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Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's
Speaker 1: over there, and this is stuff you should know. The
Speaker 1: podcast the annoying podcast apparently the what the annoying podcast?
Speaker 1: Cat Me Owning is annoying. Oh, it's like there's rusty
Speaker 1: nails in my blood vessels. You don't like cats, do
Speaker 1: you know? I'm just kidding out climate cat um. I
Speaker 1: think people are like our heart cuts. Or conversely, people
Speaker 1: are likerry dogs. I think those people are weird maybe
Speaker 1: not humans. Yeah, I mean I get the preference. I
Speaker 1: have both, as you know, and as everyone knows. Two dogs,
Speaker 1: two cats, and I'm gonna be talking about my cats
Speaker 1: a lot. So Lauran and the Whiz the wizard yet
Speaker 1: I call him the Whiz. It's my pet name for him. No,
Speaker 1: we call him the Whiz or wizzled with an L.
Speaker 1: I haven't reached the point where I'm he's comfortable with
Speaker 1: me calling him that. Oh, sure he is. Well, we
Speaker 1: have tons of nicknames, like everyone does for their pets.
Speaker 1: I even made a list one time. You made a
Speaker 1: list of pet nicknames for our pets, just so we
Speaker 1: had them all down. Do you have that on your
Speaker 1: refrigerator or something. Let's just have a tattooed on your
Speaker 1: arms on the old hard drive on the laptop. What
Speaker 1: were you drinking when you did this? Uh? Milk? By
Speaker 1: the way, let me just say I now to have
Speaker 1: tried the Crown Royal Northern rye. Would you think it
Speaker 1: is the bomb? It is very good? Yeah, mind's gone?
Speaker 1: Is it really? Yeah? Yeah, mine's getting there. I'm not surprised. Um.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into this. And if you don't
Speaker 1: like hearing cat stories for me, then this might not
Speaker 1: be the show for you. Yes, you're ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 1: C A T cat is defined. So let's talk history
Speaker 1: with cats. That's where we usually like to start. It's good,
Speaker 1: feels normal. Um. For a very long time, everybody thought
Speaker 1: egypt were was the culture, the group of humans that
Speaker 1: domesticated cats. Although if you've listened to our Animal Domestication episode,
Speaker 1: you probably had your mind blown a little bit or
Speaker 1: your suspicions confirmed that cats are not technically domesticated animals.
Speaker 1: Yeah there's they're technically a feral species still, but some
Speaker 1: of them will deign to hang out with humans, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, though, they're not strictly a domesticated animal.
Speaker 1: That's just semantic. So at this point, what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is that everybody thought that the Egyptians were the first
Speaker 1: to quote unquote domesticate cats. Yeah, and you know, we
Speaker 1: think that for good reasons, because Egyptians love their cats.
Speaker 1: They were worshiped, they were mummified. If you look at
Speaker 1: Egyptian artwork, there's cats all over the place. There was
Speaker 1: a cat deity named Bustatt. Yeah, that was the cat
Speaker 1: headed deity. That'd be a great cat name, and apparently
Speaker 1: like the cult, Oh yeah, it really would be like
Speaker 1: modern cat name. And speaking of modern cat names, we
Speaker 1: found out that, um, the Egyptians may have been the
Speaker 1: first to really revere cats, but they were far from
Speaker 1: the first humans to live with cats. The Egyptians what
Speaker 1: they went back to three four thousand years maybe five
Speaker 1: thousand tops. We found evidence that in the Fertile Crescent
Speaker 1: something like twelve or so thousand years ago, when people
Speaker 1: first started toying around with agriculture, they started storing the
Speaker 1: grain that they harvested from agriculture, and the cats said,
Speaker 1: I like these piles of grain that are attracting rodents.
Speaker 1: I don't need to be a fierce wild animal anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna hang out where these peeps are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they they formed what can only be described as
Speaker 1: a symbiotic relationship with humans because humans, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: we're like, these crazy cats are doing us a kindness,
Speaker 1: and so in turn, maybe we should start feeding them.
Speaker 1: Is that a reference for to the trivia night? No,
Speaker 1: what was the kindness of group of Oh remember therets?
Speaker 1: I think it might have been. I can't remember, but
Speaker 1: it is no business affarets A business affairts a kindness
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I can't either, But that's a fascinating
Speaker 1: topic though, the groups of animals and their names. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry for interrupting. Uh. So they said, Hey, they're doing
Speaker 1: us a kindness. I'm gonna start feeding them. Maybe they'll
Speaker 1: hang around more. And hey, maybe uh, when we go
Speaker 1: on a ship. We've got a lot of mice and
Speaker 1: rat problems on ships. Maybe we should put them on
Speaker 1: our ships too, because they're great mouser's And before you
Speaker 1: know it, cats were all over the world doing countenances
Speaker 1: to humans my life, killing rodents. But like you said,
Speaker 1: it was symbiotic, Like we're the ones who piled up
Speaker 1: the grains at the first place. You know, they owed us.
Speaker 1: But the point is that our history with cats goes
Speaker 1: back far, far farther then, uh, just ancient Egypt. And
Speaker 1: you so, like I said, speaking of great cat names,
Speaker 1: you said Bestat would be a good one. Agreed, But um,
Speaker 1: I found that all cats are descended from the African wildcat.
Speaker 1: It turns out, and the African wildcat is uh Felix
Speaker 1: Sylvestris Libika, which means Felix the cat and Sylvester the
Speaker 1: cat both were very appropriately named cats. I wanted to
Speaker 1: know that. Well. I wonder if that's where they got it.
Speaker 1: I bet surely you think can't be that coincidental. Felix
Speaker 1: has say for sure, Sylvester I might be sure about
Speaker 1: that too. Yeah, I think you're right on the money. Boom.
