by a kitten seeking food or attention from its wildcat mother.
Cats are said (by e.g. Wikipedia) to be "self-domesticating," i.e, they chose us, but the above discussion paints a more complicated picture, which makes sense. It us also debatable whether many of them are domesticated at all: if a cat goes out from your home, it will certainly hunt and feed in part outside (and probably define territory, engage in fights, and indeed mate if not fixed) - that has to be considered somewhere between wild, feral and maybe somewhat domesticated (see the excellent Scientific American article from last month). That is not like, say, an aquarium goldfish! And unlike dogs, house cats revert quickly to typical F. sylvestris behavior and even appearance, if released to the wild. Domestic dogs stay as dogs indefinitely, such as the tan pariah dogs in India or stray dogs anywhere, and do not at all revert to being wolves. Cats soon become wildcats. That is a big difference!
Face it, our house cats have two or three feet in the wild kingdom; they are genetically virtually identical to the Desert Cat subspecies of wildcat, so they simply can't be some new species, Felis catus, however cute they may be! That anthropocentric idea is ridiculous. Or flip it over: the Desert Cat wildcat subspecies lybica is so close genetically to the other four subspecies that they look and act the same and freely interbreed, but it is even more closely related to the cat in your living room than to them! So maybe it's right to call house cats F. sylvestris catus, as seems to be the trend, i.e., a sixth subspecies of wildcat. But are they really even that? We've just admitted that at most they are taxonomically just another kind of wildcat, after all (and holy smokes for that!) - is it so much a stretch to say that they're just the same old kind of wildcats they've always been, i.e., the Desert Cat (or African Wildcat as sometimes known), F.s. lybica?
Which would mean, cat lover, that you're living with a cunning desert predator! If that's not the real truth, the science tells us it's mighty close. And look, at least you've got yourself one good thing out of Iraq: you're little furry friend!
© J.D. 2009
Yes, but OT, we all now know us dogs are much smarter. It's proven:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jun/16/psychologist-test-outsmarts-cats
July 8, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's an interesting article, thanks!
I think it's so hard to tease out the issue about how little a cat cares about these games that the test could be flawed. But I'm not saying cats are smart; I literally don't know.
July 8, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geez, I had forgotten to recommend. - Thanks for this. Really great piece!
July 8, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, I really appreciate that, friend. It had me truly fascinated going through it! Thanks a bunch!
July 8, 2009 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
A dog, smarter than a cat? Hmmm. Does your dog:
a) wake you, not by anxiously whining or barking, but instead with a gentle pat on the face -- or mebbe three, or four pats, if you're slow?
b) use sign language that even the slowest human cannot miss, by circling you and licking his lips daintily when hungry? And, if that fails, repeatedly opening a kitchen cabinet door, allowing it to bang shut until you get the message?
c) stalk haughtily away from his food dish if it is not rid of all remnants from a former meal?
d) tell you when it is time to wash his bed by settling down in a drawerful of freshly-washed linen?
e) reward your physical affection with approving purrs? Purr when you read out loud? Sit on the CD player, batting at the controls when he wants you to change the music?
f) bring you partially eaten trophies of his hunt to acknowledge your Alpha status?
g) and last, but certainly not least, use a litter box?
Just say'in.
July 8, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ms. Staebler, when's the last time you taught a cat to play fetch? I rest my case...
July 8, 2009 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
My cat plays fetch. It's one of his favorite games. And unlike our dumb dog, he brings it back and drops it in my hand, minus all the slobber.
July 8, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice to hear, BevD! I'm sure with you on the slobber part!
July 8, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
As it happens, Obey, my cat, Hermione, does play fetch, although it's true that she would be more enthusiastic, and stay with the game longer, if the toy were alive. But embedded catnip in a mouse toy serves almost as well. And hey -- isn't the animal smarter who demands some personal satisfaction from the exercise? Who won't settle for playing fetch with, well, anything -- a plastic frisbee, a tennis ball, even a stick, for crying out loud?
But suppose, for the sake of friendly discussion, that no cat ever played fetch... are their other superior attributes not worthy of acknowledgement? I ask you, Pug, with the greatest respect for a dog who can co-opt the Eames chair.
