Veteran big-game hunter is crushed by shot elephant. Karma in nature.

A lot of people are very pleased about the untimely death of a big game hunter when an elephant fell on top of him and crushed him to death. The back story is interesting. There was a group of individuals on a hunting safari in Africa. This happens a lot and far too often. They wandered into a breeding herd of elephants according to The Telegraph newspaper.

Three elephant cows charged the hunters. The man in the photograph below (who was killed), Theunis Botha, was leading the group. He tried to shoot the elephants. To try and stop him a fourth elephant cow charged at him from the side. This elephant lifted Botha with their trunk. One of the other trophy hunters then shot this elephant with Botha held up in their trunk. This caused the elephant to drop Botha. The elephant then collapsed from the gunshot and rolled on top of him, killing him.

Both the elephant and the trophy hunter were killed in this incident. It is an example of karma however. In fact, Botha runs a big-game safari business which he started in the early 1980s. He opened his first hunting ranch with his wife. At the time of his killing by this elephant, he owned private hunting ranches in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. He was a passionate professional hunter giving his clients "a unique [and] exciting African safari experience".

Image: Twitter

Image: Twitter

Image: Twitter

Unlike him, elephants have the capacity to be compassionate. You don't have to go far to find research studies on the sentience of elephants and how they behave empathetically towards others and recognise and respond to another elephant's pain or discomfort. Often, they make heroic efforts to assist one another.

It is only humans who take pleasure in killing animals for no good reason and for the fun of it. This attitude is completely alien to other animals. I'm referring to the human as the human-animal in that sentence.

The reaction on the Internet is interesting. A large number of people would agree with what I'm saying here. One commentator said that "the failure to use the word 'murder' for nonhuman animals ignores their [elephants] cognitive and emotional lives and capacities. And that trophy hunting is voluntary and intentional and "there is no reason to engage in it. It is a form of 'thrill killing'."

"Hostility and the need for power and control are associated with poor attitudes towards animals, especially in men, according to research".

It is difficult for many people to understand how sport and trophy hunters can enjoy killing animals for fun. Many people are baffled and sickened by it. 

The top 2 pictures above on this page express their thoughts. These ghastly people defend themselves by saying that they aid in the conservation of the animals that they are killing. That also has completely baffled me.

Killing animals to protect and preserve them seems to be turning the world upside down. And don't tell me they only kill old animals and therefore it is justified. They only kill animals for the fun of it. Let's be honest about it.

This site is about cats. This page in indirectly about cats: lions, tiger, and other cat species shot for the hell of it by these AHs. May they end in hell. May Botha never rest in peace in hell.

Botha kills a leopard. Image: Twitter.

Bad idea: DELIFUR Christmas costumes - Funny Pet Cowboy Outfit Clothing for Dog Cat

I feel that I need to address this recurring problem which is to put domestic cats into outfits so that they look like little humans. You can buy them on Amazon. The picture below shows you an example. The title describes it.

I don't want to be a killjoy because I understand that it can be fun to put domestic cats into mini-human outfits. However, I don't think that it is a good idea because, ultimately, it disrespects the domestic cat. And I think it probably undermines the human-to-cat relationship which should be one of human recognising the fact that they live with a domesticated wildcat at heart.

It's all very well to treat a domestic cat as a human in terms of animal rights. This elevates their rights to that of a human which helps to protect them and which helps to foster respect for them. But to treat them as little humans including babies leads humans down the path of interacting with their cat in a less than optimal way.

It can alter the caregiver's expectations. Treat a domestic cat as a little human and you want them to behave like little humans, perhaps like a toddler. So, you start cuddling your cat a little bit to aggressively because you love them. Your cat might not like it. They might bite you or scratch. They might wriggle free which might hurt your feelings.

If you expect your cat to be a cat and if you understand domestic cat behaviour which is always based upon their wildcat ancestor's behaviour then there is much less chance of being scratched. In fact, the possibility of being scratched can be eliminated almost entirely. There will be a better relationship. One of mutual respect.

Putting your cat in a cowboy outfit to amuse yourself would irritate PETA, the animal rights charity. And I'm with them on this. Their mantra is not to abuse or exploit. I think putting your cat in these clothes is a form of exploitation. Exploitation to amuse yourself. These clothes are all about human activity and enjoyment at the expense of the cat.

Some cats might not mind it too much but most cats will find it a little distressing at least and perhaps completely unacceptable at worst. Without wishing to preach, I think we should be doing things for our cat to make them happy rather than imposing things upon our cat to make us happy. One is giving and the other is taking.