Speaker 1: You should have looked it up. I bet that you
Speaker 1: could find that out pretty easy. I'm so comm but
Speaker 1: I didn't even need to look it up. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna waste the finger motion. Uh So they found cats
Speaker 1: and burial sites on Cyprus, which is an island, which
Speaker 1: means people brought him there. Cats didn't swim to Cyprus
Speaker 1: hate swimming for the most part. Yes. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: as you said, that symbiotic relationship was carried on all
Speaker 1: the way into the New World, because nothing much happened
Speaker 1: from you know, the time of the Fertile Crescent until
Speaker 1: the New World. Yeah, like nothing, right, But um, the
Speaker 1: cats made their way over apparently as early as Columbus's
Speaker 1: voyages to the America's or the Caribbean, I should say supposedly. Uh,
Speaker 1: the kiddies wrote on the Mayflower and settle at Jamestown.
Speaker 1: And there's a false uh. Remember we did a show
Speaker 1: on Isaac Newton. Um, there is a false legend that
Speaker 1: he created the kitty door. Oh it's not true. Huh.
Speaker 1: It's not true because it was actually written about in
Speaker 1: the Canterbury Tales, specifically in the Miller's Tale, and there
Speaker 1: are actual images of fifteenth century doors in France with
Speaker 1: what they called cat holes. It makes sense. I mean
Speaker 1: that the flap like just cut a hole in that
Speaker 1: door so the cat can go in and out. And
Speaker 1: the reason why they thought about this so early when
Speaker 1: they started building doors, I'm guessing that they started building
Speaker 1: cat doors in those doors pretty quickly after that, because
Speaker 1: the idea of keeping a cat indoors only is extremely new,
Speaker 1: like we're talking like the last sixties seventy years maybe. Um.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, uh, it was you had a cat
Speaker 1: that wandered freely inside or outside the house or just
Speaker 1: stayed outside all together. And it took the invention of
Speaker 1: m clay kitty litter, h refrigeration so you can refrigerate
Speaker 1: meat more easily, so you have more surplus of meat
Speaker 1: that you could share with an indoor cat. And then
Speaker 1: spaying and new during apparently were the three advancements that
Speaker 1: allowed cats to be kept indoors. Cats, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: worked for the United States Postal Service as late as
Speaker 1: the early twentie century. Uh. They were used as mousers,
Speaker 1: of course, mouser's Mouser's neither one, Mauser's lieutenant Mauser's uh.
Speaker 1: And then at one point they they said, you know what,
Speaker 1: We're gonna actually hire cats in the form of giving
Speaker 1: these post offices an allotment for food. And the cats
Speaker 1: immediately went on strike. Oh teaser for the next episode.
Speaker 1: But they were they were actually used by the us
Speaker 1: PS and um technically paid in food. That's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in their warehouses, I guess, and they're in their postal warehouses.
Speaker 1: So h you mentioned the kitty letter being a big invention.
Speaker 1: It was invented by a man named Ed Lowe. I
Speaker 1: think he was a Minnesotan but ended up in Michigan.
Speaker 1: Uh in seven is neighbor. You know people use things
Speaker 1: like ashes and sand. Yeah, saw the newspaper. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you wanted to keep your cat inside. And as neighbor
Speaker 1: came by in and said, hey, my sand is frozen
Speaker 1: because I'm in Michigan's and cold. It has to be
Speaker 1: for your stand to freeze pretty cold, I guess. Uh
Speaker 1: So he said, you know what, I got this full
Speaker 1: Owner's earth clay. Why don't you use that? And it
Speaker 1: works so well. He packaged it and sold it as
Speaker 1: a kitty litter. That was right. Originally was kitty litter, right,
Speaker 1: And it was just kiln dried clay. That's it, right,
Speaker 1: broken into small pieces, I think. So, I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: Fuller's Earth style, and um, he started giving it away
Speaker 1: at first, and like you know, you had to really
Speaker 1: educate the populace at this point. And that's just the populace,
Speaker 1: the pet owner, pet store owners, that one wants this,
Speaker 1: and he apparently told one pets are owner, just give
Speaker 1: it away when somebody comes in and they want kittie later,
Speaker 1: give them this for free. And uh, apparently that little
Speaker 1: marketing technique worked very well. Same with the slinky. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: what did they give it? Awave him away for free? No,
Speaker 1: there's some other like the inventor himself demonstrated him. That's
Speaker 1: what it was at K. A. O. Schwartz, which is
Speaker 1: what ed Loo did. And and pet store owners said, wait,
Speaker 1: you're saying I should keep my cat indoors where it
Speaker 1: can poop and p Yeah, here's a box. Put in
Speaker 1: this box. But apparently they were already doing that somewhat
Speaker 1: because people were using sawdust and stuff or frozen sand.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't the norm like you said. Um, and
Speaker 1: then spaying and neuter ring, of course, is what you mentioned. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you've ever had a cat that goes into heat
Speaker 1: because you did not spare neuter and that cat is
Speaker 1: an indoor cat, you're in for trouble. Oh yeah, like
Speaker 1: your drapes are toast well, I mean they're just gonna
Speaker 1: be spraying, which we'll get too later. H the when
Speaker 1: I was in I have a story I wish I
Speaker 1: could tell in full for my college days. But I
Speaker 1: can't um, but needless to say, I was a young,
Speaker 1: dumb college student and didn't I wasn't educated on spaining uttering,
Speaker 1: and I had a cat going to heat. It's no
Speaker 1: fun there. They go crazy and they're allowed and they
Speaker 1: want nothing more than to get outside and have the sex. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll just stop the story there. Boy, is it
Speaker 1: a good one. Do you know how many people are
Speaker 1: going to write in asking like just tell me, just me,
Speaker 1: I'm special, I won't judge you. So that is the
Speaker 1: long storied history of cats. Yes, and uh I talked
Speaker 1: to Holly from Stuff You miss in History class for
Speaker 1: this self proclaimed crazy cat lady. Yeah, she and Tracy
Speaker 1: are very much both in the cats, and they did
Speaker 1: a show on the history of cats, which I bet
Speaker 1: is very much more in depth than what we discovered.
Speaker 1: So I would certainly hope still go check that out.
