the story of cats and dogs

a long time ago my GF's family had a cat. i hung around with them for a while and near the end when the cat was old and started dying her mom asked me if i thought cats were smart. her mom was pretty close to the cat. her kids were going back and forth to college, and it was just her and the cat a lot. this is where right at the end that cats start doing amazing things and they let you know just how much they know.

i didn't really give a good answer. i hadn't had a cat yet. but over the next 20 years i thought about my answer. and then i saw those spontaneous moments for myself where you'll say something to a cat, and not only do you realize it understood what you said, but it answers you.

like one time i was out in my yard and the people that lived before me here had planted lots of flowers. i was all stoned and focused and was down in a garden following some entangled stems. and then out of nowhere our male cat swatted the flowers and scared me. i had probably shaken them. but i turned around and yelled what the fuck are you doing! and he held up his paw at me and shook it making a waving motion. like he was saying, you know, i was giving it the paw dude.

there were other times. one time after bringing the female cat home from the vet, near the end, i said to her, you're not going to live as long as you think. and she went into a room she never goes into and meowed loudly. she understood me. and she replied. there was another time a month before she really was going to die, and she sat over me on a bench and mouthed make believe words. i used to do that to her when i came home from work. thru the window where she was waiting while i was at my car. i would just move my mouth like i was talking, saying i loved her. kind of like the first mad max movie when Mel Gibson would make signs with his hand.

i never gave it much thought. why cats seem smart. and then i realized why one day. it's because they are predators and carnivores. not just 'a' carnivore, but besides humans, they are one of the top carnivores. for example, a cougar catches 80% of what it hunts. that's the top rate in the world. but a cougar only hunts a few animals. this lowers it's top placing. while a house cat only catches 50% of it's prey. but it's pool is much more far ranging. and as a result makes the house cat the top feline predator in the world.

and this is why cats are smart. sure they have the tools like night vision and the temperament. but to be able to catch so many different things, you have to be able to think like a bird, or a mouse or a butterfly. what's even more astonishing is that hunting is a form of empathy. because that is what empathy is right? to know what other people are thinking. so here you have the top predator in the world cuddling on your lap. and you don't know why.

i used to have fun working out how lower emotions and feelings give rise to higher ones. how stubbornness under the right conditions can be turned into loyalty. or how empathy can arise from the least likely places ...it's a pretty crazy world.

[nullnor]

i saw a dog sitting in a car outside the liquor store tonight. it was kind of just looking around. and it still amazes me that an animal can be so used to the civilized human world. sure they are domesticated to some extent. but to have everything so organized and all your shit together. i've had dogs.

i once lived in a house when i was almost 20 for a year with my friends. we didn't last long as none of us knew what we were doing. one day they brought home a dog. i didn't get to spend much time but i helped raise it. and we were close. it was sort of traumatic when we all split because we couldn't pay the rent. probably more for the dog because she was living the dream with a bunch of kids. she was owned by one of the girls who took her. and she was a great owner. i am not sure the dog really ever knew who owned it until after. but i would run into her from time to time. and me and that dog loved each other.

one time i saw them at night in an apartment parking lot. the owner was outside talking and the dog in the car with another really big dog i didn't know. i went up to the car but the big dog barked at me a lot, very meanly. and the owner (my former roommate) was like, do you want to see her. which of course i did. and when the dog got out of the car she ran over to me and we cuddled. the really big mean other dog came over to me like 'oh shit' i didn't know you guys knew each other and licked my face apologizing.

this is what i find remarkable about the dog world. they have some kind of rule that if someone raises you, and you do a good job, even their dog friends respect and honor things.

and also, when you look into a dogs eyes, and it even has eyebrows, they seem to have a soul. yet a dog is still a dog and a cat is a cat. and that's the story of cats and dogs.

[Teenwolf]

Meh, food animals are just as intelligent as pets. We enforce some false distinction that isnt real. Pigs, cows, chickens, all intelligent, and I bet at least 1 of those is smarter on average than dogs, especially if any of them were socialized in the same way.

Sentimentality for pets while eating meat is silly to me. Like folks who feed their dog bacon... contributing to one animals joy through the suffering of another... it's just weird to me. All animals demonstrate intelligence.

I enjoyed your stories regardless.

[nullnor]

have you ever thought about how we all eat each other? when you die and you become part of the flora and fauna? the fawns eat the flora and eat each other. the universe eats itself. and life goes on, and what it all means. there's only two answers. either it means everything, or it means nothing.

[Gregg]

have you ever thought about how we all eat each other? when you die and you become part of the flora and fauna? the fawns eat the flora and eat each other. the universe eats itself. and life goes on, and what it all means. there's only two answers. either it means everything, or it means nothing.

Sometimes the flora eats the fauna before the decaying process begins.

[Gregg]

Sentimentality for pets while eating meat is silly to me. Like folks who feed their dog bacon... contributing to one animals joy through the suffering of another... it's just weird to me. All animals demonstrate intelligence.

Farmers do not name the animals used for eating.

My dog does not care about how the bacon suffers before becoming bacon.

[hacko]

Farmers do not name the animals used for eating.

My dog does not care about how the bacon suffers before becoming bacon.

Some often do get named. And their is definitely some intelligence to cows.

I lived on a farm with a friend of my when he got custody of his kids before he got remarried . I milked every other Sunday and helped on days off from Teaching. We had 1 cow Called Stubby. Who everyday would try and kick me. Never trying the same way. One day it was when I was trying to clean it teats. The next day might be during milking or after when I would do the teat dip. One day I went through all the jobs and no attempt. I thought cool went to the next cow and wham the kick came. He never tried kicking the other 3 guys? I got my revenge we ate her.