Woman with double chin says she would rather starve to feed her cats

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a BBC story published eight hours ago. The headline is "Cost of living: pet owner would rather starve to feed cats".

Under the headline is a picture (see below) of the woman, Miari Workman, holding her two cats. She has a double chin and she's clearly carrying too much weight. Starving? Not eating enough? Nah!

Ms Workman has made a bold statement which has caught the attention of the news media but she's clearly not carrying through on that statement. She has no need to starve herself because she is finding a way not to and that, by the way, is to go down to a local pet food bank. Free cat food.

I wonder sometimes whether people use pet food banks who should be using them. Do people who operate pet food banks actually check with care the credentials of their customers? Do they check whether they really are out-of-pocket completely to the point where they have to starve themselves as Ms Workman indicates?

I don't think so. In fact, I'm certain that it never happens. She says that she is a single mom with kids and two cats and really struggles with money. This is what is likely to happen because if you've got children you've got to be around for them and therefore you can't go out to work. And therefore, you rely on welfare benefits. And human and pet food banks.

I think though that she has made a statement which is over the top. If she was really skinny and looking pale then I would believe her. But her words are empty.

She also says that the pet food bank "helped tremendously". And "Sometimes I'll feed my daughter and go without and make sure I've got food for the cats."

She goes without food but I think she could go without a little more food because she needs to eat less. That is quite obvious.

Although I can't believe this woman, I can believe, through personal experience that food prices in the UK have rocketed and I believe a lot of the time the rises are unjustified. I believe that the supermarkets are jumping on the bandwagon of inflation and adding an extra price rise in order to increase their profit margins. This is unscrupulous.

Pet food has risen by 12.6% over the past 12 months and human food has risen by 18.2% over the same period.

The one good thing that Ms Workman states is that when you adopt a cat you don't just get rid of them because you're struggling to pay your expenses. You find a way to keep looking after them. Too many people find it too easy to abandon their cat companions as a time convenient to them. 

And sometimes people use events such as the cost-of-living crisis in the UK to get rid of their cat. It's a way of justifying it.

An animal welfare assistant at Blue Cross, who runs the pet food bank, Gemma Greg, 25, said that since January she had noticed that more people were using their charity. And she also said that many families were looking to have their pets rehomed for financial reasons.

I'm back to my original point. The last thing you should do is to get rid of your cat. You can find other ways to save money. You can stop paying subscriptions for mobile phones. You can stop or reduce your outgoings in many areas. You can save enough money by restricting your outgoings to allow you to afford cat food. I just don't see inflation as a good excuse.

Why do feral cats not meow? Can a feral cat meow?

I will answer the second question first. Feral cats have the physical ability and anatomy to meow just like domestic and stray cats. The point is that they don't normally meow because the meow vocalisation is a learned one between domestic cat and human caregiver. It is normally a demand for food or attention.

The answer is not quite as clean as that because the meow sound is very variable. People should not think that every meow made by every cat is exactly the same. There is a great spectrum of meow sounds. 

The word 'meow' is an onomatopoeia meaning that it reflects the sound. But as the meow sound varies a lot it does not reflect the meow sound sometimes!

The meow sound has been learned by the domestic cat to make a demand on their human caregiver. Image: MikeB

As to the first part of the title, as mentioned, this is a learned vocalisation by domestic cats over about 10,000 years of domestication. It is a sound developed between cat and human. 

As feral cats nearly always or almost exclusively 'talk' to other feral cats there is no need for them to meow.

The feral cat might hiss and growl at a human but they won't normally meow at them. 

But if you have the patience to socialise a feral cat which might take many months even as long as 18 months if they are an adult feral cat who's lived their entire life in the urban jungle, they will eventually learn to meow at their human caregiver.

It is a learned process and a demand normally. However, it's meaning will vary as the sound's tone and tenor varies.

It may merge into other sounds like a growl. The Siamese cat has a honk to make demands rather than the classic meow. As I said the meow sound varies 😎.

Here's a video of a very strange meow sound but it is certainly a demand. A call for attention.

American Curl turns up in a homeowner's backyard as a stray

This is unusual. Perhaps very unusual. A user on the Reddit.com website has posted a video which you can see below of a domestic cat that they thought had a strange appearance. 

They said that the cat was very big with strange ears. I immediately, identified the cat as an American Curl which is a fairly rare purebred cat and certainly very rare if he or she behaves as a stray cat which appears to be the case in this instance. 