Speaker 1: Did an eleven minutes show on cats, on the history
Speaker 1: of cat. I'm sure it was very detailed, so I
Speaker 1: would suggest listening to that for even more inside. So
Speaker 1: let's talk cat anatomy. Right, when you look at a cat,
Speaker 1: usually think, well, it's basically the same thing as a dog. No,
Speaker 1: that's not true. There's a lot of different differences between
Speaker 1: cats and dogs. Cats, for example, have about twoty four
Speaker 1: bones bones. Twenty seven of them are in their tail,
Speaker 1: which is very lucky because cats use their tail to
Speaker 1: do amazing things like balance and to turn over when
Speaker 1: they're falling, which is that with the tail helps with
Speaker 1: it's part of it. Which is a legend that a
Speaker 1: cat always lands on its feet, supposedly, which gave rise
Speaker 1: to the idea that cat has nine lives. Um, But no,
Speaker 1: cats can also not land on their feet sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They how about We'll say this, Cats really really want
Speaker 1: to land on their feet and try their hardest to
Speaker 1: and do most of the time. Yeah, which is good. Uh.
Speaker 1: They the tail also helps them get in and out
Speaker 1: of tight spaces. Uh. And the cat is notable for
Speaker 1: not having a collar bone. Um, it's a detached clavicle.
Speaker 1: So when you see a cat walk, whether it's a
Speaker 1: a puma or a kid cat, um, you see there
Speaker 1: those you know, those shoulder blades movies and rhythm with
Speaker 1: the legs, and that's I think. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: things about cats is that jaguar looks like your house cat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like same behaviors, same they do the same things. Well,
Speaker 1: if you go and look at an African wildcat, what
Speaker 1: all cat the last common ancestor of all house cats,
Speaker 1: all domestic cats. Um, they look like a large tabby cat,
Speaker 1: same kind of coloring, same features, same everything. So they
Speaker 1: clearly haven't diverged that much from their lineage, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also would probably be in big trouble on a
Speaker 1: safari because when I look at those big cats, I think, man,
Speaker 1: they would just let me in there to get you know,
Speaker 1: get them around the mouth and get a little scratch
Speaker 1: going like they would just they'd love me. You're the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that they find like dead and Maldan
Speaker 1: a zoo enclosure in the morning when they open up.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to pet it. Uh happened Sometimes what
Speaker 1: people want to pet the animals, so they go in yeah,
Speaker 1: get yeah, take drugs or get wasted and go hang
Speaker 1: out in zoos after hours. Like the guy who was
Speaker 1: killed by Tillicum the Orca. Yeah, one of the guys
Speaker 1: who was killed by Tillica. Yeah, he like took off
Speaker 1: his clothes and tried to ride till it come and
Speaker 1: that did not work out. Well, Tim said, get off
Speaker 1: me with great force. She said, come here, you who
Speaker 1: thought we were going to talk about a killer whale
Speaker 1: in the cat episode? I don't know. You never know.
Speaker 1: So back to cat anatomy, chuckers, Um, let's talk cat hair. Yes,
Speaker 1: cats have four kinds of hair. Yeah, most people probably
Speaker 1: thought you were gonna say three, or maybe even one
Speaker 1: or two. That's true. Uh, down hair on a w
Speaker 1: N hair, guard hair, and the brussee yeah, a k
Speaker 1: A whiskers, but your kind of hair. Yep. So the
Speaker 1: down hair is the closest to their body and it
Speaker 1: keeps them warm. And the next you have on, which
Speaker 1: is the middle coat and it's kind of an insulating coat.
Speaker 1: Then you have the guard hair, which is what you
Speaker 1: think everything is on a cat, what you see, and
Speaker 1: it protects the lower coats, it keeps it dry and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um, and the brissa those are the whiskers,
Speaker 1: and they're actually just amazing feats of biology. The briss
Speaker 1: cat whiskers are UM. Cats use them to sense movement
Speaker 1: and everything from like the ground or a door jam,
Speaker 1: or even changes in air pressure around them. They're extremely
Speaker 1: sensitive touch um appendages basically, Yeah, so they'll you mentioned
Speaker 1: the air pressure that helps them navigate at night. So
Speaker 1: a cat can be running through your living room and
Speaker 1: come upon your couch and literally since the air coming
Speaker 1: around the couch. And no, don't run into the couch
Speaker 1: like the dumb dog does every day. Yeah, because the
Speaker 1: dog has whiskers too, but they're not feeding them the
Speaker 1: same information that the cat's whiskers are. The whiskers do
Speaker 1: fall out and are replace You should never ever ever
Speaker 1: trim or cut or pull whiskers. No, and you should
Speaker 1: spank a child that does. And what let the cat
Speaker 1: watch there may be a time out, okay. Uh. They
Speaker 1: also indicate mood. If the cat's whiskers are pulled back,
Speaker 1: it probably means they're upset or angry or they want
Speaker 1: to scrap. Uh. If they're just puffed out normally, that
Speaker 1: means they're pretty happy. And they're roughly the width of
Speaker 1: the cat's body. So the cats will use these. Um,
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen a cat like, let's say there's
Speaker 1: a cat hole in your door, or they want to
Speaker 1: go behind the couch, they'll stick their head in first
Speaker 1: and say can I get through this with my big
Speaker 1: fat body right? Or my whiskers tingling? And the way
Speaker 1: that their fat bodies can get through though two is
Speaker 1: um because of that detached the detached shoulders that you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier too, that's right, that's how they can basically
Speaker 1: go from um horizontal too. That's when they angle them
Speaker 1: almost at a ninety degree angle to where they were
Speaker 1: standing or where their head is. They can go through
Speaker 1: some pretty tight spots, they can, Yeah, And they can
Speaker 1: also get caught and wedged and trapped in tight spots sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is no good. The Wizard got out one time
Speaker 1: and got in the attic and we couldn't find him,
Speaker 1: and it was very scary, and uh, I went up.