July 8, 2009 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gawd, I learn things. I stand corrected. Cats play fetch?! Okay then. I agree that their main attribute is being Superior, the stuck up little critters... haha
No seriously, I love cats, Staebler. Less needy, you often don't feel that anyone 'owns' a cat like they own dogs. Ties into what OT's on about with their 'wilder' side. Those studies on cat v dog intelligence add as a coda that cats will survive in the wild better than dogs because they can actually still hunt. Which also makes one wonder about these 'intelligence' tests. They're apparently not very good at causal thinking - unlike dogs - though maybe causal thinking is overrated. Dunno...
July 8, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
S'OK, Obey. Your pug is so clearly a sophisticated bon vivant that cats have no edge on him at all. One can picture him engaging in lively discussion on one fascinating subject or another while someone else passes the hors d'ouevres.
July 8, 2009 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes... but the hors-d'oeuvres keep distracting him...
;0P
July 8, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha -- distracted by the hors d'oeuvres... but clearly too civilized to give into temptation? Or, in the next frame, would we see an abandoned Eames chair and a licked-clean tray on the floor?
July 8, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, never get between the pug and a tray of those crab-canapé thingees... just sayin'
July 8, 2009 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or a Terrier and his steering wheel!
July 8, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obey - When's the last time your dog taught you to play fetch? Cat's do that all the time. Talk about smarts!
July 8, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice one Fred. An anecdote: I once saw a cat and dog playing a kind of tag. The cat was on a garden table and the dog was on the ground, and the first to touch the other 'won' the round. The dog was much bigger (a golder retriever) so had the better reach and won the first few times. Now the table had one of those holes in the middle for a parasol. The cat looked down that hole and hatched a plan. It dangled a paw down the hole so the dog could see it from below the table. the dog ran under the table to grab the paw, but before he got there the cat pulled up his paw and scooted to the edge of the table and tapped the dog on his butt. The look of amazement on the dog's face - priceless!
True story.
July 8, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of my kittens, when she considers her litterbox overdue, wrestles the toilet paper roll off its spoke and carries it to some prominent location, usually the bedside or the computer desk (somewhat mauled due to her limitations in carrying an object twice as big as her head.)
It took a while to connect the dots on that one, and verify it to my satisfaction. The leap of logic is impressive.
July 8, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes.
As far as I can tell our cat keeps trying to figure out how smart I am.
July 8, 2009 10:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
They know. They just like to keep you off balance
=D
July 8, 2009 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
My cat, a pedigree, is apartment-bound as a lot of pedigrees are, especially since she's a sort that they can't properly defend themselves in fights with street cats. If we go outside somewhere, I normally can bring her whereever in a cat bag made of fabric, by the way. About 10 days ago she needed to go to the vet which is in my neighborhood and we had to walk over there without the vet bag since it was out of town being used by another cat, so she was in my arms on the street. It worked out okay and I've continued the tradition with her.
Every night I take her out for a stroll now. I might have a coffee at a sidewalk cafe with her in my arms, and we walk back.
She has become very affectionate since I began doing this (this morning she sat in a chair with me and purred for half and hour; that's new. Seems to appreciate the quality time together.
July 8, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
OT -- Tess, a tiny tabby, walked me to class all year, and insists on a nightly walk after dinner, staying right with me, trotting along as if she were... a you know what.
July 8, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
And this is with no leash??
July 8, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
No leash -- image immortalized in school yearbook.
July 8, 2009 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy moley!
July 8, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
(No leash, OT, but neither is there any traffic on campus at night. In the real world, a leash or tote would be necessary, yes?)
July 8, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's the common understanding. I think the story is still very unusual. Cat following you along and insisting on walks? Wow!
The leash business is interesting, you know. You buy a special jacket for the cat, and then it's recommended that you just leave the thing in the cat's favorite place so he/she can get used to it. Gradually, gradually introduce. At some point you got the cat in the jacket at home and you give food right after that. You do that again at some point and attach the leash and let the cat pull that around for a while, then give food and praise him/her. Like that.
July 8, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't be so quick to claim the storage of grain as a first in any society, in fact I would go so far as to say that nothing can be claimed with any certainty that it was first done in any place.
July 8, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay. I can even edit to soften the point.
July 8, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Done! Ha-ha, a little keystroking clears me of this need! Thanks for a good comment!
July 8, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
What about F.s. lolcat, which spread exclusively over the internet?
July 8, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well ya done stumped me on that one, Mr. Donal!
July 8, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your argument is obvious to me; I thought it was obvious to everyone that dogs were a successful domestication project of humans and that cats were not.