They're not normally large cat but standard-sized domestic cats with one exception to their regular appearance namely the ears that curl back due to a genetic mutation.

Here is an example of an American Curl show cat photographed by Helmi Flick years ago.

Photo: copyright Helmi Flick.

Note: the video below may eventually stop working. Sorry but I can't control its existence. CLICK ON THE EXPAND ICON BOTTOM-RIGHT TO SEE THE VIDEO FULL SCREEN.

What kind of cat is this? Stray cat moved into my back yard. Has huge paws/weird ears.
by u/ReindeerNo1893 in cats

This breed is meant to be very standard in appearance and they can be tabby cats or any other coat type. I suspect that a neighbour of this person owns this cat. 

And the cat has wandered into a neighbour's property as domestic cats do. It is also slightly unusual for a person to allow their fairly rare purebred cat to wander around outside without supervision.

American Curl turns up in a homeowner's backyard as a stray. Screenshot.

An alternative assessment would be that this is a non-purebred cat which happens by chance to carry the genetic mutation which cause the ears to curl back. 

This gives them the appearance of a purebred American Curl. You won't be able to tell the difference because, as mentioned, the American Curl is a very regular looking cat. There are no other outstanding features other than the ears.

Cat ate 38 hair ties and survived

NEWS AND COMMENT: As reported in The State, a cat was abandoned with other cats by their owner when they moved away. And this particular cat was very ill. She was brought to an animal shelter run by the Charleston Animal Society. It is located about 9 miles north-west of Charleston and is a No-kill shelter with a hospital which cares for around 20,000 animals annually.

UPDATE: THE CAT DIED. SIGH

Sick cat after operation to remove 38 hair ties from her stomach. Image: Charleston Animal Society from video (screenshot).

This cat was therefore fortunate to end up at this shelter where she stopped eating. They x-rayed her and found a massive blockage in her stomach. Her stomach was completely full of ties. A domestic cat's stomach is quite small at about the size of a ping pong ball I am told. How do you get 38 hair ties inside a stomach that size!? It must stretch a lot.

The blockage constituted 38 hair ties which she had obviously eaten as if they were edible foods when in the ownership of the people who abandoned her.

The veterinarian who did the operation was very surprised to see that number of hair ties in her stomach. The associate director of veterinary care at the Charleston Animal Society, Leigh Jamison, said: 

"I've never seen anything like that."

The animal hospital was so taken aback by the finding that they took time to photograph the ties and here they are below.

The 38 hair ties removed from the cat's stomach. Photo: Charleston Animal Society Charleston Animal Society

Fortunately, her intestine is were not damaged but the obstruction to her digestive tract caused fat to build up in her liver which resulted in a major health issue. She is currently being fed through a feeding tube.

They are keeping up her electrolytes to ensure that they are in balance and she is improving but she is not out of the woods yet, they report.

Comment: one doesn't want to criticise but for a cat owner to allow their cat to eat 38 hair ties and then abandon them is beyond careless. It is callous and cruel. The woman (presumed woman but it might have been a man) must have noticed her hair ties going missing. She must have seen her cat playing with the ties and eating them but did nothing about it.

And of course, it does bring to mind the dangers of hair ties and objects like them. Cats like to play with small, elastic objects. They are an ideal size as a cat toy. And as cat play is play-hunting, the end result is going to be eating the object if possible. And it is possible for a domestic cat eat a hair tie but of course they remain undigested in the stomach.

The obvious moral to the story is that a cat owner who uses her ties should make sure that they are not left lying around the floor or in any other place which is accessible to their cat. Obvious stuff. Nothing extraordinary in that statement (and it has been said a million times before) but if - as this person was - the owner is careless and doesn't care about the health and welfare of a cat you can end up killing your cat.

It seems purely fortuitous that this cat ended up at a cat shelter where there was an animal hospital attached. The story might well have ended completely differently and tragically but for that simple fact.

Here is a video which might or might not run! It may stop working. But if not great.

Mother dresses as giant cat at school board meeting during bizarre ‘anti-woke’ protest

A woman at a school meeting makes a point about gender self-identification while wearing a cat costume. She wore the cat costume to make the point that nobody would say that she is a cat just because she wears a cat costume.

There is a video of her at the end of the article.

She was criticising a member of the school board who self identifies as a woman despite being a biological man. The man wears his deceased wife's clothes and lipstick and grows his hair a little bit longer than normal.

I don't think she's criticising the fact he wears his ex-wife's clothes as you can't criticise it but she's criticising the fact that he is on the school board and making decisions about the children while believing that people can self-identify on their gender.

