Bengal kitten doesn't understand water in a glass

The title to the video is "Curious Cat Examines Glass of Water". It is slightly misleading. It seems clear to me that the Bengal kitten does not understand that this is water. He knows water but when it is in a glass, he is unsure about it. This is because he is young and learning. He prods, pokes and sniffs it to test it. It is quite cute. It does tell us too that sometimes the reason why cats prod water is to test it. 

Bengal cat checks out water in a glass as he is unsure. Screenshot.

Some people think that cats drink better from clear bowls. Cats are poor drinkers because of their wild cat inheritance which is why dry cat food is problematic. Cats get a lot of their water from prey animals. The mouse is 70% water. Dry cat food does not replicate normal prey. Cats don't compensate sufficiently by drinking more water and become dehydrated.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Super cute dwarf kitten video

This is a super-cute short video of a super-cute tabby dwarf kitten wandering around a hard floor. It doesn't get much cuter except the music is not particularly great as far as I am concerned. Please remember by the way that this sort of video can stop working after a while because they get pulled from the website of origin which in this case is Pinterest.

You have to think about the more serious aspects of what looks like a totally innocent video. I'm referring to the fact that the breeding of dwarf cats is questionable. I know that the breeders do all they can to be healthy cats but dwarf cats can inherit a couple of known genetic illnesses. If you breed cats with that potential then you shouldn't do it in my opinion. The Germans would agree with me because they call it "torture breeding". Also, although it's very cute for a cat to have very short legs it goes against nature. Who cares about nature?

Well, a lot of people do especially nowadays with the coronavirus pandemic. People are beginning to see that we should respect nature otherwise we get a backlash from nature. And short legs means that a domestic cat loses a lot of what they are given by nature which is that wonderful athleticism. Their ability to jump beautifully and with great precision. A lot of that is lost in dwarf cats.

Dwarf cat owners say that their cat can jump just fine. Yes, they can jump just fine but not as well as a normal cat because the levers i.e. the length of the bones, are not there and jumping power comes about through fast twitch muscles and long levers. That principle by the way is used when you throw a tennis ball with one of those extenders that dog owners buy. These extenders, as I have called them, increase the lever length of the throwing arm which means that the person can throw the tennis ball much further and with relative ease for a dog to chase.

So we have a sweet, cute video with crappy music but there's something slightly difficult to accept behind the cuteness which is the health and behavioural aspects of the kitten that we see.

Stealing Kittens from a Shelter. What Next?

This must be a first. Thee young men stealing two kittens from an animal shelter. It seems despicable.  When you think that animal shelters often struggle to keep going and are dependent upon the adoption fees which are relatively modest it is the worst kind of petty crime to steal from an animal shelter.  

They are non-profit. If someone steals from a big corporation it is equally bad in the eyes of the law but on a moral basis some people could argue that it might be justified because, after all, big corporations are sometimes rather immoral organisations anyway.  But from a shelter which is non-profit and doing some good work it seems extraordinary to me.

The burglary took place at SAVE in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. The trio of 19-year-old men attempted but failed to steal 2 kittens from the animal shelter.

Fortunately, two of them were caught in the act while a third gave himself up which is rather strange. I am not sure what his motive was. I don't think it was out of honesty.

One of the shelter volunteers who was outside in the backyard saw one of the burglars running out of the back of the shelter with a kitten in his hand.  He caught the burglar red-handed by pinning him down and recovering the kitten. The police were called and they turned up shortly thereafter.

The other kitten was also recovered and both were unharmed.  The person gave herself up was Corey Thompson (left in photo).  The other two alleged burglars were Hamza Cheema and John Moore (right in photo).

Story

Baby Cat Photo

Baby cat, a photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr.

A Giane Portal special baby cat photo. This photograph has almost 91,000 views, 460 comments and 1,045 favorites. That puts it in the very top rank of Flickr photos.

It was taken in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The photo is protected by copyright. Please respect Giane's copyright.

You can see the picture on Giane's photostream on Flickr by clicking on this link.

Giane's Flickr username is fofurasfelinas. I guess you knew that. Giane started out photographing cats as an amateur. She likes cats and photographer so much and people liked her photographs so much that she turned professional. I think she says she cares for 15 cats. She photographs them all beautifully.