I see the appeal of pets that require nearly equal work and attention as children as kinda irrational, all emotional. You might as well go whole hog and do the children thing, was always my attitude. Breeding a dog for a work mate, (i.e., shepherd, hunting dog) where it furnishes work in return for yours is another thing.
I guess I have a strange view because I wasn't raised with a dog or cat, my mother was a farm girl who had to shepherd the cows ("You're bored?! You don't know bored! Try sitting in a field with cowas all day!") and was glad to have escape animals and their messes and the responsibilities involved with them once rescued by marriage. Matter of fact, I can't believe I am saying this--because it sounds like a PETA person (yeech)--but I when I think on it on a moral level, I get kind of queasy with the whole "bred for pets thing," was taught a high respect for animals, and thinking on animals like dogs being bred specifically for human amusement and affection gives me a moment of pause. I know how good it is for human mental health, but if those who do it with humans, don't we call it a sort of abuse? Animals bred for food, one thing, more along the natural order of things, animals bred for affection, another.
Don't get me wrong, as I am a moral relativist, this is nothing that gets me up in arms, it's just "thoughts," and I do truly get how much higher mammal pets mean to people and how good they are for so many.
July 8, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
P.S. Couple of other thoughts:
1) Cats working as mousers for humans strikes me as a symbiotic relationship, quite natural, i.e., not something bred by humans (if breeding by humans is like trying to control evolution to human advantage.)
2) I also get a queasy feeling when I see people go overboard with the anthropomorphizing of their mammal pets, i.e., past fancy dog outfits and into the territory of
taking the cat, setting him up on the couch, putting one paw around a beer bottle, and one paw around a TV remote, snapping a picture and posting it on the internet. Now this makes me laugh like everyone else, but to me it's a naughty, guilty laugh, I am thinking in the back of my mind that it's disrespectful of animal life, abusive, just using them for fun.
July 8, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some of this stuff of yours strikes me as a bit gloomy by the way. Not a life-of-the-party situation.
July 8, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to use my little brothers to practice hair styles on, put curlers in their hair and stuff. Does that count? :-)
July 8, 2009 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watch it AA, I grew up with 4 sisters, in the middle of the age pattern spread.
July 8, 2009 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't she "cowherd" the cows?
July 8, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
ur right, my bad.
July 8, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought it was obvious to everyone that dogs were a successful domestication project of humans and that cats were not.
Maybe it's the other way around though, as cats seem to survive better in a human environment in which they are not well cared for than dogs do.
July 8, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was talking about natural evolution vs. "animal husbandry," i.e., us screwing around with genetics to make something that better serves our use, just like we do with plants since the days of Mendel. As Overreach's blog implies, cats haven't been changed much by us, they can revert to the wild easily. But we have sheep dogs, hunting dogs, ideal children's pet pogs, police dogs, etc. even neurotic dogs if that's what you want. Cats do pretty much naturally in our environment what they would do if we had left them alone and not taken them in as pets, we haven't been able to manipulate them as much for our purposes, it is still a symbiotic relationship, like two species often do in the wild when they end up in the same environment, not an "animal husbandry" one. Cats will be "mousers" whether we are there or not, they didn't become "mousers" for us and through our efforts at breeding.
July 8, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Your argument is obvious to me; I thought it was obvious to everyone that dogs were a successful domestication project of humans and that cats were not."
Today is the first time I ever thought of this point, though I don't deny that it is obvious. Most people think of cats as domesticated, but that's actually quite a stretch for the ones that go outdoors. Wikipedia thinks their domesticated; I posted the link. Scientific American does *not*.
"I see the appeal of pets that require nearly equal work and attention as children as kinda irrational, all emotional. You might as well go whole hog and do the children thing, was always my attitude."
I agree if you're talking about dogs. Cats don't require a lot of work, of course. They clean themselves fastidiously and you don't have to walk them. Me taking mine for a walk in my arms is for the sheer delight of it -- I am not ready to father another child (I have a teenager) but when I am, I probably won't take my cat for a lot of walks. And she'll be fine with that and will be interested in the child.
July 8, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am reliably informed that god created dogs to teach we humans unconditional love, so that in turn we could try to teach it to cats.
July 8, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many cats do genuinely love the people close to them; it depends in part how they're raised and treated.
July 8, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure our cat loved my wife, yet ... I always hear about old ladies leaving their money to cats, but never the other way around.
July 8, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly and rightly so, Larry.