Speaker 1: We finally looked in the attic and it was in
Speaker 1: the summer, and he was kind of trapped and wedged
Speaker 1: in between like this wood and and he was like
Speaker 1: panting the attic in the summer, and is not a
Speaker 1: place you want to be very when you're trapped. How
Speaker 1: long is he gone for? Not that long? I mean, wait,
Speaker 1: don't answer, that's a cliffhanger. We'll answer that right after
Speaker 1: these messages, So chuck, Yeah, how long was the Wizard
Speaker 1: gone for? Seven days and seven nights. That's a long time. Now,
Speaker 1: it was just a few hours, I think, but it
Speaker 1: was so hot that it was. Yeah, we felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, bad very bad parents. Yeah, I mean he
Speaker 1: got into mischief. Well yeah he got the tape him
Speaker 1: to the fridge. Curiosity almost killed my cat. Jerry laughed
Speaker 1: at that. She's listening. Uh, cats paws, We're not done
Speaker 1: with anatomy because cats paws are pretty remarkable. Uh. They
Speaker 1: unlike dogs that can turn their paws, they can make
Speaker 1: a little fists and flex yeah more than a dog can. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they are obviously great for climbing things, um, and
Speaker 1: for self grooming, heat detection, temperature regulation, killing mice and
Speaker 1: moles and chipmunks, and bring him to the doorstep saying
Speaker 1: look what I did. Check this out. I'm a good kiddie.
Speaker 1: I strangled it with my paws that are offendable. Uh.
Speaker 1: And um, the claws are obviously not always out. Um.
Speaker 1: They are there, retracted back in and they use them
Speaker 1: as needed. So you found some really, um, really interesting
Speaker 1: article from the Humane Society of the US on cat
Speaker 1: claws that I could almost not make it through. I
Speaker 1: was cringing so much. Yeah it was really rough man. So, um,
Speaker 1: you said that a cat the cat's claws are retractable, right. Um,
Speaker 1: So the claws go back into the skin sheath and
Speaker 1: they come out when they're ready for some action. Um.
Speaker 1: And to de claw cat is not to just clip
Speaker 1: the clause because just like human's fingernails, they grow, which
Speaker 1: is one reason why cats scratch, which is to basically
Speaker 1: file down their what amounts of their fingernails their claws. Um.
Speaker 1: And the fact that they do this on the couch
Speaker 1: is what leads some people to get them de claus
Speaker 1: So you can see this vicious cycle coming up right. Well,
Speaker 1: declawing a cat is way more than clipping it's toenails.
Speaker 1: It's nothing like that. It's more akin to, as this
Speaker 1: article puts it, cutting off humans fingers at the first
Speaker 1: knuckle at the last, not the one the knuckle closest
Speaker 1: to the end of the finger. Yeah. We try not
Speaker 1: to get too opinionated, but I've always preached don't declaw
Speaker 1: it's uh. I think it's cruel. The cats need their
Speaker 1: claws for a variety of reasons. Um, there's no medical
Speaker 1: benefit to declawing a cat. It is purely for humans
Speaker 1: who don't want to take the time to train their
Speaker 1: cat to not scratch their couch. Yeah, and the humans,
Speaker 1: it makes the point that the average person can easily
Speaker 1: train their cat to scratch different places. Um. They suggest
Speaker 1: things like make sure your cat has a number of
Speaker 1: different scratching posts from different types of materials in different
Speaker 1: positions like vertical and horizontal, um, and put them near
Speaker 1: the things uh that they scratch, like if they scratch
Speaker 1: the arm of the couch, put a post near there.
Speaker 1: And you know, cats respond to know and just like
Speaker 1: dogs do. Right, you tell a cat no, and then
Speaker 1: you rub some catnip on the scratching post and they'll say, well,
Speaker 1: that's wonderful. That's what they say. They have the stuff.
Speaker 1: I think instead the cats not saying well that's wonderful,
Speaker 1: they're saying, you win this round, and they're biding their time,
Speaker 1: is what they're really doing. There are these clear sticky
Speaker 1: tapes you can put on your furniture that they don't like,
Speaker 1: and UM, my experience has been you don't have to
Speaker 1: leave that stuff there forever. Once they realize, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't like the feel of that on the couch, I'll
Speaker 1: just move on and and to the scratching post and
Speaker 1: then you can eventually peel that stuff off. You can.
Speaker 1: It does look kind of gross after a little I
Speaker 1: can with a cat in the house. Um. You can
Speaker 1: also hide behind your drapes with an air horn and
Speaker 1: wait for your cat to come to scratch. They'll pick
Speaker 1: up on that real quick. You want to start young, um,
Speaker 1: both trimming your cat's nails and with the trying to
Speaker 1: get them to not claw it stuff. The earlier you start,
Speaker 1: the better they're going to be. And it really doesn't
Speaker 1: take that much effort. If a cat doesn't have its claws,
Speaker 1: can lead to a lot of problems. Um. Decline can
Speaker 1: can make their their paws swell and uh like stay swollen. Um.
Speaker 1: It takes away their ability to jump on something, so
Speaker 1: they could try and jump up on something and not
Speaker 1: be able to grab and then fall back down. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they may also turn into biters because they don't
Speaker 1: have the ability to claw anymore. So maybe like, well
Speaker 1: I use my teeth instead. It is way worse and
Speaker 1: supposedly also a lot of reason that some some people
Speaker 1: have their cats declawed is not just for their furnisher
Speaker 1: stake because they're worried about things like cats scratch fever.
Speaker 1: Because Ted Nugent preached against right. Um, but the but
Speaker 1: the the idea that you can catch an infection from
Speaker 1: a cat scratch is far less likely than a cat's bite,
Speaker 1: dealing with cats feces um, or getting bitten by a
Speaker 1: flea that isn't infected that is a near your cat.
Speaker 1: So being scratched by a cat. Declawing a cat to
Speaker 1: prevent infection is actually a terrible idea as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And if you have indoor outdoor cats and you declawed them, um,
Speaker 1: that's just like the worst possible scenario because then they
Speaker 1: literally have no defense than the outside world their toasts.
Speaker 1: So are we clear enough? Don't declare your cats. In fact,
Speaker 1: many countries abandoned. Yeah. Um, it's such a like, such
Speaker 1: a bad thing to do. So I'm not judging him.
Speaker 1: Some people don't know, Um you know, well yeah, so,
Speaker 1: so we're trying to educate you. So you brought up
Speaker 1: indoor and outdoor cats, here's another soapbox for you to
Speaker 1: stand on, chuck, just slide it over. Um. There is
Speaker 1: a great debate on whether cats should be indoor cats
Speaker 1: or outdoor cats. And like we said, for almost all
Speaker 1: of domestic house cats history, they were not indeed housecats.