[Ken]

I got my revenge we ate her.

That's a funny story.

How bad was the acid reflux?

[Steve 2.0]

have you ever thought about how we all eat each other? when you die and you become part of the flora and fauna? the fawns eat the flora and eat each other. the universe eats itself. and life goes on, and what it all means. there's only two answers. either it means everything, or it means nothing.

[song mode] The Circle of Life!!!!!![/song mode]

[nullnor]

haven't seen TW since this thread. i was a vegetarian when i was younger. i probably wasn't a true vegetarian like i'd eat burritos not knowing about lard. but i was active and healthy. it was pretty easy. i couldn't do that now as i kind of barely feed myself as it is. but since my neighbor who just bought the foreclosed house next door and flipped it and in the process called the building inspector on me, i'm getting my shit together. i even rented a dumpster. i am reinventing myself. ..and surely i'll be able to start building my time machine now.

i had a thought. i've noticed this before but, there's a penalty for eating too much meat. it's like nature puts restraints on us. it kind of protects us from ourselves. i've mentioned before how there seems to be protections built in the universe. if you eat too much red meat it's bad for you. also, playing the game the long dark i've realized that carnivores and omnivores can't eat only carnivores or they get intestinal parasites. carnivores have to eat herbivores. and then there's the granddaddy of them all, you can't really mass produce meat without having larger problems in society like the overuse of antibiotics or zoonotic diseases. if you were going to use the rules of nature for guidance. these are her rules.

there are a lot of animals that have lives now that wouldn't exist if they weren't on farms waiting to be eaten. but many of them should have better lives. for example, cows that have names and more area to roam produce more milk. smaller farms are better where people get to know the animals better. and antibiotic and cage free stuff even better and more healthy. but the safeguards nature has on these things i don't believe are a coincidence. it's part of the fabric of our manifest world.

someday we'll just be growing meat in a laboratory. we won't even be eating live animals. and then there won't be as many people that just want to eat the meat but not meet the cow.

[onejayhawk]

A few months ago our neighbor (10+ chi-bow-wows) offered us a "black" kitten. She's not really black. This patterning is called tortoiseshell. We also have a more normal calico.



J

[Gregg]

Pretty girl...looks like she could be trouble.

[nullnor]

she's titling her head for the picture. that show's she is right there.

also, did you know all calico cats are female. the colors are on the X chromosome. i think it also involves active X switching too. like you need to have 2 X chromosomes to have it. so when someone says i have a calico cat and it's a female, they don't know all calico's are female. what is a calico anyways, is it 3 colors? very rarely a male can do it. and i guess they are worth a lot of money due to it's rareness.

active X switching is where something on the X chromosome that a female usually uses gets defective, and she digs into her reserve or extra X chromosome and uses that part for it instead. this is why women aren't as prone to color blindness as much as men. among other things. they even say they can see different shades of colors more than men. for example, we'll put on a pair of socks that we think match, but to a women active X switching, she'll see the slightest difference in color and think we put on socks that don't match.

[nullnor]

cats are really just super smart. like that cat that visits me. i am cleaning up my yard, and he can't help me. but i swear he's sticking around encouraging me. it's like he knows there's something wrong with me but wants me to get my shit together. he would always walk in my house and be careful not to step on something sharp in the trash on the floor. he knew that wasn't normal. still, it's a greater understanding of human society. like peer pressure.

i did a lot of things for him. there are two types of cat guys. guys that are all proud that their male cat is the so-called toughest cat. and this cat isn't neutered. how he's survived in these woods so long i have no idea. but he knows i know the dangers he faces. that's why i made it clear to him that my house is a safe house at 3am.

his human owner is a big guy. he knows i've made friends with his cat. i've never talked to him tho. i assume he doesn't know i feed him treats and shit. he definitely wouldn't like that his cat tucks me in bed and sleeps with me. but i trust the cat not to give our secret away.

i even showed him that being a bad ass is stupid. he used to bully all the other cats. and he's got a temper. if you pick him up he gets all bent out of shape. he's a gray cat with raccoon like marks on his tale. he looks like a small panther. but when my cat was dying of old age, he was fucking with her. so i went out there an tried to tell him how it was. i said we don't care about your stupid territory shit. we got bigger problems. and he was like, what could be more important than me? and than he realized she was dying and he was like oh shit. and he left her alone. about a year after she died he showed up again.

also, he used to get in fight with a female down the street. i saw one day she was actually trying to catch a butterfly, pretty cute. and he moved in stalking her and she was like uh oh, and retreated to a defensive spot. i gave him shit about it. and then one day they showed up together at my house. she keeps her distance from me as he put rules on her, but they don't fight anymore. actually she was pretty curious about me after.

it's great being an insider in the animal world.

people that have dogs want backup. and people that have cats want independence. both people and animal together are impressive in their respective way. it amazes me that it took less than 60,000 years for this relationship to develop. how accustomed they are to the human world. it's almost magical.

[nullnor]

active X switching is also why on average women have a higher IQ than we do. but most of the people with the highest IQ's are men. as a result of not having an extra X chromosome and the Y chromosome is smaller, when things work right for us you get Einstein. so you are more likely to get a man that is either brilliant or below average. while most women will be at least average because they can repair or compensate for any defects in their X while we cannot.

and that's the story of women and men. the bonus edition.

btw my avatar is a 4 dimensional cat. it was from a science article about something..i don't know.and the cosmic dance continues.