The
Puppy Blender linked to
this terrific piece by Nicholas Wade defending cats from some recent attacks on their nature and behavior. Amidst that fine article was this interesting bit.
All the other species, in the authors’ view, were bred by people for their desired qualities. Cats, being without utility, were not. Instead, they domesticated themselves and chose their own mates without human interference.
It all came about, the researchers concede, because of wild cats’ powers of observation. They had the wits to notice that the first human settlements were full of uncleared garbage strewn about by their slovenly inhabitants and so were overrun with rats, mice and sparrows.
The cats decided to move into this inviting new ecological niche, even though the price of admission was to develop a disdainful tolerance of people.
What a great analysis! When you look at the way our cats behave with us, you can see that same principle at work every day. Rudyard Kipling
put it more poetically and had that very same theory pegged about a hundred years earlier. Here's a tidbit from Just So Stories about how the cat came to live with people. In the story, the dog has just surrendered his freedom to the woman in exchange for a regular feeding of bones.
Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals wondered what had happened to Wild Dog, and at last Wild Horse stamped with his foot and said, 'I will go and see and say why Wild Dog has not returned. Cat, come with me.'
'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. I will not come.' But all the same he followed Wild Horse softly, very softly, and hid himself where he could hear everything.
In the end, the cat does everything on his own terms. Read the whole thing at the link. It's well worth it.
4 comments:
We are about to get a cat. I have a few questions for a cat expert like yourself:
1. How many hours a day can I expect it to work?
2. Are the eggs edible?
3. Would it be mean to name it after a female Democrat lawmaker? I mean, to the cat.
Jeff,
These are all excellent questions. Here ae my answers.
1. The cat will work 24 hours a day, but only according to its own definition of "work".
2. The eggs are edible, but very difficult to obtain. I advise you not to try.
3. The naming of a cat is a delicate matter and should be done only after giving the cat a great deal of attention, catnip-filled toys and lots of treats. In the end, the cat will take its own name through it's behavior.
:-)
Heh, my boys have recently taken up fly-hunting-- Fluffy, The Rug That Walks, being the first to find out they're made of food.
This resulted in my mom and I having a conversation to the effect that if you raise a dog as a house dog, without exposure to other dogs, he'll starve to death if he gets lost.
A horse raised only on hay in a manger can starve to death, knee deep in good grass. (Mom's actually seen it nearly happen.)
A cat will be a feral hunter in three days. (More likely to be food for something else, true, but they won't starve if there's any food to be found.)
I must argue against the idea that cats have no utility, though-- the vast mass of them at my folks' barn mean that we have almost no mice, few pigeons, and even the marmots are well away from the house and barn.
Foxfier, I agree. My relatives in Wisconsin keep hordes of cats on their farms and feed them very little. The mice and other pests are kept in check.
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