What affects us affects cats
Mapping all 20,000 genes of the domestic cat is intended to allow scientists to (a) improve human health (b) improve cat health and (c) better understand the origins of the domestic cat (and how it spread across the world) and provided cat breeds are included in studies, the evolution of the cat breeds. Until …
I wonder whether shelter staff deliberately underestimate the ages of the cats in their care to assist rehoming. On Facebook, Elisa Black-Taylor tells us of several occasions when she has fostered/adopted cats from her local shelter, Greenville County Pet Rescue, when the age of the cat has been underestimated by such a margin as …
At page 47 of Charles Darwin’s book, “The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” vol.1, he writes that throughout the area of the Malayan Archipelago, Siam (Thailand), Pequan (not sure where that is – it’s an outdated name) and ‘Burmah’ (Myanmar), “all the cats have truncated tails about half the proper length, often …
This may sound fanciful but the mighty Apple Inc., at one time the world’s largest company, has been inspired by the humble domestic cat’s ability to land on all fours after a fall. The company has designed and received patent approval for a mechanism within the iPhone which ensures that it rights itself and …
How can cats see in the dark? The answer is in the obvious, really. A cat’s eyes have to be more sensitive to light than the eyes of other animals including humans. A good analogy is the modern digital camera. Modern cameras have become progressively more competent under low light conditions. These conditions are …
‘Cats rule, dogs drool’ is a funny way to describe the difference. The dog has a cruder drinking technique than the cat. That’s what I claim! We know that cats are more sophisticated than dogs, don’t we?! Research, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech and Princeton University in the USA, has explained …
I guess we know it, although some cat caretakers might like to believe otherwise. Cats who have a constant smile are just made that way. It is an accident of anatomy. That said, it does not mean that cats don’t smile inside, feel content or happy. But when we see a smiling cat it …
Rudolph Furtado, POC’s Asian reporter in Mumbai, India, has recently returned from Indonesia where he noticed a large number of short-tailed cats and some with kinked tails. Singapore SPCA say short tailed cats are common and they are born that way. That is the obvious reason: genetics and inheritance; however, Robinson’s Genetics (a well-known …
