WEBVTT - Cat People 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.480 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.720 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.200 Cat people are weird. And I say that being a 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:25.840 cat person. But every day, it seems there's at least 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.000 one moment where I looked down and I see this 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:34.680 three carnivorous creature with a with a face like a 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.440 like a demented angel, working up at me, and and 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.240 and for at least a second, I have this sober 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.479 moment where I just realized how strange the whole thing 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.239 is that did here. This this creature lives in my 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.000 house now, exclusively in the house, with just a little 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.760 porch on the outside of the house that she can 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.320 access so that she doesn't run away or be run 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.720 off by feral hordes in the evenings, as was the 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.800 case a few months back. Um. But but yeah, I 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.400 have this moment where I'm just I just realized how 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.440 strange it is that we that I have this relationship 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.720 with this other species and that it and that you know, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:12.959 you can you can go crazy and start calling it 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.360 like love or friendship or whatever, or you can or 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.759 you can strip it down to just base scientific realities, 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.720 which we're going to do in this podcast. But there's 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.039 this bond there and it's it's strange and it's and 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:30.240 it's pretty ancient and uh and it's really fascinating to 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.640 really pick it apart and look at just why this 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.440 relationship exists. Yeah. I've thought about this before too, just 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.280 and I've thought about it in the way of you know, 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.000 you always here that the Eskimos have you know, X 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.640 amount of words for the words snow because it's so 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.039 important to them. And then I think about my cat 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.920 Owen in the amount of nicknames that I have for him, 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.960 such as the importance um of him to me, you know, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.240 and then my husband will look at me so oddly 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.560 some days when I just, you know, out of thin 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.000 air create a new nickname same like you know, so 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:07.200 rushed about I don't know, uh own and Ski in 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.480 the Sunshine seven. It just goes on and on and 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.120 on like that. It's pure nonsense. But I have thought 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:17.000 before to what extent am I just insane? Or is 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.799 this cat bringing out the insanity in me? And that's 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.360 what we're going to talk about today. Um as cat 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.880 people and you dog people out there to tune into this, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:28.880 because I think it would be very interesting to get 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.079 your insights onto what degree you feel like you're being 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.680 manipulated by your furry little creature. Right at two points 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.680 I want. First of all, I think everybody I know 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.560 who happens to have a cat have multiple names. And 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:43.720 my wife and I we have multiple names for ours 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.840 given name Biscuit, Biscuit cat Heath on the official forms, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.600 but we we call everything like Bosco Bisco, the Scotty 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.280 Sisty B yard Master B. While she's no longer yard 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.000 Master B. Now she's just housemaster b Um Bruskie d 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.240 with I don't know where that one came from, but 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:04.919 you know, you just end up rattling off all these 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.440 names and the cat doesn't know. The cat doesn't recognize 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.800 its own name. It just it works more with tone. 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.160 I understand. But uh, and then the second point that 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.120 you made, Wait now I forgot the second point. I 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.839 got manipulation. No, there was another point. What was it? Oh? Yes, 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.040 cat people. Uh. If you're new to the podcast and 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.639 you're thinking, oh, well, Robert Julie, their cat people, that 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.160 this is their bias at play. I will point out 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.320 we do have an earlier episode titled does My Dog 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.040 Really Love Me? And that one explores the bond between 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.560 humans and dogs, which, despite the kind of snarky title, 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.520 is a is a fair and balanced look at the 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:46.640 scientific bond link between canines and humans. Yeah, and we 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.320 also talk a lot about oxytocin exchange. This is the 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.720 field gives hormone, and we won't talk about that so 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:53.760 much today because a lot of that's in play and 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.200 we covered it. That's what cat's end dogs, so we 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.200 know already that it's a beneficial baby. It's the eyes 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.280 of the baby to pick it up and all sorts 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.720 of hormonal things are We all snuggle with our with 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.480 our cats and dogs and we feel better for it 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.520 and they do too. Um. So let's talk a little 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.640 bit about the stats here, because according to Scientific American 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.560 in their article the Evolution of house Cats, a third 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.520 of American households have feline members and more than six 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.000 hundred million cats live among humans worldwide. This brings us 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.360 back to our previous episode on the bat, where we 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.359 pointed out that the bat is arguably the most successful 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.560 mammal on the planet when you take into account that 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.680 both domestic cats and the rat have had a little 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.080 human help and spreading. Yeah, indeed, so the cat has 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.599 very much had our our help. There. We're partners in 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.240 crime with the cats and and they're everywhere for it. 