WEBVTT - PTG Classic: Why do Cats get such a Bad Rap? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:00.880 Guess what will? 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:01.640 What's that? Mango? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.439 So, I was looking online and I found this description 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.720 for a job that's definitely not for us, professional cat cuddler. 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:11.360 Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. And first of all, 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:12.559 why is that a job? 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.079 So? I have no idea. And this posting is from 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.640 late January this year and it was put up by 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.160 a cat's only veterinary clinic in Ireland. But here's a 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:23.880 list of some of the questions you'd have to answer 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.120 to see if this job is right for you. And 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.920 these are all real. Are you a crazy cat person 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.200 and love cats already? I'm thinking that's enough? Right? Does 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:38.080 catitude come to you naturally? I wouldn't say we have 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.440 high catatude levels? No, have you counted kittens before you 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.760 go to sleep? Do you feed stray cats in your locality? 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.959 Does pett and cats make you warm and fuzzy? 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:50.599 I mean, I gotta be honest, Mango, I can't say 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.159 that any of those sound like me. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.720 So I can't think of a job you're less suited for. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.040 And the job basically involves calming down skittish cats and 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.440 mister me them into a zen like space so the 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.440 vets can see them but one of the biggest criticisms 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.600 of our show has been that we're not kind enough 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.600 to cats on the program. You are, of course scared 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.320 of them, and I have let's call it a healthy 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.560 respect for them. So I thought it was time for 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.600 a cat intervention, or a cat invention. We're gonna increase 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:21.640 our empathy of cats and try to understand them a 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.800 little better and maybe even call out some of their achievements. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.959 And perhaps by the end of this all you and 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.039 I will be begging for that cat cuddling job. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.360 Well I'm not sure I see that happening, but let's 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:56.200 dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.480 I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.520 good friend Mangesh how Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.280 glass surrounded by cat themed music albums, and there are 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.360 far more of these than I expected from him. But 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.480 he's got cat power. Cat Stevens, I think letti Grey 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.000 Acoustic Kitty, and I didn't see the album cover for this, 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.119 but I swear is that Garfield's smooth Jazz I hear 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:19.080 playing in the background. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.160 It is so Tristan was showing me this earlier it's 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.320 all Garfield inspired music, but my favorite is fat is 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.280 where It's at, you know, because Garfield eats a lot. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.320 Right, Thanks for explaining that that guy has the best 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.640 taste in novelty albums, and that of course is our 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.080 friend and producer Tristan McNeil nw Mango. As you know, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.880 we've gotten some criticism about not being cat friendly enough 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:44.720 on the show, and I have to be honest, it's 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.840 a little bit surprising how much we've heard from listeners 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:48.240 about this. 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:50.720 Yeah, I mean it was really shocking to me too, 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.040 and I actually love all animals, or at least most 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.880 furry animals. And you know this, but maybe some listeners don't. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.480 There was a long period of my life where I've 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.720 dreamed of the becase vet. And also, for the record, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:04.720 we had cats on a bunch of covers of Mental 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.440 Flos Plus. The first story I wrote on mentalfloss dot 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.960 com was about a cat piano, so I had no 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.160 idea when he came across this anti cat. 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:14.320 That's right, you wrote. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.200 About what was it called the cats and Clavier. It 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:20.040 was this musical instrument that I think it was invented 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:21.799 to cheer up a prince or something. 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:22.280 Is that right. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.080 Yeah, So it was like a piano, but instead of strings, 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.400 you just put kittens in a box behind each key 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.000 and it was supposed to gently prod the kitten to 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.079 meyow in tune. And there was this modern version of 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.040 it that was made with toy cats all tuned to 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.040 different notes with this dude playing over the rainbow on 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.040 them by squeezing them in order. I mean, there's a 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.480 video of this on YouTube, but all that meowing isn't 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.560 exactly music, but it's also not not music either. 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.160 I have definitely seen that video a few times and 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.400 it's pretty great. And you know, it is interesting how 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.440 polarizing cats are. And for the record, I should say 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.000 I don't hate cats. I just happened to be terrified 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:00.520 of cats. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:01.440 When I was growing up. 