DO NOT feed strangers cats. Water is fine. If you feed it, at best you're fucking up its diet, at worst you're basically abducting the cat.
Pet cats should live inside, with plenty of toys and people that care for them, not out killing bird populations and risking getting run over, etc. Outdoor cats have much shorter life spans...
My cat figured out the dog door by watching the dogs. She's inside 80% of the time but prefers to do her business outside if the weather's clear and goes out for an hour or so about twice a day besides that.
Of all things, my part basset hound mix is a bird killing machine despite the stubby legs, broken hip and arthritis. I don't know how she manages to do it, but lots of half eaten bird corpses started showing up in our yard right after we got her, but only in the back yard which she could reach via the dog door. Starting before the cat started using the dog door.
Back when my cat was alive I got occasional reports that he would enter various other houses nearby and meow by the fridge until he was given a cold cut.
Does a cat in me who has a Facebook group and pictures of him sat on everyone's beds. In the summer he came into my house and ate my cat's food. Cheeky bugger.
We have many strays we are trying to rescue amd until then they get fed and if some rando is letting their cat out to eat whatever the heck then find (and steal my food) on my property that's the cat's owner being the asshole. I'm trying to help needy cats and I can't even oht traps down to get them medical attention because I could end up catching some irresponsible person's cat.
We have an asshole stray in our neighborhood, but she's smart enough she's figured out traps. One of these days we'll get her.
I have one cat and a doggy door so it can go in and out as it pleases. A stray cat figured out it could use the doggy door.
I have two cats.
Outdoor cats are responsible for the extinction of numerous bird species.
https://enviroliteracy.org/how-many-birds-killed-by-cats/
https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/
Outdoor cats are also at increased risk of contracting avian flu.
Further proof that if you're cute enough you can get anything you want.
Step 1:
Step 2:
Well I mean i would probably take in an alligator if it came through my window
Alligator can have the whole house, actually. It's okay, I'll move 👍
But then the alligator will be lonely :(
Sir, this is a Wendy's, you cannot keep the gator just because it was thrown through the window...
I thought it was Florida’s natural activity.
"You handed it to me with my food??"
especially if it rolls onto its back and paddles its legs about adorably to beg for tummy rubs
Toxoplasmosis gang.
My favourite origin myth for human over-civilization is we're the science project of cats. They saw our ancestors tossing their own feces at each other, and thought, I wonder...
I don't know about that human baby thing.
Yeah that seems really far fetched. Humans are generally bad at communicating with mostly body posture and scent. We have no tail to wiggle, no easily movable ears and no chance to use cat pheromones.
So naturally the cat has the best chance to get a response by using vocalication/sounds. It is just coincidence that their kittens do also mostly respond to sounds in their first weeks.
The resemblance to baby vocalizations can be rather unsettling with some cats. I suppose it's somewhat natural since they're about the same size as a newborn human, but specifically adopting somewhat human-like (and thus baby-like, because that's the one they can imitate the best) vocalization doesn't seem that far-fetched.
IIRC, it's more that they over time figure out what sounds and actions get their owner's attention. We respond better, unconsiously or otherwise when they meow at us.
My old cat figured out, before I did, that if she knocks shit off the coffee table I get up and check if her bowl is empty.
Generally wild/feral adult cats are more or less mute outside of anger/mating/territory calls, but domesticated cats keep their kitten vocalizations if we respond to them.
My current cat is very vocal and we responded playfully to his meowing as he grew up.
Edit: Here's a scientific american blog/article about it. I don't think it's something we have confirmation on, just a good hunch.
Both of my cats came from my in-laws farm and it's been funny with the older of the two as she needed to learn from another cat how being friendly gets you pets and scritches, meanwhile the younger one who basically came inside as soon as she was on hard food hasn't had that difficulty
If meows sounded anything like human baby cries they would give me an instant headache and the desire to get rid of the cat
Just what an AI would say!
I got a cat that definitely lives with a baby at one point
it's literally just that cats figure out that making noise draws our attention, and even better if they make a cute noise.
I hated cats. Then a cat decided he lived in my house. He changed my life. Now I have another trash cat living with me and I love them both so much.
I also love them so much 😻
Same thing happened to me ..Luci is the worst, he climbs on my chest and greets me as soon as I'm up ..then he hunts me all day.
Such sweet kitties!!!
I love that ear fluff!
actually what they say is "I live here meow"
I can’t tell if I hate cats or love cats but they are never neutral. In fact there is a wild one in my house right now
I don’t even know why is he in my house or how it happened but at this point I think we tolerate each other pretty good. He gets the hose sometimes, I get his piss hose on the floor sometimes. He gets the snacks, I get the purr and fluffiness. I guess I can live with this chaotic balance.
I guess for someone who likes to control things cats could be a nightmare as they will never be some obedient pets but that may tell more about the owner than the cat.
Kinda sucks that my floor and sofa is ruined tho, it’s like a mini tiger, wildlife in your house. I guess this is the pleasures of completely feral cats. It’s possible that with this experience I could take on some caracal or serval. Of course I am not crazy nor I approve to do this but I have a glimpse of what mindset and work it would take
The Cat is also a menace that cannot stand sight of any other cat and goes straight for the throat. Little fluffy psycho, quite lovely
will never be some obedient pet
I find it odd that people think that. Mine are all incredibly well-behaved. I mean, I invested time in training them but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I think the secret is being consistent and correcting the behavior as it's happening. They're smart enough to know when they're doing something wrong. Oh, they know! Lol
I love cats, but I also love my plants, and despise the odor of a used litter box. Therefore, I cannot have cats. It sucks.