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.560 That's true. And uh, we know this. We know that 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.760 a cat is a descendant of the African wildcat, and 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.200 that the domestication of the cat has been in the years, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.360 making uh something up to like twelve thousand years and 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.839 then making Yeah, you look back on the what we 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:03.800 can piece together about the history of humans and cats. 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.719 I mean we you can you can look back to 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.080 ancient cultures like the Egyptians. Obviously they had a love 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.960 of the domestic cat. They they would mummify the cat. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.480 We have the remains, you've seen the cute little sarcophagi 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.920 that remained today in our museums. But yeah, when we 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.279 start looking at the fossil evidence, it's, uh, it's pretty fascinating. Uh, 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.240 as far as we can tell, you know, cats were 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:34.200 first domesticated roughly twelve thousand years ago, and it's worth 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.039 trying to remember what else was happening at that time 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.240 about twelve thousand years ago. Also, agricultural societies were really 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.560 beginning to flourish in the Middle East, in the Fertile Crescent. 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:45.560 That's where this is happening. So we've been hanging out 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:47.760 with dogs for a while. Humans and dogs went way 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.479 back because what we were we doing, we were roaming around, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.920 digging stuff out of the ground. We were we were 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.080 chasing down animals, treating them, pulling them down, cooking them up, 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.800 throwing a few scraps to the to the wolf like 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.120 animals that gathered on the the the outskirts of our fire. 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:05.840 And so we had this bond with the dog because 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.680 the dog could get something from us, could and could 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.320 offer something in return. The cats really didn't have anything 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.320 in the game up until that point. But then we 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.120 started growing our own food. And one of the great things, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.919 i mean, the society culture building things about agriculture is 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:22.919 that you're able to grow a surplus. You're able to 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.640 grow enough to sustain you through the through the winter months. 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.360 You you grow enough to where where food becomes dominant 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.479 enough that you don't everyone doesn't have to engage in 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.520 the creation of it. People can specialize in other things. 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.600 And out of that though, again you have this surplus 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.359 of food setting around, so income the rodents to to 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.600 help you with that surplus of food. There's like, I 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.080 see you've got some some extra food there, Let me help. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.360 And then the cats come and they say the same thing, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.599 but they're talking about the rodents. They say, hey, I 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:53.600 see you have some some my thing and out around 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.760 your food. Let me eat them. And as this happened, 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:00.760 suddenly we're living in the same space as those cats. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.200 We see that the cats are doing something that benefits us, 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.000 and uh and and they bond begins to form, domestication 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.760 begins to take hold, which makes perfect sense because cats 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.480 really are mainly solitary creatures. I mean, they do bond 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.440 with humans, and they do bond with other cats and 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.880 sometimes dogs, but they don't hang out in packs as 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.400 dogs do. And as you noted, a dog would you know, 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.840 follow around and have a pact mentality. Um. So, once 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.960 we established ourselves and weren't as nomadic and yes, all 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.680 of a sudden we were storing lots of grain, then 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.600 that situation could allow for domestication. And this is pretty cool. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:43.080 Mitochondrial genetic analyzes shows that domestic cats are likely descended 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.320 from five mother cats from this region, the Fertile Crescent 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.320 and whose descendants were transported across the world by humans. 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:56.400 And then in five five the mitochondrial eaves of the 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.400 cat world and the earliest evidence of cat human reaction 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:04.920 comes from archaeological remains in Cyprus dated two around undred 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.520 years ago. Um and I interpret this as archaeological remains 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.000 in terms of depiction of Yes, Cyprus is pretty interesting 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.040 and how it impacts our our ability to understand the 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.640 history of our relationship with cats. Uh three, Archael just 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:21.960 found a job owed dating back eight thousand years two 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.600 thousand four, they found a site about fifteen hundred years 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.520 old that that showed a human buried with a cat. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.880 And and one of the things that's important with Cyprus, 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.120 this is an island. And so the argument here is 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.720 wildcats are not just wandering up making boats and traveling over. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:39.520 Humans are not going to bring I mean, if you've 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:42.679 ever trapped a feral cat or in a cage and 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.560 seeing how wild it is, your your first thought is not, hey, 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.080 let me take that on a little boat with me. 