And also.
:-)
July 8, 2009 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Had a Newfie dog once who loved cats. He enjoyed catching them... pinning them down... then licking their fur, sometimes for as long as an hour... before releasing them, otherwise unharmed.
Only catch was that every time - and I do mean every - he'd lick their fur 'til it was totally stuck back, PASTED, against the grain.
Talk about unhappy cats.
And I swear, you could see him laugh after he'd done it.
I know we did.
July 8, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that's some story, Quinn, Esq.! Did the cats not defend themselves at all?
It must have been some site watching them slime their ways away from these scenes!
July 8, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are dogs whose Alpha status cats acknowledge. My sister had a great dane/pit bull/retriever mix who was a nanny at heart, gentle as a lamb, but fussy about where the two cats napped. If she didn't like a particular cat's location, she would pick up the cat in her not-to-be-argued with jaws and move it somewhere else. In ten years, neither cat attempted a demur. See? Cats are smarter.
July 8, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cats are smarter? The driving puppy begs to differ, Ms. Staebler! He will send you a p-mail posthaste that will enlighten your stubbornness on this subject. :-)
July 8, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, this is a very interesting article, and brings to mi---ooooooooh dust speck!
*pounce*
July 8, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The whole concept of self-domestication should be viewed with great incredulity. The Self-domestication Wikipedia article is lame (it is, after-all, Wikipedia...). It is pure speculation, and an act of anthropomorphizing species. It also seems to imply some vague and unexplained species-wide self-awareness and free-will, which goes much farther than can even be rationally be applied to humanity.
Evolution is not a straight-forward path, nor has it ended in any species. Evolution is a parallel process, which has diverged and continued along different paths with increased speciation, and environmental adaptation. There is no way yet of knowing whether other species "think" as humans, whether they feel the same emotions, or even emotions at all. We tend to anthropomorphize animals' actions, because that is the only reference to thinking that we have.
Cats' brains are significantly different from human brains. They no more "chose" to evolve towards domestication, than hominids chose to walk upright, or chose to speak languages. Cats which were best suited to interact with humans, and fill the new niche created by grain storage, which greatly increased rodent populations, were simply the species that exploited it. Individual cats, which were for whatever reason(s), best at exploiting the new niche, were the individuals that were most successful breeding and therefore filling in this new niche. They seem less domesticated than dogs, because cats are better suited for existing alone or in very small groups, whereas dogs evolved as animals dependent upon social packs. Even coyotes group up into packs when the environment favors it.
Wikipedia is deserving of being flogged repeatedly for publishing the "Self-domestication" article. It's content is Wikipediculous.
See: Jerry Gabriel , "Inside the Minds of Animals", BrainConnection.com, May 2000
July 8, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
PCA, this is obviously something you've thought about! And I *like* that!
Gotta admit, I fell for this self-domesticating malarkey at first (I had never heard the term, and I thought, wow!). Then I read Scientific American's thoroughly logical argument that cats (feeding and fighting on the streets) are *still* not domesticated, and thought, mother of mercy, that's right! And *what kind of fool am I?*
Thanks for your keen insight!
Best always,
O.T.
July 8, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
OT, if you have public library internet access, and a decent public library system, search its databases for:
"Avian brains and a new understanding of vertebrate brain evolution", Nature Reviews, Volume 6; February 2005
It has got a few big scientific words about brains, but not too many, and describes most of those anyway, so it only requires a little external net looking-up for basic understanding. An excerpt from it:
I had a Siamese cat when I was a kid, that became completely blind, yet if left alone long enough, could still get to a parakeet in a secured cage strung by a chain and bolt in the the middle of the living room's ceiling (a feat she did with ease when she could still see-but amazing blind). I had another Siamese cat, that would wait by the front door outside in the landscaping, then attack the mailman's trouser cuffs (only the mailman, and he always laughed about it). Another Siamese cat of mine spent half its life acting paranoid, hiding behind boxes in a bedroom closet shelf. A tomcat of mine would disappear for weeks, sometimes months, and only show up again after getting his butt kicked by a bigger tomcat somewhere, in need of medical attention.I've had dogs who knew several dozen sounds/gestures, and would obey them (albeit, sometimes with hesitancy). I inherited a dog once in a relationship break-up, because it was able to dig under a block wall, trek over 10 miles across a heavy urban environment without getting picked-up by animal control, and show up whining at my front door.