Speaker 1: They were not strictly indoor cats because just didn't really
Speaker 1: exist very much um, and they were allowed to come
Speaker 1: in and out, or they were strictly outdoor cats. And
Speaker 1: it's a fairly recent change. But there's a lot of um.
Speaker 1: A lot of the animal rights groups say no, you
Speaker 1: should keep your cats indoors. It's the safest place for
Speaker 1: your cat. The American Bird Conservancy says that you would
Speaker 1: be also saving the lives of countless small animals. They
Speaker 1: The American Bird Conservancy estimates that in the US alone,
Speaker 1: cats kill hundreds of millions of birds and more than
Speaker 1: a billion small mammals like rabbit, squirrels, and chipmunks every year.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy, That's like, well beyond the circle of life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. So there's a lot of people who say, yes,
Speaker 1: you should keep your cat indoors, and then the other
Speaker 1: the other side says, don't be stupid. These are outdoor animals.
Speaker 1: You should not confine them indoors. It's unnatural. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: the thing I'm most often here is my cat loves
Speaker 1: it outside, which is true. Your cat does love it outside,
Speaker 1: But for me, it's you know, you're the owner. It's
Speaker 1: up to you. Like an indoor cat can live fifteen
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty years if you have a strictly outdoor cat,
Speaker 1: they say, the life expectancy is can be as little as,
Speaker 1: you know, two to five years. It's definitely like a
Speaker 1: live fast, die young scenario. Yeah. For the outdoor cats,
Speaker 1: sure they can get Uh well, I mean, how many
Speaker 1: times have you walked down the street or driven down
Speaker 1: the road and seen a squash cat that was somebody's
Speaker 1: house cat? Far less than a squashed dog or even
Speaker 1: really yeah, not that I think about it, I very
Speaker 1: rarely have seen a dead cat on the side of
Speaker 1: the road. Well, how about this, how many times have
Speaker 1: you seen a cat across the road? Successfully? Probably a lot,
Speaker 1: because cats are pretty smart. They're not like squirrels. Like
Speaker 1: a squirrel run into the middle of the road, it
Speaker 1: will be across the road and they'll turn back like,
Speaker 1: oh the tire missed me, Let me go make it
Speaker 1: easier for it. Cats are pretty good at it. But
Speaker 1: your cats shouldn't have to be good at crossing a
Speaker 1: street with cars. Well, then you get into the idea
Speaker 1: of like humans fragmenting natural habitats and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, because if if you really look at it, chuck,
Speaker 1: especially with cats, if you consider the idea that they
Speaker 1: are not fully domesticated animals, and that we have basically
Speaker 1: shuffled them around the world. We basically take an African
Speaker 1: wild has been like, hey, come with us, we're going
Speaker 1: to the New World. Hey come with us. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go found Rome. Hey come with us. We want you
Speaker 1: to be one of our deities here in ancient Egypt. Um,
Speaker 1: and the cats went along with it, but didn't actually
Speaker 1: evolve to become a domesticated species. Um, then we have
Speaker 1: just taken wildlife and shuffled it into our own human life.
Speaker 1: And um, I I said, I don't know. I kind
Speaker 1: of see like the the out the indoor outdoor. Um
Speaker 1: people sure, I see their argument. Yeah, well, if you
Speaker 1: do the indoor outdoor thing, bring him in at night. UM,
Speaker 1: don't have them declaude, like I said, because you're just
Speaker 1: like throwing them into a gunfight without a gun. But
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have any cat declaudes your or the Humane
Speaker 1: Society's position at I don't think you should. Personally, I
Speaker 1: don't think you should have cats outdoors, but I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get all up in arms about that because I
Speaker 1: get it. Cats do love being outside. Um. One thing
Speaker 1: you can do, though, if you do have an indoor cat,
Speaker 1: is build some sort of enclosure for them that is outside,
Speaker 1: or like let them hang out on a screen and
Speaker 1: porch or someplaces. They're not going to get actually outside
Speaker 1: of your house, and but they're still able to enjoy
Speaker 1: the out of doors. Yeah, we go out on my
Speaker 1: deck and they love it. They don't want to come in. Um.
Speaker 1: And I know we'll hear from people that say, I
Speaker 1: had an outdoor cat that lived to be seventeen. You
Speaker 1: got super lucky, you know, I mean that's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's probably folks songs about that cat among cats. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they recommend if you do want to keep your
Speaker 1: cat indoors, startom young, because once that cat gets the
Speaker 1: taste for the outside, it's really hard to get them
Speaker 1: to be indoor cats after that. Yeah. UM, I hope
Speaker 1: I'm not too judging in this. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, if your cat is gonna
Speaker 1: live many, many years longer inside, then keep them inside.
Speaker 1: So but if you are going to keep your cat inside, um,
Speaker 1: there are some things that you want to do for
Speaker 1: your cat, like, for one, UM, an indoor cat's life
Speaker 1: is extraordinarily sedentary, especially compared to an outdoor cat's life. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: they just lay around and they get fat and happy.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is they can get like really
Speaker 1: really fat, and that can lead to all sorts of problems,
Speaker 1: the same kind of problems that humans get when they
Speaker 1: over eat. So one of the first things you want
Speaker 1: to make sure you do when you have a strictly
Speaker 1: indoor cat is to um feed it a proper diet.
Speaker 1: And cats, unlike dogs, did not really evolve to become omnivores. Instead,
Speaker 1: they are straight up meat eaters still, so you want
Speaker 1: to feed them like a high protein diet. And um,
Speaker 1: you don't want to leave that food out all day
Speaker 1: because that cat will be like, I'll just eat and
Speaker 1: eat and eat because on board. Yeah, that depends on
Speaker 1: the cat too. We leave our food out, the dry food,
Speaker 1: and they get there, uh called the good stuff, the
Speaker 1: wet food. Although the thinking now is they should eat
Speaker 1: more wet food than dry food. Yes, supposedly, that's what
Speaker 1: That's what I found. Yeah, but um, I'm my cats
Speaker 1: are thirteen and we've I guess we've been doing it
Speaker 1: wrong all these years. But they can't jump up on
Speaker 1: the counter now where the food is because no, because
Speaker 1: they're and uh, so well, they asked we call it.