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.880 You've taken on a boat ride and release it all 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.079 the way over in Cyprus. No, it's uh, it's a 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.720 it's not something you want to to travel with so 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.680 the ideas that they brought over domesticated animals, right, which 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.520 again would be great for pest control on a ship. UM. 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.360 I should also point out that Uh, in ancient Rome, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.240 cats were also prized by scholars because mice are going 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:10.839 to get into your house. Not only they're gonna go 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.400 after your grain, but they're gonna go after your your paperwork. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.720 You're gonna go after your your manuscripture scrolls. Right. So 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.600 the cat becomes surprised in this society because he's gonna 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:25.160 help you protect your information, which I thought was pretty fascinating. UM. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.160 And I mentioned that Egypt already, but just to put 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.080 that in in sort of grizzly context, scientists found a 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.880 cat cemetery in Benny Hassan Uh that apparently contained three 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.360 hundred thousand cat pies. And you know they had they 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.120 had Bastete, the Egyptian goddess of love, with the head 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.599 of a cat. Um and UH. To be convicted of 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.360 killing a cat in Egypt often meant a death sentence, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.000 which which reminds me of there's an HP Lovecraft story 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.360 called The Cats of of Althar where it's like a 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.280 modern setting but the cats kind of run the show 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.880 and if anyone kills a cat there then meet with death. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.400 But it's at the hands of the cats. It is 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.160 interesting too from a cultural perspective, because I was just 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.120 thinking about how we house cats and and give them 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:10.800 a nice, pretty place to live. In other parts of 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.400 the world there's roaming around, like literally in Rome where 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.600 there are so many cats, it's almost like their pigeons. Yeah, 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.520 it's also interesting to look at the again, that's like 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.560 the relationship you go back to, you know, ancient Egiant, 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.400 Middle East Greece people have this bond with the cat. 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.120 But for a long time in Europe it's during the 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.599 Middle Ages you see them um associated with evil and 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.360 the night uh and particularly with witches. Uh. Not to 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.400 derail too much into witchcraft, which we hope to cover 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.920 in a little in an upcoming episode, but I was 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.040 reading about witchcraft in England and uh and at the time, 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.160 persecuting witches in England was a little, uh, little tamer 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:54.880 than it was on the continent, because in the continent 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.480 you could use all sorts of torture to get exactly 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:02.520 the kind of ridiculous uh store array of satanic intrigue 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.120 that you wanted, you know, it's like, basically, here's the script. 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.640 You just torture the person until they reproduce it. But 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.280 you can use these methods um to the full extent 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.719 in England. So the story has tended to be far 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:19.079 less wild and but and one charge in particular found 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.520 its way into a lot of the accounts, and that 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.520 is that this old woman is living in this house 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:29.040 by herself except for this strange cat. Clearly, what's going 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.560 on here is the cat is there familiar, it's a demon, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.400 and she is suckling it with some sort of bizarre 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.600 third nipples somewhere. Of course, yeah, that makes total sense. 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.000 But it wasn't like the the six hundreds until they 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.280 really got over all that in Europe. I was gonna say, 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.080 I can see how people would look to a cat 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.640 and think that it might have some sort of magical 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.280 attributes to it, only because if you've ever seen a 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.920 cat jump up like ten feet in there on you know, 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.199 some sort of surface that's maybe like, you know, two 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:02.640 inches wide, it does seem sort of like this magical, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.079 crazy skill. And uh so I can see how the 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.240 imagination would lend itself to that. They seem like they 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.880 can teleport, they can their masters of of stealthy movement 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.440 and uh, and all of this comes down to what 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:16.520 are what are they basically designed for? What if they 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.760 evolved to do? They're killing machines machines? Yeah, um recently 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.000 an article came out about this and uh and I 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.560 thought it was very interesting because, according to George Fenwick, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.800 he's the president of American Bird Conservacy, cat predation is 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.280 one of the reasons why one in three American bird 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.840 species are in decline. And if you have a cat 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.720 that has access to the outdoors, you're you're probably familiar 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.080 with this. Chances are they have brought home either a 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.439 live board bird or a portion of a live bird, 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.880 or some sort of bloody trophing that may or may 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.520 not have come from the insides of a bird. But 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.800 the thing is that, apparently, umu, the cats only bring 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:58.240 home a quarter of what they kill, so left forty 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.480 rod where they died. So if your animals bringing home 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.240 bloody trophies, just remember that you're only seeing part of 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.920 the equation here. Yeah, this is really interesting to Researchers 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.840 at the University of Georgia attached something called kitty cams 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.520 to sixty cats, so each owner would put a small 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.640 video camera mounted on a breakaway collar on the cat 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.720 in the morning, and then let the cat out, and 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.360 then they'd removed this camera and mountain and they would 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.720 download the footage of the carnage. Really basically a Faces 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.320 of Death, except except with some of some added napping 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.600 and and butt licking thrown in. Yes, yes, but looking yeah, 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.040 well and that's a different kind of thing. But um. 