I love barn cats. It seems natural to me. They live in that middle ground between domestication, living in the polished home, and a wild cat existence outside. The modern day barn cat is as close as we can get to the original domestic cats of over 9,000 years ago. The picture below shows classic, scruffy, tabby barn cats who are buddies:
There are some stunning barn cats and barn cat pictures. Another aspect of the barn cat that I appreciate is that they do a service in catching rodents – perhaps not all of them do! I am sure this improves the relationship between the human being and the cat. It seems to make the relationship more balanced. I would expect that barn cats are fairly safe. They have cover and access to proper cat food, I would expect. Some time ago I suggested that feral and/or unwanted cats be shipped out to farms so they could both have a home and be of service. I know this happens sometimes. Although it is probably difficult to manage a relocation such as this.
Farm animals can befriend barn cats as above.
Below is calico cat – a female, as they are nearly always female. The color and pattern is stunning against the background of the straw.
The next picture is quite extraordinary. It reminds me of those monkeys in the steaming hot springs in the snow. This shaggy super long haired cat hardly looks like a barn cat.
The next one shows barn kittens. I desperately want to hug and take them home and look after them for the rest of their lives. They are adorable and oh, so vulnerable. They are a bit dirty and need some TLC, it seems to me.
The next barn cat picture puts the cats firmly in context. You can’t mistake these barn cats for anything else.
What about the next one. A wow cat picture. I recently presented some cat and horse pictures. Well here we have a relationship that probably had to happen: cat and cow. They look very content together.
There are many more but I think I’ll stop there. Which one is your favorite? Mine is the cat with the cow. Just gotta take her away and make her life complete. That is an emotional response. She is probably fairly content, already. As I said, I think barn cats in the right place should be living a fairly good life provided the farmer makes sure they get prompt veterinary treatment when necessary. That last point may be a problem area. Perhaps farmers have a tendency to not treat animals quite as sensitively as a good cat caretaker in the city.
One cat is famous for originally being a barn cat (if you believe cat history); the Maine Coon. The Maine Coon was a barn cat in America for 250+ years until a farmer thought he would show off his long haired cats at a farm show, which was the first step to stardom for this very popular purebred, pedigree cat.
Do you have a personal experience with respect to the quality of life of barn cats. I’d be interested to hear.
Note: These picture were embedded from Pinterest but Pinterest broke the links so these are now uploaded to this site. Pinterest do not provide credits so neither can I, which I regret. The entire business model of Pinterest is built on breach of copyright. Therefore I feel free to do likewise if these pictures are copyright protected.
You’re correct and proper to see the fallacy of this guy’s argument (aka propaganda), and we know who he is. Thankfully there seems to be only one of his kind and I’m sure no woman would go near him, so at least HE won’t breed. Not selectively, randomly or by any other means hopefully. I don’t know if his unusually rabid hatred and mind-numbing penchant for false argument is necessarily genetically passed on, but just as well. He’s full of crap like so many people these days who abuse social media. Your patience with him is amazing but I think counter-productive to your site. Take a lesson from what’s been happening in the U.S. via Russian disinformation influence. We’ve been invaded and corrupted by it and for proof of that we need look no further than who was elected president in 2016. Misinformation, overwhelming and distracting the senses with convoluted logic, motivated by destruction is the actual sickness here. It’s just bs and Woody is a similar one-man invasive species if you ask me. Talk about projecting, right? Why do you let his words stand, out of principle? He doesn’t deserve it really, though I respect your view on censorship. He’s using you and your site to infect whoever would listen. It’s like Trump, who tells so many lies at such a rate it’s hard to fact check. They exhaust people who sometimes just give in and let it pass. I don’t think you should. This is one venue or platform where you rightfully have editorial privilege. I think many fair-minded people would say let him start his own site if he thinks he makes any sense. I dunno, he just really bothers me.
You’re correct and proper to see the fallacy of this guy’s argument (aka propaganda), and we know who he is. Thankfully there seems to be only one of his kind and I’m sure no woman would go near him, so at least HE won’t breed. Not selectively, randomly or by any other means hopefully. I don’t know if his unusual and rabid hate is necessarily genetically passed on, but just as well. His arguments don’t hold water on so many levels, but he’s too obsessed to see that. Your patience with him is amazing.
The stable I boarded my horse at had several barn cats which were friendly to both people and equines alike. I saw a cat sitting on my horse’s back when he was in his stall many times. He enjoyed the company. I’m all for barn cats as long as they receive regular veterinary attention, shots, de-fleaed regularly, and are spayed/neutered. Just because they are working cats, they deserve to be treated well. Not to mention fed regularly.
I just posted a story to complement this one. https://pictures-of-cats.org/cat-and-horse-form-unusual-friendship-when-the-opportunity-for-a-catnap-arose.html
This is a very poor analogy. I don’t think you can equate spiders particulars poisonous spiders with the domestic cat, a mammal, and a companion animal to millions of people. How do you manage to equate the two? The trouble is you look for arguments that just don’t stack up. You are desperate to justify your shooting of feral cats despite it being illegal. You should give up the argument because it will never succeed.
“chose that didn’t have the desired genetic traits were killed so they couldn’t breed to make more of the same. This goes all the way back to the Egyptians who selectively bred cats”
Produce evidence of this: hard evidence. You cannot do it. You make stuff up all the time to suit your argument.