Speaker 1: They asked for a ride. You know, you won't through
Speaker 1: the kitchen, they'll go right, So I'll give him a
Speaker 1: ride up there and they'll eat some you might as well.
Speaker 1: And both of my cat, like Lauren especially, he's a
Speaker 1: main coon and he will he will literally like talk
Speaker 1: to you. You can you yell iron and help me out?
Speaker 1: At you? You say, what are you doing? And he'll go,
Speaker 1: you have a good day and to go me ow.
Speaker 1: Whereas Wizard is not super chatty. He's a tap, short
Speaker 1: haired tabby and he's he's not as nearly as chatty. Uh.
Speaker 1: And both I found on the streets of Los Angeles. Uh,
Speaker 1: Wizard was one was a blood and one was a cryptin.
Speaker 1: You brought them together. Wizard was in Emily's neighborhood when
Speaker 1: we were just dating. I went over to Emily's house
Speaker 1: and there was this couple, good natured, I think, but
Speaker 1: they had this kit and they were trying to like
Speaker 1: force it in a shoe box and it was just screaming.
Speaker 1: I was like, what are you doing? They're like, this
Speaker 1: guy's been hanging out here for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So we're trying to get it in this box so
Speaker 1: we can bring it inside. Now. I was like, give me,
Speaker 1: give me the cat, and then off with the cat,
Speaker 1: ran into Emily's house and said, we got a cat.
Speaker 1: Um that's the wizard and um no, Lauren was actually
Speaker 1: first Lauren lived. Uh, this is kind of a neat story.
Speaker 1: I came home from a night shoot as a p
Speaker 1: a at seven am, exhausted, laid down to sleep, and
Speaker 1: I heard this incessant mewing of a kitten outside. I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I gotta go check this out.
Speaker 1: In my dumpster was a four week old kitten that
Speaker 1: looked like it had been shaved on the back, but
Speaker 1: I guess it was just maybe that top coat had
Speaker 1: fallen off because he was black, but the undercoat was
Speaker 1: this weird short gray and he looked terrible. So I
Speaker 1: was like, I guess I got a cat, took him
Speaker 1: to the vet, got him cleaned up, and as I
Speaker 1: was checking out, Tim Curry a rocky horror picture show
Speaker 1: was the vet. Did not expect him to make an
Speaker 1: appearance in that. No, Well, that's what kind of the
Speaker 1: fun thing about l as you'll see celebrities that weird,
Speaker 1: just normal places like the vet, so he was checking out.
Speaker 1: I went to go right at check and needed both
Speaker 1: hands and said, Mr Curry, would you hold my cat?
Speaker 1: Did you sign my cat? Um? He probably would have,
Speaker 1: but he held him and he asked what his name was.
Speaker 1: I said Laurn and uh, because he looked so weird
Speaker 1: and had that silver back, and he went, Lauren, you
Speaker 1: look like a baboon. And he like said that to
Speaker 1: the cat and said he had very uh, dramatic ears.
Speaker 1: And then he gave me Lauren back and it was
Speaker 1: a wonderful experience. He was blessed by Tim Curry. And
Speaker 1: eventually Luran's hair grew out normal and he was just
Speaker 1: a big black main coon. Uh. And they've been my
Speaker 1: buddies ever since. They didn't get along though, and they
Speaker 1: still don't, which is weird with cats. I guess people
Speaker 1: can have different different experience with the grown cats. My
Speaker 1: experience has been once they're at a certain age, it's
Speaker 1: hard to throw them in the same house together and
Speaker 1: have them be best buddies. Like. They still they co exist,
Speaker 1: they have their own areas. They do kind of fight
Speaker 1: every now and then we'll hear them like, you know,
Speaker 1: going at it um. But when food time comes, they
Speaker 1: eat like, you know, inches from each other, or if
Speaker 1: there's a sun spot in the dining room, they'll lay
Speaker 1: next to each other. They've worked it out over the years.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, it's pretty interesting. They're not like dogs
Speaker 1: dogs are either, Like I think they get along right away,
Speaker 1: unless you have a dog that's aggressive, you know, very fascinating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's nowhere to go but down after that story, so
Speaker 1: let's take a break, agreed. So check. One of the
Speaker 1: things that um cats most famous for is their behavior, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's just certain things cats do that other no other
Speaker 1: animal does. Very quirky. So for example, um, what's called
Speaker 1: making biscuits are kneading dough. It's the best. So what
Speaker 1: is that? Uh? Well, if you maybe you're laying on
Speaker 1: your couch and your cat jumps up on your belly
Speaker 1: and then just starts flexing its paws, um pushing their
Speaker 1: paws in and out left, right, left, right, as if
Speaker 1: they were kneading dough or making biscuits. Uh. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: keep their claws in for this. Sometimes they flex them
Speaker 1: into your skin a little bit, which to me doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1: I think it feels quite nice. And there are a
Speaker 1: bunch of theories on why they do this, but I
Speaker 1: think the leading one is that when you see little kittens,
Speaker 1: they kind of need on mama's belly to get more theoretically,
Speaker 1: to prime the pump a little bit to get more
Speaker 1: milk flow. Yeah, but you should not feed cat's milk.
Speaker 1: We should mention no, because you're feeding a cat cow's
Speaker 1: milk and they are not capable of digesting cow's milk.
Speaker 1: It's actually really bad for him. I wonder where that
Speaker 1: came from. I don't know. Tom and Jerry definitely did
Speaker 1: not help any cat, you know, because Tom was crazy
Speaker 1: for that stuff in a variety of ways that didn't
Speaker 1: help cats. That cartoon um. But yeah, that's that's the
Speaker 1: predominant theory that they're basically hearkening back to a happy childhood,
Speaker 1: and they're also releasing They have scent glands in their paws,
Speaker 1: so when they're scratching or kneeding, making biscuits, they're releasing
Speaker 1: that scent as they're like kind of claiming their territory, right,
Speaker 1: they're marking whatever that is, whether it's their humans belly.