Every pet I've ever owned, even lizards, turtles and fish, exhibited extraordinary intelligence at times, but I try not to define it in human terms. Their brains are different from mine.
July 8, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you're nice to a dog they think you're a god. If you're nice to a cat they think they're a god.
July 8, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word, Mark! Word! :)
July 8, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
OT - thanks for a interesting and educating blog -I never knew so much information regarding cats. Happy I am now so well informed - may not remember all of the latin names but what the heck - I am getting senile.........
My two cats both play fetch - more so when they were kittens. Also both sense when I am not feeling well and curl up right next to me and purr and snuggle. Very healing habit...Also, the male cat offers kisses often - only trouble is that rough tongue. Easy to care for, can be left longer than a dog can due to litter box, and mine greet me at the door when I do return. Very forgiving of my absense.
Have had lots of dogs and cats in my lifetime and love them both but at this stage of my life, appreciate my cats so much. Great pets for a single woman living alone - no walking late at night!!!! Afraid of bears..........
July 8, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maggie, this has been a journey for me, and I sure never had so much information about no cats neither, and thank heaven I only had to synthesize and not do any of the heavy lifting.
I find it utterly scintillating that cats came from the Fertile Triangle (I lived there and sometimes they even let me play guitar!), that domestic cats are in terms of DNA virtually indistinguishable from Fertile Triangle cats, the role of the house mouse from India, and also to consider the wild behaviors of "domestic" cats whom we may set out on the streets to hunt, feed, mate!
Wow!
Thanks for your note!!
Fondest regards, O.T.
July 8, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cats may lack the ability to engage in endless political debate on TPM, but some have uncanny abilities humans would envy - or on second thought, perhaps not:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/328
July 8, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are fun to watch. They go to their own bathroom which is not much different from some of the outdoor toilets of the Finns up here.
They will stay to themselves and then, of a sudden, need some mammalian affection......
What I like are stories like in the comments here today and others I have heard.
I love it when someone has cats and a dog and watching them play.
Strange creatures. Egyptians adored them. I mean they ADORED them with prayers and such. ha
GREAT POST ON PUSSY.
What!!!!!
July 8, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wot?!
;)
July 9, 2009 2:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
We found our little monster shivering under the porch about four years ago. He was hungry, underweight, and had a nasty respiratory infection. We rushed him to the local vet just in time. A few shots, plenty of food, and a week later we had a new member of the family.
Living with a cat was certainly an adjustment. You learn quickly that they do not understand (nor care for) the word "no," yet when they tell you know it generally comes in the form of a scratch or bite (which thanfully became less viscous after a while).
One thing you quickly learn about cats, as this post suggests, is that they can take you or leave you. You are there for food, water, shelter, and affection, the latter on their terms.
But that is why I love cats. They seem to have such odd personalities, not unlike myself. Early on my cat decided he would not use the litter box anymore. Only the outdoors were meant to pee in for him.
So we installed a cat door for his convenience. This door he uses when he feels like it but tends to make me his personal doorman.
He is also a very picky eater. Not two cans of the same make in a row. Turkey no more than once a week. Chicken less often. No beef. Lots of fish.
Every now and again we get a dead bird, mouse, snake, lizard, or mole on the porch. This disgusts us but makes him quite proud. Throwing it out in the woods sends him into a pouting mode for hours.
The tiny furball that came here four years ago is long gone, replaced by a 15 pound, lithe hunter who can easily jump from the floor to the top of the refrigerator.
Thanks for the post, OT. It reminds me of just how much I love my cat and how much it tolerates me!
July 8, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a perfect and very vivid example of how cats are not really domesticated. In taxonomic terms, the only reasonable debate is whether we have on our hands a new subspecies of wildcat,
Felis sylvestris catus, or the pre-existing subspecies of wildcat, F.s. lybica (the Desert Cat).
Either way, it's Felis sylvestris, the wildcat.
It continues to utterly fascinate me.
Your friend under the stairs was not far from death, and you did a very good thing!
July 9, 2009 1:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Where do House Cats come from? My two, Mr. Sprocket and Ms. Josie, came from the pet control officer in a nearby town--located through petfinders.com I got them recently to fill the void left by Mindy's passing on. They took a look around the house, conferred with each other, and decided to let me keep living here.
For those who haven't located it--maybe one of you? I can recommend I can has cheeseburgers at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ currently featuring "In a final cruel twist of fate, Sparky’s last sight was Aunt Bertha’s incoming spandex-covered butt." and http://ihasahotdog.com/ the goggie version of the same.
