The antiwitch anticat mandate

demons consorted in the form of black cats with human beings.

There’s no doubt that many of the so-called witches were innocent and there’s no doubt that some of them probably did believe they were worshipping Satan. But if there was any truly innocent party, it was certainly the many cats who were exterminated for no other reason than having black coats. (A curious footnote: Pope Gregory IX was a good friend of the gentle, animal-loving Francis of Assisi.)

The Spanish wildcat

Felis silvestris iberia, resembles the Scottish wildcat but its coat is darker. Like its Scottish cousin, it has a heavier build than most house cats. Its attractively striped coat led to its being hunted by fur trappers, a fate that has befallen many wildcats over the centuries.

Silvestris, still around

pet cats, but, as you will see, their capacity for being tamed varies greatly. Worth noting: all the silvestris wildcats possess larger brains than those of domestic cats.

Pet cremation

The cremation of humans used to be rare in America and Europe, but it is becoming more and more common. As it gains acceptance among humans, it is also becoming more common for pets. There are animal crematoriums, and some vets perform cremations.

Some pet owners dislike the idea of burying their pets, whether it’s on their own property or in a pet cemetery. (And, in the case of apartment dwellers, burial on the premises is not even an option.) Cremation seems a good alternative to burial (or the even worse alternative of putting a beloved pet in the garbage). As with cremated humans, a cat’s ashes can be kept in an urn, buried or scattered.

“Cats,” but not really

animals go by “cat” names but aren’t related to cats at all. Skunks are sometimes called “polecats,” while in Europe the “polecat” is a creature related to the weasel, but neither “polecat” is a true cat. Civets and genets are animals related to the mongooses, and you will hear people speak of “genet cats” and “civet cats,” but neither is a cat belonging to the family Felidae.

Everywhere but Australia

island, and its isolation from other land masses has resulted in wildlife very unlike the other continents. You probably are aware that many of its mammals are marsupials, mammals that carry their young in pouches. Many of these animals, such as the kangaroos and koalas, are not carnivorous, but there are plenty of carnivorous marsupials. They ﬁll the ecological niche that on other continents is ﬁlled by cats. There were no true cats in Australia until the Europeans settled there, and the vicious marsupial “tiger cat” of eastern Australia is not a true cat.

Pet on board

pet inside the home. The goal is that, if you yourself are absent or injured, emergency workers can tell that there are pets inside who need attention.

Computer in your cat

idea of having microchips implanted in human beings so that each of us carries around identiﬁcation (and other sensitive information) on a tiny chip under our skins. It’s already being done to lots of pets, both by vets and animal shelters.

There is a charge, of course, but the injection of the microchip is almost painless, and there are no side effects (so far). The hope is that if your pet becomes lost and gets picked up by an animal shelter, the shelter can digitally “scan” the cat to retrieve your contact information.

The duduk perkara with both microchip implants and tattooing is, of course, that both are practically invisible to most observers. Your best bet for your pet, particularly one who spends a lot of time outdoors, is to have her ﬁtted with a microchip and make her wear a collar and ID tag.

Roaring and non-roaring

purr), while the Panthera cats do roar (but can’t purr). Needless to say, your pet belongs to the Felis genus. Aside from the roar-purr divide, however, the members of Felidae are amazingly alike in shape and overall behavior, and there’s no doubt that one of the great attractions of cats as pets is that they remind us so much of graceful and powerful lions, tigers and leopards.

The in-between phase

Europe around 12 million years ago. This species was smaller than Pseudaelurus though still larger than today’s house cat. Scientists assume that it had a fairly thick coat and the markings of a tabby cat.

Catcall

In days past, there were small whistlelike instruments that made a sound like a cat, and they were used at concerts, political gatherings and other events to express disapproval from the audience. Some people simply made the call with their mouths, and catcall came to refer to any kind of disapproving or disruptive sound at a public gathering.

The infamous saber-tooths

house cats, but in some way the ferocious saber-tooth cats are among the ancestors of today’s pets (or, at any rate, of cats in general). The sabertoothed tiger (Smilodon is the scientiﬁc name) lived in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America 35 million years ago. With its huge daggerlike teeth, it could bring down an elephant. Scientists think these cats’ combination of large body and small brain ensured they would not last forever. (An interesting tidbit: before the U.S. president Thomas Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the American West, it was widely assumed that creatures like saber-toothed tigers still existed in the wilds of America.)

The carnivore ancestors

Presumably the dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago (give or take a year), and the age of the mammals began. The earliest mammals were known as creodonts, and they apparently lived on ﬁsh and were small, not more than a foot tall at the shoulder. So far as we can tell, the creodonts were the distant ancestors of all the carnivores, including the cat ancestor Miacis.

Reunited, but not often

Animal shelters do more than take in strays and abandoned animals. They also are a place where frantic pet owners go when beloved pets disappear. Sadly, not too many pet-owner reunions take place in shelters.

Often the pet simply isn’t there, of course, but there are also cases where the pet is there but can’t be identiﬁed with absolute certainty. This is the reason that vets and animal control experts highly recommend having the pet tattooed or implanted with a microchip, not to mention wearing a collar with an ID tag.

Evil touch

Would you believe that your cat can get a rash on her mouth because of contact with a plastic food dish? It is rare, but not unknown. Human skin and cat skin are both subject to contact dermatitis, which happens when the skin comes into contact with a substance that causes a rash, usually with itching. The common culprits in human contact dermatitis are plants like poison ivy and poison oak.

Individual cats are sensitive to certain plants, and also to some household chemicals, and some cats can’t wear a collar because the leather or plastic makes their neck skin break out. And, as mentioned earlier, some cats break out in a rash because of their plastic food dishes. Also, as already noted in 239, ﬂea collars are a prime cause of contact dermatitis.

Litter box buffet

People who have both a cat and a dog in the home ﬁnd the habit to be an incentive to keep the litter box scooped out as often as possible.

Pot cats

Lots of people grow marijuana for medicinal purposes (wink, wink), and some growers have found that their cats chew the leaves and get the same sort of high that human beings get from smoking marijuana. (It doesn’t seem to increase their cats’ appetites, however.) Amusing as this might be to marijuana users (sharing a high with your pet), it is also potentially dangerous, as marijuana has been known to cause seizures, sometimes fatal ones, in cats.

Creatures of habit

humans are, and it shouldn’t surprise us that animals are. Certainly cats are, and while they like occasional changes in diet, they deﬁnitely do not like changes in their litter boxes. Many a cat owner has discovered that a change in cat litter often results in the cat not using the box at all. Some cats eventually adjust to the change, but others don’t, and sometimes the most sensible choice is to return to whatever you were using before.

Keeping the lawn (and cat) green

As noted in the last entry, any toxic substance that your cat walks through is dangerous, since the cat will lick herself and her fur in the process of grooming. If your cat plays outdoors, she will pick up any pesticides and other chemicals you spray on your lawn, and those useful lawn chemicals can end up inside your cat. They aren’t often fatal, but you need to monitor your cat’s activity in a freshly sprayed lawn, particularly since lawn chemicals are “in the air” for a time, leading to possible respiratory ailments.

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