Woman wears a cat costume to make her point about gender self-identification. Screenshot.

This is an enormously polarising topic. It is a very current topic. In the UK, it brings to mind Nicola Sturgeon, the first Minister of Scotland, bringing into law self-identification on gender.

She wants Scottish citizens to be able to self identify on gender which may produce a problem in terms of Scotland's relationship with England where people can't self identify.

Self-identification is part of the woke movement. And the woke movement itself is polarising. Many people agree with it and support it while others react against it.

My personal opinion is that the woke movement in general is a good idea because it supports equality. It supports people who are currently on the fringe of society when they should be in the mainstream. They should not be outsiders and regarded as unusual et cetera just because they don't have mainstream ideas or they have sexual orientation issues.

People should be sensitive towards people who question their sexual orientation. So personally I'm sensitive to the woke movement. But it can go to far.

However, I don't think it's a good idea to self-identify on gender. Especially with respect to kids. It is very easy for children to learn thoughts which are unhealthy for them. They might think that they are in the wrong body but it might be a temporary phase in their life. They are impressionable.

I believe that if society accepted more readily and more openly LGBTQ people as normal mainstream people then there will be no need for them to take steps to make a statement about themselves. They would just be part of society rather than feeling as if they are outside of mainstream society.

Bring them into mainstream society and I think this woke movement on gender self-identification would go away. There wouldn't be a need for it.

But that's a personal thought and my opinion. I don't want to rub anybody up the wrong way so if people disagree with me I accept it. But let's just say I'm sensitive towards people who want to self-identify as the opposite sex and I think that need comes about because of society's attitude towards them.

The news story

I like briefly to touch on the new story. The woman in the story and in the video is a Phoenix mother. Her speech went viral as she showed up to a local school board meeting dressed as a cat as mentioned.

The video was presented on the Lindsey Graham "Patriot Barbie" podcast. As you can see she was voicing her concerns about the "confusing message a member of the school board, who identifies as transgender, was sending to elementary-age children" according to the FOX NEWS report.

The woman states:

"This was a local school in my neighbourhood where there was a member of the school board whose name is Paul Bixler. He’s a man, he’s very clearly a man. The only thing he does to identify as a female is put lipstick on. He grew his hair out a little bit, and he wears his deceased wife’s clothing to school, to sporting events, to school events to fundraisers, school events in front of the children."

The man demands being identified in one of two ways either as Paul which is a man's name or Ms Bixler. And the woman states that he has a gender identity crisis. She adds that:

"Not only does he appear in front of the children and insist that the children define him as a woman, but he sits on the board and he’s making decisions for these children."

It seems that she wants him off the school board as he might affect some students into questioning their gender when it might be better if they did not. 

Do cats understand kisses?

For HUMANS kissing is a common way to express affection or greet someone in many cultures around the world. However, in some cultures, kissing was not a regular practice before European colonization. 

In these cultures, kissing was introduced by Europeans and did not have the same significance as it does in other cultures. Kissing can be used to express a wide range of emotions, including love, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, joy, and sorrow.

Your cat understands your kiss as an act of allogrooming from another cat. - MikeB

Your cat understands your kiss as an act of allogrooming from another cat. Image: MikeB

It is an intimate exchange. It is a practice that was created by humans for humans. We don't know the origin. Anyway it is irrelevant. This is about humans.

When we kiss our cat they don't understand the action as a kiss per se. You've probably kissed your cat before during moments when there is emotional warmth between you. Your cat will have learned that the act of kissing is a sign of affection, a bit like stroking their head. 

Cats don't understand kisses per se in the way humans do as a deeply intimate action. But they understand the affection attached to it provided there is affection attached to it! And it has been done often. This teaches your cat what it means.

That's about it on cats understanding human kisses. Except for this afterthought:

Allogrooming versus kissing

Petting your cat and stroking him or her is very close to the human kiss from the cat's standpoint. They interpret is as their mother or a feline associate (friend) grooming them. When a cat grooms another cat (allogrooming) cats understand this as a physical sign of affection. It is bonding.

Allogrooming is almost a feline version of the human kiss. - MikeB

Cat allogrooming. A feline version of the human kiss?! Image in the public domain.

Allogrooming means licking another cat. The tongue is involved as it is in French kissing! You can see the association.

The cat may even understand the human kiss on their head as a allogrooming from another cat. If that was the case, once again they'd regard it as a friendly act which is very similar to a peck on the cheek from a dear friend.

There is a big overlap here between cat allogrooming and human kisses 😎.