Speaker 1: There's a really cute UM video and an article you
Speaker 1: sent me that has um like a cat needing a
Speaker 1: dog upon its side and the cats just and there,
Speaker 1: like kneading its shoulders and that pretty good stuff. So
Speaker 1: the cats saying this dog, this is my dog, that's
Speaker 1: my dog. Um, and uh, there's other ways that cats
Speaker 1: also mark their territory. They're people, um using scent glands too.
Speaker 1: It's not just in their claws. Um, they're also on
Speaker 1: their faces, which is one reason why cats kind of
Speaker 1: bump faces with you. Yeah, we call it the head butt.
Speaker 1: You know, cat Lauren head butts a lot. Wizard doesn't
Speaker 1: head butt as much. But if you're scratching a cat
Speaker 1: with your finger a lot of times they'll they'll make
Speaker 1: sure that finger gets at the corner of their mouth. Um,
Speaker 1: you have sent glands there in the pause. Um, and
Speaker 1: they're they just they eat that stuff up. They love it.
Speaker 1: They are they're they're marking you. And then they're also
Speaker 1: taking in any weird sense you may have gotten to,
Speaker 1: which is why some people will be like, your cat
Speaker 1: knows when you've been holding another cat and they're not
Speaker 1: happy about it because they can smell that other cat
Speaker 1: because that cat was like you go, sucker, I just
Speaker 1: it's gonna take your cat off. This is my person now. Uh.
Speaker 1: Cats can also spray. Um. It is very pungent. It's
Speaker 1: not just urine, although it can be, but most of
Speaker 1: the time it's urine mixed with a fatty material, viscous
Speaker 1: fatty material. It's really musky and stinky. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: get your cat fixed, which you should, spay a neuter
Speaker 1: early as as early as possible. But that'll take care
Speaker 1: about spray issues. Uh. If you don't fix your cat,
Speaker 1: you're you're just asking for it. They will pay you back.
Speaker 1: Yeah in spray. Yeah, not in spades, but in spray.
Speaker 1: And what they'll do is it's uh sometimes if it's
Speaker 1: a horizontal surface, they kind of just be. If it's
Speaker 1: a vertical surface, they'll spray and they'll they'll back that
Speaker 1: thing up and you'll see the tail quiver and comments. Right.
Speaker 1: But Laurn and other cats, I think, even after you've
Speaker 1: had them fixed, will mimic the spray. Like he'll go
Speaker 1: by the couch and back up to it and quiver
Speaker 1: a sale but nothing comes out. Oh he's just psyching
Speaker 1: you out. You're like, no, no, He's like, I'm just kid.
Speaker 1: He fixed. Uh. And a lot of times it's stress
Speaker 1: a lot of times it is to mark their territory,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's a male saying like hey smell this,
Speaker 1: check me out. And sometimes it's in revenge, like if
Speaker 1: your cat's not happy, if the litter box said, like
Speaker 1: remember my story when I didn't put letter in there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Lauren started peeing everywhere. It just goes off
Speaker 1: like a paint bomb and a bag of bank robbery money. Uh.
Speaker 1: Cats can drool. Had one very drulie cat as a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but supposedly that's like a really bad sign if your
Speaker 1: cat drools a lot, well, it can. It can signify
Speaker 1: in a medical issue, right, So if your cat doesn't
Speaker 1: normally drool and starts drooling, you should get it checked out.
Speaker 1: But if you're you can just have a Drulie cat
Speaker 1: as well. If you're working that scent gland um, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll you know this cat scooter I had. It was
Speaker 1: along here and laurent rios a little bit, which is
Speaker 1: drool like crazy. Really yeah, So it's so if it
Speaker 1: is a problem and usually indicates something like um, some
Speaker 1: sort of oral disease, or they're having trouble swallowing which
Speaker 1: is not good um, or they might have motion sickness interesting,
Speaker 1: and panting is not good in your cat. Like, if
Speaker 1: you see a dog panting, that's your dog's panting. But
Speaker 1: if a cat's doing it is really stressed out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like when Wizard was panting in the attic, it
Speaker 1: was it's disturbing to see a cat pant. Uh. Funny
Speaker 1: enough that cat, Scooter ran away from my house. We
Speaker 1: had outdoor cats growing up. I didn't, man, we didn't
Speaker 1: do the right thing when I was a kid in
Speaker 1: my family. No, No, we didn't go to the vet much.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like look kind of like country style,
Speaker 1: like you just had animals. If they got sick and dyed,
Speaker 1: they got sick and died. But I was I was
Speaker 1: very much educated as I got older on like proper
Speaker 1: pet care and like you take your cat to the
Speaker 1: vet once or twice a year to get checkups. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: just like you do a dog. But Scooter ran away
Speaker 1: from home and I found that cat like three years later,
Speaker 1: five miles away from my house, living at someone else's house.
Speaker 1: And see wearing like a necklace made of chipmunks skulls. Right,
Speaker 1: he had this wild look in his eye. You know,
Speaker 1: he was still he just lived with someone else. I
Speaker 1: don't know how he got there. I mean it was
Speaker 1: a long way. Still, he hang gone Ferrell, he just
Speaker 1: moved in with another family. Yeah, he was in this
Speaker 1: driveway just hanging out and ran up to the door.
Speaker 1: He didn't know you, but he had he had his tag.
Speaker 1: He ran right up to me and I didn't take him.
Speaker 1: I was like, I guess you're happier here. How old
Speaker 1: were you? I was probably like twelve. Wow, Chuck, that
Speaker 1: was a very adult decision to leave the cat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good for you. I think it was on my bike too.
Speaker 1: It was just didn't make logistical sense, Like how am
Speaker 1: I gonna get this cat back? You know you're gonna
Speaker 1: have him stand on your pegs And I think I
Speaker 1: probably went by Kilm was like I saw Scooter. My
Speaker 1: parents with like, who you mean? We told you never
Speaker 1: to talk of him again? The one that left. It's
Speaker 1: so funny. Uh. If you want to get a cat
Speaker 1: um as with all pets, just think about if you
Speaker 1: have the time to take care of a cat. They
Speaker 1: don't need the kind of training a dog a puppy does,
Speaker 1: but they still need to be trained as kittens. If
Speaker 1: you're going to take them outside. Sometimes if they're an
Speaker 1: indoor cat and you're like, I really want my cat
Speaker 1: to be able to enjoy the outdoors, strongly recommended that you,
Speaker 1: um train them to to walk around in a leash.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. I have to. There's a guy in
Speaker 1: mining US place that has a cat that walks on
Speaker 1: a leash. Yeah, it's pretty crazy and cute. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: You're like, where's that cat? Should be wearing a stove
Speaker 1: top hat or something. That's what it looks like. It
Speaker 1: looks like some sort of trick is about to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you see a cat on a leash a right, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's clearly a performer. Hilarious. Um, you should always adopt cats.
