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A review by jrc2011
Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet by John Bradshaw
4.0
The reason I bought this book was that it had a ton of information about the history of feline evolution, the social history of cats and humans, as well as some fascinating biological information about cats. I didn't buy it to find out more about what makes my cat so cute and quirky, nor to explain personality or whatever.
I do confess - the evolutionary stuff was a bit dry and long, it was hard for me to get through. I can't remember the names of any of the animals and locations in modern cats' lineage at this point.
What I do remember is that it made me hate the Ancient Egyptians. Apparently, Ancient Egyptians loved cats so much that they bred them in large numbers so they could kill them and mummify them to sell as trinkets for people to offer as sacrifices at temple. Stupid English people took cemeteries of mummified cats by the ship load, one shipment was 19 tons, to turn into fertilizer back in England.
A redeeming tidbit about the Ancient Egyptians: worshippers of Bastet would get on party barges, singing, drinking and mooning people on the shore! That sounds like a party. Of course, my cats prefer private cello solos.
While monastic intellectuals appreciated cats they still demonized them in sermons and the Catholic Church sanction cruelty toward cats throughout the 17th c -- I mean, come ON, these cats are killing your vermin that cause plague and you think it's ok to ...oh, wait, the CATHOLIC Church? Nevermind. Rampant cruelty for centuries from the cult that brought humankind the Spanish Inquisition and other atrocities.
Note to self: Cats do not require Vitamin C.
One of the best things I learned was the section about cats' eyesight (they see yellow and blue best, same as dogs) and about their sense of smell (better than dogs but they don't care what we think). Cats don't see things the way they do -- it reminds me of flying in my friend's private small plane. He said "look up and down to scan for movement and other aircraft" -- which is different from how we operate on land or water.
Cats have a similar special way of looking at the world -- they mostly look for movement, and they look ahead to get the lay of the land, memorize where things are and then proceed to get tangled up in your ankles because, well, your ankles were NOT there when they decided to walk that direction. I imagine that is also why my cats like running up and down the length of the house in the most unobstructed path -- must be very fun for them.
Near the end - the author threw out a very interesting point about sterilizing cats. If we continually sterilize human-friendly/oriented cats, we'll keep ending up with cats who have behavior problems (and health problems, too!). I can attest to this -- I have fostered pregnant friendly ferals and moved their kittens right into foster care, and I have fostered 2-7 month old feral kittens and there's a huge difference in how the animals behave.
My two recent fosters (who are still here) may never be social cats - I can't walk up to them and pet them in the daytime but they seem to be enjoying life as indoor cats and get along with my other cats. They are even learning to make requests of me for food or to open doors. My middle kitty is a "failed feral" - she's very sweet but still quite shy and hides from strangers. The youngsters are still pretty wild even after living with me for 18 months, and often act like I'm going to eat them instead of give them food.
Frankly, there are entirely too many humans on the planet (especially Americans - 5% of world population using 40% of world resources) -- I would prefer to focus on population control of my fellow citizens as one of the chief problems with world resources and quality of life for all living creatures.
I do confess - the evolutionary stuff was a bit dry and long, it was hard for me to get through. I can't remember the names of any of the animals and locations in modern cats' lineage at this point.
What I do remember is that it made me hate the Ancient Egyptians. Apparently, Ancient Egyptians loved cats so much that they bred them in large numbers so they could kill them and mummify them to sell as trinkets for people to offer as sacrifices at temple. Stupid English people took cemeteries of mummified cats by the ship load, one shipment was 19 tons, to turn into fertilizer back in England.
A redeeming tidbit about the Ancient Egyptians: worshippers of Bastet would get on party barges, singing, drinking and mooning people on the shore! That sounds like a party. Of course, my cats prefer private cello solos.
While monastic intellectuals appreciated cats they still demonized them in sermons and the Catholic Church sanction cruelty toward cats throughout the 17th c -- I mean, come ON, these cats are killing your vermin that cause plague and you think it's ok to ...oh, wait, the CATHOLIC Church? Nevermind. Rampant cruelty for centuries from the cult that brought humankind the Spanish Inquisition and other atrocities.
Note to self: Cats do not require Vitamin C.
One of the best things I learned was the section about cats' eyesight (they see yellow and blue best, same as dogs) and about their sense of smell (better than dogs but they don't care what we think). Cats don't see things the way they do -- it reminds me of flying in my friend's private small plane. He said "look up and down to scan for movement and other aircraft" -- which is different from how we operate on land or water.
Cats have a similar special way of looking at the world -- they mostly look for movement, and they look ahead to get the lay of the land, memorize where things are and then proceed to get tangled up in your ankles because, well, your ankles were NOT there when they decided to walk that direction. I imagine that is also why my cats like running up and down the length of the house in the most unobstructed path -- must be very fun for them.
Near the end - the author threw out a very interesting point about sterilizing cats. If we continually sterilize human-friendly/oriented cats, we'll keep ending up with cats who have behavior problems (and health problems, too!). I can attest to this -- I have fostered pregnant friendly ferals and moved their kittens right into foster care, and I have fostered 2-7 month old feral kittens and there's a huge difference in how the animals behave.
My two recent fosters (who are still here) may never be social cats - I can't walk up to them and pet them in the daytime but they seem to be enjoying life as indoor cats and get along with my other cats. They are even learning to make requests of me for food or to open doors. My middle kitty is a "failed feral" - she's very sweet but still quite shy and hides from strangers. The youngsters are still pretty wild even after living with me for 18 months, and often act like I'm going to eat them instead of give them food.
Frankly, there are entirely too many humans on the planet (especially Americans - 5% of world population using 40% of world resources) -- I would prefer to focus on population control of my fellow citizens as one of the chief problems with world resources and quality of life for all living creatures.