
Cat
“”One cat just leads to another.
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| —Ernest Hemingway[1] |
A cat is a cute domestic animal[2]
(and often as a general term for members of the family Felidae, wild or domesticated) whose description follows.
Contents |
[edit] Cats!
A cat (Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus, depending on whom you ask) is a member of the Felidae, or feline, family of animals, readily identifiable by its adorableness and other affiliated quirks and charms. A cat is occasionally a vicious evil beast that will rake claws across one's face when it is being petted.[3] Other than that, the main contribution cats make to our lives is their ability to move with supernatural grace. Where a dog would run through a flower patch, stepping randomly on every flower on the way, felines are aware of where they place their feet at every step, their back foot going in the exact same spot as the front foot. A cat can jump 4 feet up onto a mantlepiece covered with fragile knicknacks, and not knock over a single one. Unless they want to. It should be noted that a cat apparently derives great pleasure from gently pushing things (the more fragile/breakable the better) off surfaces to the floor below and then maintaining a look of injured innocence.
Cats carry in their little heads a detailed mental map of every place they frequent, and are visibly startled when a new object appears - especially if it is another cat. This being a rather effective adaptation for a relatively small animal that must contend with some much larger predators, cats will often explore whatever additions or alterations they find to ensure their awareness of any and all gaps they may hide in, and whether or not such gaps can be used for ambush purposes.
Cats are an interesting quirk of evolution - at an early point in human history, (roughly 12,000 years ago)[4] wildcats[wp] (Felis silvestris) began to live near settled humans, and by their reliance on early human tribes, decided to let themselves be domesticated, and developed traits to aid in their newfound life.[5] As mentioned in the caption, the furry mammal in the top picture of the two in this section is a wildcat and not a domesticated cat (though they do have a similar appearance to domesticated cats), so petting it is not a good idea. Wildcats are close relatives of the domesticated cat and the latter is generally considered to be a subspecies of the former by biologists who do not consider the two to be separate species (biologists that do classify them as separate species refer to them as Felis catus; biologists who don't use Felis silvestris catus). It is believed cats were accepted by people after communities started to store surplus grain and other food products, which attracted the rodents that cats so skillfully hunt and kill, making cats useful to have around.
Ancient Egypt was thought to be the first civilization to domesticate cats, but that has been proven false. The Egyptian word for cat is "Mau," which sounds awfully like "meow." They worshipped Bastet, a cat-headed goddess.
In return for food, drink, excrement removal, bed, and universal health care, a cat gives back companionship and a daily lesson in how to move. Occasionally a cat will present its owner property with the corpse of an even smaller mammal or avian. Often this gift will be in installments - later portions being regurgitated, often on the furniture or person of the human cohabitee. A cat has the ability to look at anything or anyone with utmost disdain because of their conviction of total superiority. Cats can also see things that aren't there - they will suddenly stare at a point in space, causing their human companions to believe that there is a '"presence" in the area.
A human cannot decide that a cat will like a particular food; the more a person so believes, the more likely the cat is to spurn it — that is, unless it is tuna: cats will only eat food that they can smell, and fish foods definitely rank among the most odoriferous. A cat unfed for a certain period of time (currently estimated at seventeen minutes but subject to future testing) is in danger of expiring from starvation. This is evidenced by pityful "wowlings" at its human servitors and fixed staring at anything being eaten or drunk by them.
Cats are (usually) the natural enemies of all other smaller life forms and delight in torturing smaller beasts by killing them slowly. Examples include mice, rats, or, if the cat is exceptionally lucky, a long-eared jerboa.
However, a cat may be able to suppress this instinct if raised with the animal, although there's no telling that it will attack other animals (for example, a cat who grew up with mice may be willing to slaughter hamsters). The mere fact that an animal is larger than any particular cat is no guarantee that it will be safe from attack. Humans can satisfy this instinct in a more environmentally-acceptable manner by casting balls of wool and small fluffy toys for them to play with. It should be noted however that a cat will prefer to play with a ball of wool which is in use rather than one which has been provided for the purpose.
Cats are the Inspection Officers of their households - no new item or being may be introduced to the cat's place of abode (it is their place of abode, not yours) without the Inspection Officer giving it the once over. If it is an object, it will need to be sat on - or in - to test it for suitability. If it is an item of comfort, such as a cushion, blanket or human being, the Inspection Officer must use it first to ascertain its cosiness. An empty box must be occupied and defended. All items leaving the household must also be inspected - for example, suitcases.[6] Even glasses cannot be spared.
If a cat sleeps on a human's bed, it will have preferred locations that are calculated to be the most inconvenient/painful for the other occupants. Prior to curling on the lower abdomen or immediately beneath the chin, the cat will stamp around with claws extended, with the potential of causing extreme damage to irreplaceable parts of their human servitors.
Cats also enjoy setting a bear trap for their owners in the form of rolling onto their backs with a sweet look on their face while exposing their tummies, thus enticing human hands into the focal point of all four razor edged paws and teeth. Within a split second of initial hand-to-tummy contact, the trap is triggered, and the owner's hand becomes clamped into a barrage of scratching, biting, and strange back-legged cycle kicking. Despite the resultant injuries from such an attack, cat owners have been known to fall for this trap multiple times, some possibly enjoying it.
Cats are known enemies to things like "productivity," as this well documented photo essay will attest to. Infant cats are called kittens, and are even deadlier than normal cats due to their even sharper claws and their ability to override all rational thought in nearby humans. But they are oh-so-cuu-uute!
People seem to be incapable of neutrality towards cats. They either love them or hate them. Dog-lovers seem to hate cats the most, though there are rather a lot of oddballs who keep both types of pet in the same household successfully. Cats are able to sniff out those who are not enamoured and will preferentially approach, snuggle and rub against them. Persons allergic to cats are especially likely to be treated in this manner.
[edit] Genuine quick facts about cats
- A cat can hear the pulling of a ringpull on a can of catfood at 50 metres.
- The only product of cats is the hairball, designed to bring the barefoot morning person rudely awake upon stepping in it. This can be avoided by combing the cat to get rid of hairs so they don't get clogged in the throat.
- According to most translations of the Bible, it is apparently only worthy to mention cats once.[7]
- Cats generally don't have a good relationship with man's best friend, even though they both descended from Miacis. Although to be fair all animals share a common ancestor if you go back far enough. Still, the dog is one of the few animals that can get along spontaneously with cats, and the cat is one of the few animals that can get along spontaneously with dogs. Humans are another, and perhaps the only one for both, which says much about humans, dogs, and cats -- three consummately-brutal predators.
- Despite all their disdain for dogs, the vast majority of their hate is reserved for the red dot.
- Now iconic in popular culture, the domestic housecat is the source of various internet comedy memes.
- The major difference between cats and their traditional foe dogs: "dogs have owners, cats have staff."
- In defiance of known laws of relativity and quantum physics, cats have a unique ability to be in two places at once. They were in the room you just left but are next to the food bowl in the kitchen before you arrive there.
- Most cats react in a rather peculiar manner to the herb Nepeta cataria, more popularly known as "catnip". This plant, related to the mint family, seems to affect a majority of cats in a manner similar to how Cannabis sativa affects humans, except that unlike pot, catnip's effect on cats happens without requiring combustion or other heating of plant-matter. Simply crushing the plant is enough.
- Cats have a highly sophisticated
matter replicatordigestion system that can inexplicably poop out at least 2.5 times more matter than was ingested in the first place.
- Cats do occasionally attempt to communicate via computer: PawSense has been developed by those sufficiently warped not to submit to the superiority of the feline race.
- Cats control your behavior towards them via their protozoan minions.
- During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was believed that cats were linked to the devil; consequently, many were burnt at the stake. Had this not happened then the Black Death may not have been as deadly to the populations it affected as they may have helped bring down the plague-carrying rat population down.
Possibly the famousest cat of the 20th century, Socks the White House Cat, died of cancer in February 2009 at the age of 19.[8]
[edit] Some cats
Some cats like to sit in small, often improvised, shelters such as a mound of wadded Christmas wrapping paper.
Larry, Chief Mouser of the United Kingdom
[edit] Purrrversity
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"If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember." — Terry Pratchett (Lords and Ladies)
"And though you are not sentient and do not comprehend, I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend." — Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)[9]
"Cat? Cat! Cat! It's a cat!" — Dormouse (Alice in Wonderland)
[edit] See also
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For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about cats. |
[edit] Don't see also
[edit] External links
- I Can Has Cheezburger? - Largely amusing cats of lol.
- ROFL Cat - Has less junk on the side than Cheezburger.
- Love Meow - Home of cat addicts.
- Famous paintings, but with cats
- Guidelines for cats
- Meet Maru.
- Sushi Cat
- How to bathe a cat. (more realistic)
- How you can tell if your cat wants to kill you...
- Enjoy your feline ennui.
- Just remember that as bad as this is, a gang of six feral dogs would have done much more damage.
- Google+ community for cat-lovers
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Letters of Note
- ↑ "Bullshit, mouse doesn't see it that way." - George Carlin
- ↑ Personal experience, which I am prepared to swear to. - Susan (bloodyface) Garlick
- ↑ Or, two young earths ago.
- ↑ "Why Do Cats Hang Around Us?" Washington Post, article available here
- ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-01-23-cat_N.htm
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on List of animals in the Bible.
- ↑ Socks done gone Awww! :(
- ↑ Ode to Spot