So we got that expensive robot litter box and you can't smell it unless you're emptying it. It has made cat care so much easier.
Might be obvious, but have you ruled out infection? Sometimes cats pee in places they shouldn't if they have a UTI.
Just went through that....I thought it was megacolon because he kept dragging his ass Then I realized he was trying to pee literally everywhere...and I keep a piss free house. As soon as I figured it out he was at the vet 3 times to get it right...but very much money later he's on the mend.
It's scary when your stupid fluffy baby is hurting
Did they model their meows, or did they have a trait that happened to work in a new environment and then pass it on?
From my understanding, wild cats only meow when little and domesticated cats keep this juvenile trait into adulthood
Yes, but the question is if they model their meows to sound like human infants. We know they changed their behavior to meow when wanting attention from us. But I'd be willing to bet they didn't model their meows to sound like that. They just happen to sound like that because they're small animals with high pitch voices.
To my knowledge that's a lot of how domestication winds up being.
What I found interesting was a study when they tried to domesticate silver foxes for the fur industry (because basically they didn't take to being raised in fur farms well). So basically they were selectively bread for not being aggressive to humans.
Which worked, but the drawbacks were effectively... all of their childlike traits remained. IE their ears stayed floppy, and they stopped growing the silver coat that was the whole reason the fur industry wanted them.
Basically I think it could be said that effectively... most domestication traits are more or less, keeping childlike mentality for life in animals.
Cat meowing is the main reason why I redeveloped my echolalia. Yes, I meow back at cats.
You can have deep conversations with siameses. Those dudes are super smart
I've been witness to the great cat distribution system.
Our current cat has moved house with us twice. The first house at lived at, we were on the ground floor of the place and this furball just waltzed in and took over. Much to the dismay of the cat we already had.
The preexisting cat was similar. She would hang out at a bus stop that my SO would frequent to get to work, didn't take long before she followed my SO home. She was a shit, but she was cute enough to get away with it. Rest in peace Zora.
Anyways, I would submit that the only reason we haven't had more cats distributed to us is that we lived on the fifth floor of an apartment for a long while. We recently moved into a house so that might change.
They can also hop on your dad's chest while he is sleeping so he can wake up thinking he is having a heart attack
Twice*
Whenever someone suggests me the idea to let in/buy/adopt a cat, I sent them this link:
But didn't Tommy have HIV which was the reason it killed him?
O. K. but did anyone take care-of/in the kitten, after?
Would people really let some stray live with them? Can't imagine having a pet. They convert money and time into poop and stink and offer nothing in return. Never understood the appeal, yet I love all animals.
offer nothing in return
Warmth, company, fun...? Also, the experience of being responsible for and caring for another being can be very valuable.
Not to me, sorry. What benefit could i have from "caring for another being"? Me, personally? The other being, yes, maybe. But me? I could never care ADEQUATELY for any animal. they don't belong in my company/house. Just because we domesticated the fuck outta them doesn't make it better. And i also couldn't neuter them or feed them this disgusting shit we call pet-food. And also I don't want to take out the shit of others :-)
Your last sentence is crazy
Just because some things don't align with yours doesn't make it "crazy". But if you prefer it that way? Then yes, I'm crazy I don't want to care for animals that don't belong in my house and force them into my reign. How crazy I prefer my time and money to be mine and mine (and my wife's) alone. How crazy I don't want to spend time scratching cat-poo out of a litter-box. Or go watch a dog on a leach (that would prefer to roam his territory freely, not under my heel) have a shit outside and scrape it off the floor.
Damn, I should take pills for that :)
I could understand having a pet, but not taking in a random stray without question.
Some strange cat walks into my house? It gets plopped right back into the street, that ain't my cat!
I took in a stray kitten that someone dumped at my work back in the fall. I wasn't sure if i would keep her or not, but i felt obligated to clean her up and feed her while i figured out what to do with her. As soon as she started interacting with my other kitten, they became best friends and i couldn't in good conscience seperate them.
Another friend of mine slowly took in a stray cat over the fourse of a summer. Leave out food for it of it hangs out around your house until it starts to nuzzle up against you. Then you can pet it, maybe pick it up, and then take it to a doctor to get it checked out.
It sounds to me though, that the other guy just doesn't like animals.
I actually dunno what I would do, but I probably wouldn't kick it out. I'd feed it and stuff, but ultimately won't keep it.
so like, you seriously look at stuff like this and don't see the appeal? A small adorable fuzzball that obviously loves you, that doesn't make you feel happy?
I never said I don't like animals. I do pet them whenever I can and they want to. I really like interacting with any species and learn from it. But I, personally, don't get anything else out of it, emotion-wise. The love of my wife makes me happy, because it's a mutual feeling we can communicate about. The cat (or whichever else animal) does not "love" me. At best it tolerance or even likes my presence. That's not inherently bad or anything, it just is and I wouldn't lie to my it ain't.
