New cat meme ‘Cooked Bird’

I have never seen this before and it is very cute only it does bring to mind the wrong kind of mental image. Sorry if that upsets some people. I have a called it a new cat meme. What is a meme? It is this: ‘an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations’. That’s official. These images fit the bill perfectly as people rapidly published their own versions of the original tweet which is the first image below.

The first image is priceless. For all the world it looks like a Turkey prepared for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

From fun to serious.

Medieval times

We know about the impressive flexibility of the domestic cat. It is very evident in the photos. What they are doing: cleaning their bottoms, was considered a reason to brand them the devil incarnate in Medieval times in Europe. That’s a much more serious point to make from these humorous images.

I have a page on Medieval images of cats licking their butts for anyone who’s interested! But in their ignorance the people of the Middle Ages had a lot of superstitions and weird beliefs. Some genuinely believed that cats cleaning their butts was a sign of devilish behaviour.

Medieval cat butt licking. Bestiary, England 15th century (København, Kongelige Bibliotek, GkS 1633 4º, fol. 28v). Image in public domain.

Persecution

This leads me nicely to the Pope who kicked off the mass persecution of domestic and feral cats in the Middle Ages which lasted for centuries, and which caused untold misery for cats and some unfortunate women who were branded witches and burnt at the stake. The Pope’s name was Pope Gregory IX. Did his papal bull lead to the persecution? Click this link to find out.

Personally speaking

Personally, I love the way domestic cats clean their butts with their tongue. It totally lacks human squeamishness. Humans are a little bit averse to facing up to discussing the topic of sh*t. The first thing I think of when I see a beautiful village overlooking an azure blue sea is “What happens to all the sh*t the residents produce?”

I bet it goes into the azure sea ??. The glamorous, desirable and expensive Palm Island Dubai is surrounded by sticky, glutenous sea! Guess what it is.

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