This is just a simple presentation of some really nice photographs of cats which I believe have found their way into the public domain¹. You can see I have a particular fondness for interspecies relationships. There is something very nice about seeing cats with dogs and cats with horses. I find cats with horses charming. This is probably because they are very different sizes. The difference is so great that you will always see cats on gate posts to get up high enough to head butt their horse. Or they sometimes sit on the horse.
I say “fox-type dog”. I mean “wolf-type dog”! Funny how these things happen.
There are some famous cat and horse relationships. I am thinking of the Godolphin Arabian and his black cat friend, Grimalkin. The Godolphin Arabian is one of the founding horses of modern racing horse:
The relationship between cats and horses must have started because of barn cats living in the same place as stabled horses.
The slide show kicks off with a Scottish wildcat. The really sad thing about this subspecies of wildcat is that there may be no purebred Scottish wildcats left. What is worse almost is that we don’t know. We don’t have an handle on the problem of the hybridization of this very rare cat. There were plans to apply TNR to all the feral cats in the area where Scottish wildcats are found (mainly mid and north Scotland) but that is a huge task and it may be too late anyway. The Scottish wildcat is renowned for its fearless aggressivity when demanded.
Another interesting and frankly amazing picture is of the leopard jumping from a tree either to get off or to attack prey. Leopards are great climbers and smart cats. They spend time in trees. The fanned out forelimbs are reminiscent of the falling cat from a tree:
We all know how effectively a cat protects himself when falling from a height.
Note: 1 If these photos are not in the public domain please tell me by leaving a comment and I will act promptly.
Lovely photos, thanks 🙂 The kittens in a nest up a tree is very sweet – they are in a sort of paradise. Lucky little ones. Lets hope they are in fact very low to the ground and safe.
I always loved watching a certain barn cat that would sleep on one of my friend’s (well, his parents) horses. Ernest was a beautiful horse. His coat turned colors based on the seasons. Some Navajo breed. Anyway, this never named barn cat would sleep as he grazed. He’d walk all over the place and the cat would stay sound asleep for several hours.
Wonderful presentation. Thank you.