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.040 Each cat's activities were recorded for seven to ten days, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.440 and the cats usually spent anywhere from like four to 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.000 six hours outdoors. But the really the most surprising thing 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.439 they found is that the majority of the house house 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.680 cats weren't hunters, and that only forty percent of the 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.440 cats in the study again house cats uh stopped chased 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.400 or killed other animals during the day. And another thing 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.480 they discovered is that and then you'll have to think 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.560 about this in next time your cat cozy's up to 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.439 you and and nezzles you. Um. Cats were seen eating 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.360 road kill, climbing down into storm trains and lapping up 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:14.120 sewer water, and eating insects like walking sticks and earthworms. Well, 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.240 the bug eating doesn't bother me. That doesn't so much either. 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.280 I think it's it's probably more the road kill and 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.400 certainly the risky behavior. You know, because because and I 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.520 say this is, you know, the cat that we have, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.640 Biscuit wandered up to us as like an outdoor previously 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.120 owned animal, and then was outdoor for a little bit, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.480 then indoor outdoor for a long time, and then we 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.600 moved to an area where there was a feral pack nearby, 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.320 and she's getting kind of kind of up there, and 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.240 the best theory that we have is that it came 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.240 to the point where she couldn't defend her turf anymore. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.280 The the young you know, criminal element came around and 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.520 they said, hey, this is our turf now, and she's like, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.240 all right, that's cool, I'll find some more humans, I guess. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:56.720 And so we had to find her, bring her back, 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.480 and now she's indoor. But but ye had just to 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.280 to to know all the dangers that this animal to 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.040 give this bond with can encounter during the day in 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.240 an outdoor environment, particularly in an urban environment. Yeah, and 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.480 a lot of this was caught on camera so they 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.640 could say, yeah, cats do actually engage in risky behavior, 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.280 I mean, are younger ones and the other side, because 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.720 I know this becomes an argument between cat owners, you know, 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.560 the whole outdoor versus indoor outdoor scenario. I mean, the 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:25.960 other side is that, yes, an indoor cat is safer, 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.720 but they they spend six days the indoor oudoor and 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:31.840 spend six d eight hours outdoor because they love it. 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.320 That's what they've evolved to do. They've evolved to live 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.840 in an outdoor environment, eating varmints, not living in a 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.680 living room, chasing balls and listening to whistles and you know, 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.480 and eating all day. So it's it's it's weird. We 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.840 find this is what happens when humans manipulate the course 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.800 of nature. We find ourselves and in uh, in some 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.720 strange and not particularly satisfying places. You know. Holly Fry 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.640 of pop stuff is our residant cat experts. Oh did 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:02.640 she like cats? That's a joke. Um, yeah, yeah, she's 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:04.640 she's the one. She's got the library. Yeah, we all 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.960 come to her, We do all all our cat questions 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.520 and problems. She will answer them. Um. But she had 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.160 told me that this is interesting that in feral cat 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.000 colonies that they actually work in concert, almost like a 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.640 pack together, and that they will take turns in groups, 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.720 both sleeping in different places and hunting, so we'll share 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.040 a particular space whether or not author using it to 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.240 hunt or to sleep in together, which shows a level 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.680 of cooperation I didn't realize was actually in cats. Yeah, 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.880 And I mean the feral situation is it's a whole 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.680 topic unto itself, because then we we've you know, it's like, 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.080 do you we want to control that in that population 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.840 because it's an invasive species. It's killing all of these 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.720 birds and and shipmunks and what have you, um and uh, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:51.320 and potentially endangering domestic cats. You don't necessarily know what 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.960 kind of of diseases the feral pack is carrying and 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:00.000 potentially in you know, in getting involved with your cats. Uh. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.880 But then you you get into arguments, all right, to 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.639 what extent can you actually do a spay and neuter program? 