July 8, 2009 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
They multiply while we're not looking
they also go into different dimensions.
My cats own me
July 8, 2009 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really interesting article and post. Count me as another TPMer totally pwned by my cat.
Cats can pass any cause & effect test provided they are interested in that effect at precisely that moment. When I am busy at work on my laptop, that's when Smokey wants affection. She'll rub up against my arm and I'll pet her distractedly. Not good enough. She walks across the laptop over to the right side and puts her paw right on the F2 button making the screen go totally dark. I give her my undivided attention, two minutes later she's off doing her own thing again.
I told my sister this story and she thought I was crazy. I left Smokey by her one weekend to cat-sit and she got to experience it first hand :)
July 8, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
RE: dogs being smarter than cats: Nuh-uh!!!
Rather, dogs possess a different intelligence than do cats, and both possess a different intelligence than do humans. After all, you can't expect an animal without language to "think" in the same way an animal that does have language would think. Animals can communicate both with one another and with us, but it's not the same as having language.
Secondly, that bogus experiment proves NOTHING except that cats are not motivated by the same stimuli as dogs are. A cat that's not hungry can't be arsed with figuring out how to get at a treat, and a non-moving object is not going to motivate a cat to action in the same way it will a dog.
Last, it's all too common to see people making the same old jokes about how cats could care less whether their human companions live or die. Not true in the least. Cats can and do become very attached to their owners (or servants, however you wish to think of it), but not being pack animals, it's not essential to their well-being to have constant attention and feedback from their human companions. My current feline companion has now been with me for five years, and remains skittish of pretty much everyone else, but can't get enough affection from me. She seeks me out for comfort when she's afraid (thunderstorms, children in the house), she comes and gets me when she wants to play, and has a lot of other behavoirs that at are at least suggestive that she feels a strong bond with me - more than what she shares with any other living creature of any species. She's also a great cat who unlike most has the gift of patience. Not once in 5 years has she awakened me to feed her or let her out - in fact she often sleeps in for an hour or two after I get up. Not once has she ever peed or pooped anywhere in the house other than the designated litterbox, and it's only in the house when I'm out of town or the weather is bad. Even when she's hungry, she just comes in and sits patiently by my chair looking up at me, knowing that I'll notice her and get up and attend to whatever it is she wants. She brings me dead rodents on a regular basis and is rewarded with high praise - even the dead bunnies (to her, it's just another small furry rodent - and I don't want to discourage her from killing rats, so the bunnies get praised too).
They really all do have their own "personalities".
July 9, 2009 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
All interesting stuff, Jenn, and all very charming except the dead rodents.
There is something about their social structure that makes wildcats offer these gifts.
From what I read about it ("The best explanation is probably," blah-blah), I can tell that is is not well understood!
Oh, about why they won't cooperate in experiments? My significant other scoffed at this, and said they know they're going to be fed anyway, so why should they bother with this foolishness?
July 9, 2009 2:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
RE: feline social structure and "gifts":
This is just anecdotal, but interesting: several years ago, one of my neighbors across the street adopted 2 female cats who were littermates, both of whom I called "Sister". One of them came over to my yard regularly to lay about and hunt. One day one she caught a bird in my backyard. I watched out the window as she headed home with her "trophy". When she got to the front yard, she started doing that vocalization they do to announce a kill, and continued it until she got to her own front yard. Having been put on notice by the announcement, I watched as the other Sister came out in to their front yard, and sat and waited as the victorious Sister crossed the street, approached her, and dropped the bird at her feet. Then they both just sat there and looked at it. I got the idea from watching that the presentation of a trophy is the way cats express kinship - they hunt to support their families in the wild, and when they live with us, they bring those kills home to us, their surrogate families.
As for my own cat, she has a pattern: she beheads every other kill. That is, she'll bring me an intact kill one time, and the next time, the head will be removed before I see it. Also, she doesn't "announce" it - she just leaves it at one of the doors I use every day, where she knows it will be found. I wondered about this beheading of every other kill and told someone about it - they said, "the ones she leaves the heads on are the ones she expects you to eat." I don't know how true that is, because god only knows what a cat is "thinking", but it's an interesting hypothesis, anyway. But I am absolutely convinced that the reason they bring their trophies to us has something to do with an expression of kinship.
July 9, 2009 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink