BS: Cats

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 01:30 PM

I'm posting this from the computer lounge where I am staying.
Alas, we residents are not permitted to have cats, or any other pet.
Many of us, however, have pets back home, especially cats.

I am looking right at someone's poster project on behalf of everyone
who is missing a pet animal.
It's a collage of photos printed out by people who have photos of their pet.
Several Great Pyrenees dogs, for some reason;
an occasional bird, an occasional horse,
and the great majority are cats, by far.
THe poster is mounted on the wall next to the computers.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 03:50 PM

Aaaagh! My neighbour has just told me that Covid has now started killing cats! In Cyprus, around 300,000 have died of it, and it's now here in UK. It's called F.I.P. Good grief! Whatever next?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 04:53 PM

FIP has nothing to do with covid-19. It's caused by a coronavirus but not the one that causes covid. Cats can catch covid but it's generally either mild or symptom-free. It's something to not worry about.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 09:25 PM

Watson is glaring at me from the mat at the foot of the stairs. It’s obviously time for bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 02:33 AM

Thank you Steve for clarifying. I had a little chat with her over the fence yesterday evening, and she said exactly what you just wrote - that FIP is not exactly 'Covid', but as a veterinary nurse she's already seen some cases here.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 04:31 AM

Molly is still doing well with her Solensia injections. She has taken to sleeping in the cat carrier that we take her to the vets in. She shouts a lot when in the car but I wonder if she enjoys it really. :-) Not much chance of her catching anything from other cats - she hates them!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 05:38 AM

FIP is rare in the UK. It normally affects only young cats (under 2) in a severe way.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 11:41 AM

Something I'd never needed to think about before:
Why do you get cats with contrasting white extremeties(paws & tail tips & chests) but never black or other colours?

",,,Humans probably also selected for cats who were calm and comfortable around humans, Lyons* said. Behavioral traits seem unrelated to coat color, but for reasons that scientists don't fully understand, white spots tend to appear when the tamest individuals are selected and bred. It's true of horses, pigs, mice, cows and rats.

These distinctive fur colors and markings emerge while a cat embryo is developing. The cells that give cat fur its color first appear as neural crest cells, which are located along what will become the back, Lyons said.

Then, those cells slowly migrate down and around the body. If those waves of cells move far enough to meet each other on the cat's front side, the embryo will be born a solid-colored kitten, such as an all-black or all-orange cat. Felines develop white feet, faces, chests and bellies when these cells don't quite make it all the way."

*nice bit of nominative determinism ;)
Leslie Lyons, professor emerita and head of the Feline Genetics Laboratory at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine.

more
www.livescience.com/why-cats-have-white-socks-on-paws.html

______________________
All because somebody on Facebook was looking for a replacement cuddly toy tabby cat which had to have black paws.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 12:06 PM

Thanks, FreddyHeadey; that explains much. Our second pair of cats were pure-black when we got them; over the next few years, they started developing white patches under their chins and on their bibs. Quoth darling daughter: "The paint's wearing off."

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 12:36 PM

Yabbut — Siamese?

Siamese cats are born pale all over and gradually acquire darker “point” colouring on ears, face, paws and tail. IIRC, this phenomenon arises from melanin cells that cluster in the cooler parts of the body.

I have two black cats, each of whom sports a little white patch on the lower belly that looks just like the visible part of a thong swimsuit. They’ve had those markings all their lives.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 01:15 PM

I cat-sit for a friend who travels a lot and has three tiny cats, getting up in years, and one with persistent medical issues that require medications and a shot every three days. A 1/4 can of cat food per cat at a meal and that one with the most medications takes about five minutes to eat everything. The others are quicker, at 2 - 3 minutes per what is essentially 2 tablespoons of food.

She was over for dinner at my house and when I fed the dogs she was astounded at how quickly they wolfed down their mix of dry and veggies; it's usually finished in around 30 seconds.

I had cats for about 40 years, and I didn't get more after the pack of dogs arrived. The last one was a Siamese who would sit beside his empty bowl at mealtime and shoot laser vision at you until you noticed him. We had a little tortoise shell who arrived as a stray and didn't live as long as he did, but I was astonished to realize after a few weeks that she joined him in the silent bowl laser vision routine.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 01:42 PM

"Laser vision" -- I can just see the stare!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 03:24 PM

When we still had two cats, they had different ways of indicating hunger or general dischuff. The white-and-black one (some call them "moo cats") would sit and be furious at us; the tabby would just sit and look disappointed.

Nowadays the survivor, the tabby, paws noisily at the glass of the back door if he's actually hungry, or gently lays his paw on the glass if it's just for keeping score.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 03:32 PM

Ours just smack their lips the way we would pantomime eating.
Body languages differ.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 12:19 PM

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 05:44 PM

Good thread to refresh --
we need updates on the Mudcat's members' cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Aug 23 - 05:11 PM

refresh again