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:11.320 You're never gonna get one of those programs. But then again, 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.320 if you just go in and wholesale exterminate stray cats, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.040 other ferrells are going to move into the area anyway. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:23.000 So it's again humans start messing with the natural swing 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.679 of things, and and everything gets a messy pretty quickly, 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.880 it does. It does. Um, well, let's talk about their 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:34.440 anatomy that how what makes them such stealthy killers. Yes. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:36.600 One of the things I thought was really interesting is 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.440 that twenty six of their two forty four bones reside 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.320 in their tails, and this is actually what allows them 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.959 to have the sort of crazy balancing powers that they have. UM, 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.960 and the movement powers. And they also have a detached 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.919 clavical which allows a catch shoulders to move back and 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.040 forth in rhythm with its legs and kind of squeeze 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.040 through the space. Says that they do. And cats can 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.120 feel vibrations on the ground with their paws, which alerts 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.040 them to the potential prey. Yeah. You you get a 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.120 taste of that. Whenever you you have like a blanket 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.080 out the cat is walking across it. You know, you 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.320 can tell how tenderly they're walking and how how closely 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.040 they're analyzing the attention of the surface underneath. You know 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:24.120 they're there. Or if you have a toddler tearing down 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.120 the hallway, you know, another room away, you can automatically 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.119 look at the cat and the cat will sense it first, 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.600 whether or not you can hear. It's really interesting. Um. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.800 Another thing about them is their whiskers are rooted really 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.560 deeply into their face, and that's an area that's rich 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.360 nerves and blood vessels, and these whiskers are so sensitive 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.920 that they can detect the slightest directional change in the wind. 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.199 And of course, uh, and of course they also have 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.680 excellent hearing. If you've ever you've ever watched a cat 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.080 just setting there, like even when they appear to be 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.320 kind of asleep and they're not completely asleep, their ears 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.400 are very active. There's a sound on the other side 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.120 of the house, and you'll see there there you're sort 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.160 of listen to that. There's something going on outside. They're 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.199 kind of half listening to that as well, so they 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.880 kind of move slowly like a little satellite dish. That's 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.560 what I've noticed. Um. And then another really cool aspect 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.200 of cats I think is just the mechanics of their 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.159 per boxes. Right. It's thought that the laryngeal muscles are 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.000 responsible for the opening and closing of the glottis and 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.320 this is the space between the vocal cords, and this 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.080 results in a separation of the vocal cords producing the 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.080 pur sound. And then purring is really unique. And then 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.560 it's a result of both the inhalation as well as 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.199 the exhalation, as opposed to account just me owing and 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.639 using the exhalation. So there are a number of different 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.520 theories as to why they purr. It's it's one of 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.159 these behavioral questions that we're still figuring out an answer too. Uh. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:53.160 Veterinarians generally suggest that purring on a basic level, especially 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.840 between a kitten and it's mom, is saying, hey, hey mom, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.240 it's me. I'm all right, I am here, and it's 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.400 also a part of their bonding mechanism. But obviously there's 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.159 something else going on, or there's more going on in 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:11.120 other situations, for instance, when cats purr to their humans, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.480 what's that about, right? Well, yeah, But here's the interesting 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.560 thing too, is that um Dr Elizabeth Vaughan mougen Paler 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.720 has suggested that the per with its low frequency vibrations, 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:24.679 is a natural healing mechanism. So sometimes you hear a 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.520 cat per when it it is injured or or very upset, 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:30.640 as you know as well as you know when you're 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.600 petting in and it's experiencing some sort of pleasure from that. 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.960 But it's interesting that she says that purring maybe linked 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.640 to the strengthening and repairing of bones, relief of pain, 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.639 and wound healing, and that made me think about some 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.480 of the studies that we've seen before concerning meditation and 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:52.000 chanting and the vibration actually in the fruit very healing, yeah, 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:53.760 for the body, and a lot of that though have 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.880 to do more with inflammation in mucus. But I thought 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.880 that was an interesting detail. But I think that when 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.439 we're talking about purring, you're talking about, um, the ways 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.040 in which we can well cats can manipulate us. But 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:08.679 before we get to that, I wanted to talk a 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.199 little bit about mimicry. So I don't do you have 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.920 you ever heard a cat like mimic a bird? Oh? Yeah, yeah, 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.000 to the extent that it sounds like a bird. I'm 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.080 not I'm not all that convinced, but certainly they have 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.399