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.840 I was across the street from Triplet Boys. They had 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.280 a family cat, and not intentionally, but just by being 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.800 Triplet Boys, they tortured this cat, and the cat decided 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.800 to take out all of its anger on me for 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.920 some reason, attacked me every time I came over there. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:19.880 So I just wanted to put that out there. But 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.080 it has been really weird as we just make these 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.680 little jokes about cats on the show. These I guess 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.400 we think of them as like throwaway comments, and then 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.280 the angry letters that we hear from people about I 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:31.880 don't know if I can listen to this show because 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.960 you guys hate cats, but we apparently are not alone 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.160 in this polarizing world of cats. I actually found this 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.320 quote by the American writer Carl Van Vectim, and he 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.960 wrote a book called Tiger in the House, which is 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.080 really all about house cats. And here's how he talks 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.520 about people's strong feelings about cats. And I actually really 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.039 like this quote. So he says, one is permitted to 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:59.240 assume an attitude of placid indifference in some matters, you know, elephants, cockatoos, 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:04.039 hg well Sweden, roast beef, pouccini, even Mormonism. But in 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.680 the matter of cats, it seems necessary to take a 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:11.159 firm stand. The cat himself insists upon this. He invariably 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.560 inspires strong feelings. He is indeed the only animal who 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:16.680 does well. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.520 It is true that cats definitely inspire strong feelings. And 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.159 when we've joked on the show about not being cat lovers, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.799 people have ridden in and said, you know who also 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:32.240 hated cats? Hitler and also Napoleon, and Mussolini, and I 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.960 looked this up. It's true they were cat hitters. I mean, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.880 I'm sure all three of them also hated like broccoli 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.480 and homework, so it doesn't really mean that much, like 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:43.640 a lot of people dislike a lot of things. But 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.480 I was intrigued by the comments, so I looked up 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.120 other famous cat haters in history, and it's not a 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.120 good look for us to be perceived this way. So 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.760 in addition to Napoleon and Mussolini, you've got Genghis Khan 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:02.520 Stalin also hated cats. Caesar Alexander the Great, Eisenhower, for 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.120 some reason, is on the list, but frankly, I'm a 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.320 little surprised that Pollpond and Ediemine aren't on there as well. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:09.480 To around out, the list. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.479 Has a lot of terrible people. 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.440 I mean, aside from Eisenhower, who we love for building 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.040 highways and infrastructure. 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:18.440 Of course love infrastructure. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:19.600 I love infrastructure. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.080 But yeah, I think what's worse than the list of 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.920 horrible people is when cat fans tell you about all 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.880 the great people who were obsessed with cats. You've got 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.760 Abe Lincoln, who was notorious for his love of cats, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.960 and his wife Mary Todd once said that cats were 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.440 his only hobby. Also, they've got the prophet Mohammed, Nikola, Tesla, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.679 Saint Francis of ASSISI, Mark Twain, Florence Nightingale, Catherine the Great, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.039 Charles Mingus, and all of the Brontes. 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.120 All the Brontes, even Branwell Bronte. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.800 I checked up on this mango. They got Branwell. 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:56.640 Well. Obviously, of those two sample sets, I'd rather be 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.080 associated with the cat lovers than the cat haters. But 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:01.800 I was trying to figure out why it is that 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.680 dictators and world conquerors don't like cats. And here's one 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.240 theory about it that I found that's popular on cat sites, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.360 and it goes like this quote. It might just be 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.080 that cat people who have dreams of dominating the world 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.080 can't get used to the idea that cats won't submit 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:17.480 to them. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.640 So is the idea that cats are just too independent 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.440 minded for dictators or what exactly? 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.040 And truthfully, that's also a big part of what cat 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:31.000 people like about cats, their total independence. Right, Like people 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.200 are always saying cats have more personality than dogs and 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.080 that they're less needy and they're like a little more 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.520 badass and rock and roll or something. And in fact, 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.840 this is a little off topic, but one of the 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.880 cat origin stories I read, and this is an Islamic 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.480 tale I believe, is that Noah was on his arc 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.280 and during the storm, he became really afraid that the 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.320 mice on board would eat all the food, or even worse, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.440 that they'd nibble through the floors and create these holes 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:58.600 in the arc, kind of just like putting all the 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.640 other animals in jeopardies. So he prayed for a solution, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.200 and God answered his wishes by having a lion sneeze, 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:10.080 and out of both nostrils from that sneeze emerged two cats, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.360 which is I guess how cats came to be. And 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:14.960 I mean, it's kind of a sweet origin story in 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.640 terms of myths, but I feel like you can interpret 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.360 the story in two ways, right, Like cats are either 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.280 God's gift to humanity, like what adorable little god bless 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.840 yous they are, or no one needed a ruthless killing 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.200 machine on a ship and God provided cats. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.960 I think I might lean toward the ladder, but I'm 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.040 gonna be careful. I don't need any more hate mail 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.480 about this. But I have a different question here, mago, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.880 like how useless is every other animal on the arc, Like, 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.080 why couldn't any of the owls on board pitch in 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:43.840 for this effort? 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.400 I know, well, I mean, the truth is cats are 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.520 incredible hunting machines. And I read this crazy story in 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:52.960 the New York Times from five years ago, and that's 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.600 when the Smithsonians Conservation Biology Institute teamed up with the 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.560 US Fish and Wildlife Service to do some research on cats. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.200 And they wanted to identify how much wildlife these cats 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.120 were killing every year, so they used cameras and created 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.600 this new math model, and basically they were stunned by 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.960 the results. So listen to this between feral and domestic cats. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.120 The domestic ones, you know, are the ones that get 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.320 to roam out doors while sleeping indoors. Together, they kill 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.760 about two point four billion birds every year. And also 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.880 they killed twelve point three billion mammals a year. Wow, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.000 and most of those things like shrews and chipmunks and 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:29.440 bowls along with mice. 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:31.840 I kind of want to know how they came up 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.960 with that estimate of twelve point three billion mammals, But 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.000 either way, it's insane and terrifying. So I don't understand, Like, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.320 why would this make me like cats more so. 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.360 We've talked about this on the program before, but those 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.640 mousers are also keeping places like Disney parks and houses 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.960 and also city streets more free of vermin. And also 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.400 I've read this thing about how there are all these 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.280 cat islands in Japan that are super popular as tourist destinations, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.079 just places where there are all these feral cats, And 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.240 initially I was thinking, like, who wants to go to 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.439 these islands? But one of the arguments I was reading 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.280 online that I had actually never thought about was most 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.320 people can go to a cat island and not be 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.199 terrified because these small feral cats aren't going. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:13.720 To bother you. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.679 They just don't care about you. But you know, if 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.719 you went to a wild dog island and there were 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.800 just wild packs of you know, feral dogs there, you'd 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.800 be terrified. Like, yeah, you'd want to call animal control 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.200 because roaming packs of wild dogs aren't fun. But you know, 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.280 the cats don't have that herd mentality. 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.360 I mean, that's an interesting point. But to be fair, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:34.960 if you put the word feral in front of any animal, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.920 like I don't want to be near those and I 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.000 have no desire to hang out with I don't know 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.040 like Australia's feral camel population or any of these other animals. 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.520 But yeah, you started talking about cat origins and killer cats, 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.400 and you were talking about how cat lovers tend to 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.240 love the animals independence, And actually I had a story 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.280 that I wanted to share just real quick. You know, so, 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.960 while free thinking critters might be great for pet owners, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.960 they're not great for filmmakers. I was reading this inner 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.880 with the Cohen brothers about filming Inside Lewyn Davis, and 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:04.960 they were talking about how hard it was to shoot 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.280 the cat in the movie. So here's a quote from 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.760 an NPR interview that Ethan Cohen did, and he says, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.119 the whole exercise of shooting a cat is pretty nightmarish 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.840 because they don't care about anything. They don't want to 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.920 do what you want them to do. As the animal 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.440 trainer said to us, a dog wants to please you. 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.440 A cat only wants to please itself. It was just 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.559 this long, painstaking, frustrating day shooting the cat. 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.440 Which to me is a little refreshing. You know that 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.520 cats don't want to be seen as film stars. But 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.840 you know, I've seen lowin Davis and I loved it. 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.400 But how do they get all those shots eventually? Like, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:39.079 I'm guessing they didn't use CGI. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.720 Well, first of all, they used a lot of cats, 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.400 and a cat trainer told them specifically to use a 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.679 marmalade orange tabby because it's easier to get a lot of. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:48.320 Them on hand. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.280 So they had three or four cats ready for each scene, 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.760 and essentially they had to find cats that had a 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.839 predisposition for doing whatever it was that they were looking for. 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.280 So like, if you needed a fidgety cat to jump 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.600 out of someone's hand, you have to find a cat 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:03.439 that tends to do that all the time and hates 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.640 to be held. So you get that type of cat 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.360 for one angle. But then you know, if you want 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.480 them to rub against the table or run down a 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.040 fire escape, you need to find the cat that wants 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.120 to do that naturally. And even then when they had 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.199 those cats on hand, the cats rarely did what they wanted. 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.840 The Cohen Brothers actually compared the experience to having to 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.040 film a vulture and true grit. They said the vulture 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.439 was awful, and they said that was even by vulture standards, 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.320 And even though the experience was really frustrating, they'd take 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.680 filming a vulture scene over a cat scene any day. 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.560 So that is ridiculous, and I do love that story. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.880 But here's the thing, and maybe it's something that'll increase 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.839 our own empathy for cats, But I don't actually think 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.920 it's a cat's fault that they're so independent. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:48.920 And why is that? 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.839 Because there's a theory that cats aren't actually domesticated animals. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.040 They've never had to be domesticated. But even more than that, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.640 the theory goes, these clever, adorable beasts have over a 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.719 thousands of years, actually domesticated us. But before we talk 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:17.679 about that, let's take a little break. 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.240 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, and we're talking cats. So, Mango, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:23.960 I know you were going to tell us about cats 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.880 and domestication, but before we talk about a cat in 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.160 a household, let's talk about cats breaking up households. And 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.520 you know that totally unfair reputation they got for causing 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:34.760 divorces in America. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.880 So I obviously know people are attached to their animals, 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:40.880 but I had never heard about this trend. So what's 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:41.360 the scoop? 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:44.920 Well, this comes from Natalie Zareli at Atlas Obscura, and 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.920 she reports that once the married Women's Property Act took 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.400 hold in America, there was actually an uptick in the 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.000 number of divorces, and essentially unhappy couples weren't doomed to 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.319 stay together, but you still had to have someone at 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.160 fault and it had to be irreconcilables. So a big 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.720 strategy from the nineteen tens going forward were couples that 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.760 they just started blaming their cats. That's pretty crazy. I'd 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:08.800 never heard of that, you know. 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.440 I actually remember one of our friends from college had 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.240 a grandmother who got divorced, and he told me that 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.480 the couple staged her walking in on him with another woman, 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.280 and it was purely so that they had a traumatic 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:22.840 story to tell. The New York courtse But you know, 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.160 just blaming a cat would have been so much easier. 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.080 Yeah, I would say that would have been a lot easier. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:30.840 There's actually a story from this piece in nineteen oh 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.360 three where a man told the judge this horror story. 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.120 He says a cat met him at every turn, with 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.000 an angry and a chorus of blood curdling mews. Apparently 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.320 he'd find cats in his bed sheets, and when he 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.600 tried to escape them, he was too scared to leave 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.120 the bed, you know, lest he should expose his bare 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.920 feet to the claws of numerous pussies and provoke a 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.280 melody that would ring in his ears for the rest 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:52.880 of the day. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:55.640 So that feels so dramatic. 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.080 Well, he really had to sell it to the judge. 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.000 And you know, if the judge asked why the husband 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.640 and didn't just get rid of the cats. Often there'd 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.360 be some story about his wife being involved in like 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.600 the ASPCA, which I guess felt virtuous or something. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.120 So, I mean there were lots of these stories. 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.640 Oh, there's tons of these stories. There's actually also a 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:15.960 Civil War veteran who claims he could never sit in 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.720 his easy chair because a cat was always there hissing 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:20.960 at him. There was another there was a wife that 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.720 said she didn't mind her husband's profanity, but it was 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.280 too much when he heaved the family cat at her, 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.400 and looking at that case, apparently she wanted twelve hundred 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.000 dollars for the humiliation of being beamed by the family cat. 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:35.359 Just unbelievable. 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.360 There was also another dude who was upset that his 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.200 wife kept fifty cats around the house and gave them 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:41.680 more attention than him. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.720 Well, I mean fifty cats would need a lot of attention. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.120 Well, in court, she testified that she only had fifteen cats, 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.720 but you know, since her husband didn't come home most nights, 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.720 they were both interested in splitting up. And you know, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.840 most of these stories were either made up or just 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:58.200 greatly exaggerated. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.320 So how long did this cat blaming go on for? 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.400 According to the article, cats were scapegoats for really about 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.560 a century, and it wasn't until nineteen sixty nine, when 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.960 no fault divorce laws started becoming adopted by states that 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.920 suddenly all the cat blaming disappeared from the newspaper stories. 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.040 Which is pretty insane. And you know, you feel sorry 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:19.680 for the cats. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.600 I know it's true, it's weird to say that, but 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.000 I actually do feel a little sorry for them. But 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:26.360 you were going to talk a little bit about this 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.560 idea that cats aren't really domesticated. 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.440 Yeah, so, you know, aside from that lion sneezing theory 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.800 about cats, researchers have actually found cat bones near human 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.480 bones for a while. There's a New Yorker piece on this, 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.560 but in China, by analyzing the bones and teeth of 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.560 cat skeletons from about five thousand years ago, scientists can 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.520 actually show that cats were eating rodents and grains as 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:51.560 well as leftovers from human meals. And basically cats were opportunistic, right, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.200 Like they realized that rodents were plentiful around these farmers' 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.760 stores of grain, so they ingratiated themselves, and people were 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.000 opportunistic realized that cats would kill off the disease carrying 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.320 vermin for them, and it was relatively little investment, Like 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:07.520 they didn't actually have to train the cats. All they 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.960 had to do was give them some shelter and like 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.440 a little extra food to eat, and then just lean 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.480 on their natural instincts. It was totally symbiotic. But you know, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.280 cats were never bred for traits the way dogs or 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.920 cattle were. Like, you know, you look at a dogsund 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:23.840 and you see how that dog was bred to go 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.720 after badgers, right, it was supposed to chase badgers down 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.080 badger holes and it's fearless, but it's also shape for that, 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.320 with that sort of long noodleized shape. And you know, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.000 cat breeding is a relatively recent phenomenon by comparison. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.240 So I mean, are there ways to prove out this 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.760 theory that cats are only semi domesticated? 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.560 Yeah, there definitely are So there's this geneticist that Washington 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.240 University in Saint Louis named Wesley Warren, and apparently he 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.040 and his colleagues looked at DNA from wildcats and breeds 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.800 of domestic cats. And this is from the New Yorker again. 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.600 The research showed that genetically cats have actually diverged far 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.720 less from their wildcat and than dogs have from wolves. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:03.840 You know, you can kind of see this in the wild, right, 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.080 Like house cats are better hunters than dogs, they can 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.800 also fend for themselves in the wild, and according to 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.840 the Peace feral cats have even routinely bred with their 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:17.159 wildcat cousins. And according to Warren quote it's not the 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.800 true differentiation you see between wolf and dog by comparison. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.920 His belief is that the modern cat isn't fully domesticated. 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.960 That is pretty interesting, and to be honest, it kind 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.520 of explains why I don't fully trust them and I 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:32.680 do still almost feel sorry for them. 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.160 Though, well you shouldn't feel too sorry for them, because 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.520 some people like to joke that these wildcats have actually 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.760 domesticated us, and you know, they've obviously stayed aloof while 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.040 were keeping them shelter and putting scratching posts in our 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.480 houses and allow them to go to the bathroom indoors. 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.000 But the biggest argument for them having trained us is 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.600 that they've conditioned humans to feed them on demand with 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:58.080 something called solicitation purring. So this comes from the journal 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.679 Current Biology. But scientist Karen McComb from the University of 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.320 Sussex analyze the acoustic structure of cat purs and she 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.560 actually realized that cats dramatically exaggerate their purrs all to 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.440 elicit this emotional response from humans. Apparently it's the same 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.840 frequency that babies cry. And it isn't all cats that 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.240 do this, it's just cats that have one on one 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:20.440 relationships with humans. 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.800 That is pretty manipulative. I mean it's impressive, but it's 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:24.760 pretty manipulative. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.119 Yeah, I mean they've got us on a tight leash. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.600 And also they have a behavior where they rub up 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:31.920 against our legs. As you know, we pull a can 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.080