This little baby cat is so vulnerable but looks serene and content.

Cats Social Learning

The well known video of a cat copying boxers on television is an example of cat social learning through observation in the domestic human environment. The experts in the video don't mention this and don't make comment on why this is happening.

Cats are first class observational learners. Young cats learn from watching mother and preferably other relatives. They can learn skills that were not used by ancestors; in other words entirely new skills by copying (Chester 1969 and other studies). The classic cases of observational learning are kittens and cubs going out with mom on their first hunting trips. Before that the mother (the queen) brings dead prey back to the den or nest. The next stage is to bring back live prey at about 4 weeks of age for feral cats. When live prey is released in the den the mother catches the prey and thereby shows her offspring how it is done.

The kittens practice what they have learned under mother's supervision. In studies it was found that kittens are more receptive to socialization to humans and other animals when mother is present, thus verifying the importance of her role in kittens learning new skills.

As mentioned, relatives of kittens play a role too and father cats play their part in teaching and protecting offspring.

Group hunting of larger than normal prey by feral cats can take place, it seems.  The kill is shared. It is surmised that this is a learned skill through observation.

Picture of Cat Drinking Milk (from a cow!)

The classic picture of a cat drinking milk from a cow - direct! This picture is in the public domain. You know...I think it is real. Look at the cat leaning forward and the farmer looking at the cat as he directs the jet of milk towards him. Or am I being naive! I need help. Please leave a comment if you know whether this is an edited photograph or a genuine record of what happened. Whatever, I like it and I like the black and white cat waiting his turn. The meerkat position of the tabby and white cat drinking makes me laugh because it is very purposeful. He really is positioning himself properly to get the maximum amount of milk into his mouth. Cats are lactose intolerant in general. Cows milk should be given to calves! Cats milk (colostrum) should be given to kittens...Damn I am being serious again.

Live Kittens Fed to Snakes

Yes, live kittens are fed to snakes as a regular diet. Sounds gruesome. Do we care? This has been brought to my notice by Gahame, a regular visitor of PoC. He picked it up on the internet. People advertise "kitten free to good home" and Mr Macho Man with his large snakes rings up...that is it. He convinces the irresponsible cat owner who has allowed her cat to breed that he is a suitable candidate to provide loving lifetime care for this little vulnerable kitten. As soon as he has collected the kitten and returned home, he joyously chucks it into the snake's enclose and watches. You know, kittens put up less of a struggle than puppies which makes them popular with these horrible people. But puppies are used as well.

I seems that the normal snake food is raw prey type food that has been bred, pre-killed and frozen and then sold (mice, rats, rabbits etc.). But for some people this sort of food is not good enough. It has to be live for these macho monsters and Craigslist is an excellent source as it is probably the world's largest, online, free advertising agency.

There are probably lots of ads for cats on Graigslist although I read somewhere that at one time they prohibited the advertising of cats on their website. Is this still the case or have they relaxed their rules? Graiglist is a USA based website. This problem seems to be more prevalent in the USA than elsewhere. Americans do have a penchant for keeping exotic pets. This includes tigers etc. See Joe Exotic's story.

In the UK it would have to be animal cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to fed live kittens to snakes as it must cause unnecessary suffering.

The whole thing disgusts me. But the snake owner will say, what is the problem? There are too many cats without homes that have to be killed at cat shelters because no one wants them. And live mice are fed to snakes and it seems few people find that objectionable. We eat rabbits, cows and sheep etc. What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Kitty play

Kitty play, a photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr.

This excellent photo is by fofurasfelinas (Flickr name) - Giane Portal. It is part of her black and white cat images. Please note that the photo is protected by copyright. Giane has given me permission to use it. Please respect copyright.

Black and white photos of cats allow us to look more at the form of the cat. The design and composition of the photograph becomes more noticeable because the distraction of colour is removed. A lot of people like black and white photography for that reason.

About 40 years ago black and white photography was the default or standard photography. Photographing in colour was something you made a conscious decision to do.

I love the simplicity of the image expressing the gentleness, delicacy and vulnerability of the kitten. It has the right sort of feel for a photograph of a kitten.