Speaker 1: If even if you want a specific breed, check with
Speaker 1: your local shelters because they probably have something that strikes
Speaker 1: your cat fancy. There are seventy was it seventy million
Speaker 1: or seven million? Seventy million, uh, stray cats in the
Speaker 1: United States and growing every day. Yeah, like one cat.
Speaker 1: If if this cat is feral and obviously not spade
Speaker 1: or neutered, that that can lead to hundreds of cats. Oh,
Speaker 1: very quickly. They have a litter or two or three.
Speaker 1: Then those kittens have litters and always always say new
Speaker 1: to your cat and adopt, don't shop um, because there
Speaker 1: are tons and tons of great kittens and kitties. Uh,
Speaker 1: just walk into a shelter and I guarantee you you
Speaker 1: will find at least one that you want to keep.
Speaker 1: Or you can walk around Los Angeles and look for
Speaker 1: somebody who's trying to adopt the kitten and wrestle it
Speaker 1: away from him. Yeah. You know, we got Buckley, our dog,
Speaker 1: from a an actual shelter, but all of the rest
Speaker 1: of our animals have literally just been pulled off the
Speaker 1: street because they kind of pulled off. It sounds like
Speaker 1: your kidnapped that we did from the wild, the wilds
Speaker 1: of l A. Yeah, except for our youngest dog, which
Speaker 1: was the only Georgia animal we have, Charlie. We had
Speaker 1: to trap her in a cage like she was a
Speaker 1: wild dog. Well, yes, you can tell. She's like, you
Speaker 1: stay over there, I'm cool over here she can move to.
Speaker 1: All these years later, Charlie still won't like she'll bark
Speaker 1: at anyone that comes in our house. That's who she is.
Speaker 1: Part of the breed too. Oh yeah, well she's a
Speaker 1: shelty right, yeah, shelty mix of some sort. So they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's a kind of thing. Yeah, they're like she literally
Speaker 1: it's her job. She sits in the front sunroom and
Speaker 1: just stairs and waits for people to walk by so
Speaker 1: she can bark. It's maddening, is what it is, especially
Speaker 1: when you have a sleeping baby. I think one of
Speaker 1: the funniest things ever is when you're walking past the
Speaker 1: house and there's a dog in the window and it
Speaker 1: just watches you. It doesn't part, it just watches you
Speaker 1: as you go past. Keep walking. Pal Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: little distressed. I think it's hilarious to see. And speaking
Speaker 1: of babies and kids and cats, um, we're already having
Speaker 1: to manage that stuff, you know. Um, because babies, once
Speaker 1: you start moving, she's got that palm or grass briflex. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't know. They'll they'll they'll jump on an animal,
Speaker 1: they'll pull tales and pull hair, and you just have
Speaker 1: to be really vigilant. And as they grow older, teach them,
Speaker 1: you know, how how to pat pat and how to
Speaker 1: be gentle. Well yeah, and you you should teach your
Speaker 1: kid using words like gentle and soft and so they
Speaker 1: can they say, Oh, you're not supposed to see the
Speaker 1: of the cat's eyeballs when you pete. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: Wizard already popped her once in the face. Clause in
Speaker 1: How did she take that? If she didn't like it?
Speaker 1: She cried, We're like, Wizard, you're a jerk. He's like
Speaker 1: what thirteen? I know, he's like was closed in. It
Speaker 1: was a warning shot, right, But that was our fault,
Speaker 1: you know, we we thought, you know, we weren't managing
Speaker 1: that like we should. It's up to you. You also
Speaker 1: want to be careful with kitty litter. Apparently toxoplasmos Is
Speaker 1: GANDHI has completely ruined our world. So this whole advent
Speaker 1: of keeping cats indoors has changed humanity in ways that
Speaker 1: we're only beginning now to understand. Did we do a
Speaker 1: whole show on that, Yeah, we did some years back.
Speaker 1: Um it was a pretty good one too. It's like,
Speaker 1: has toxoplasmosis turned us all into zombies or something like that.
Speaker 1: But there's a very recent study that came out of
Speaker 1: the University of Chicago and they examined I think three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight adults um and identified some people
Speaker 1: that suffered from intermittent explosive disorder where just something just
Speaker 1: sets you off and it's totally unreasonable, And a really
Speaker 1: good example of it is road rage, right. Um, And
Speaker 1: they found that half of the people with I e
Speaker 1: ED had talk So plasmosis infections would you would have
Speaker 1: gotten from a cat? I most certainly have it? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well supposedly one in three people in the world have
Speaker 1: it because of cat domestication. And it's bad if you're
Speaker 1: a pregnant lady. So if you're pregnant, they say it's
Speaker 1: time to switch duties if that's how it goes in
Speaker 1: your house and your husband is on cat litter duty,
Speaker 1: right because you have that baby. Because of toxic plasmos as,
Speaker 1: it can cause birth effects as well and children born children. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's bad news. Great idea to keep the cat indoors. Uh.
Speaker 1: Oh you know. One of the other reasons we did
Speaker 1: mention for doing that is you're you're you're much more
Speaker 1: likely to spot a sickness in your cat if they're
Speaker 1: always oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah, like you're more
Speaker 1: in tune with with what's going on with your catau. Um,
Speaker 1: we should talk before we leave about purring and catap purring.
Speaker 1: All cats, I'm not all cats. Some wild cats do peru,
Speaker 1: all domestic cats per and even raccoons per which I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know that anything. Pretty interesting. Have
Speaker 1: you ever seen foxes? They don't purr, they go. It's
Speaker 1: the best. It's pretty great. Wiggle that tail. It fox
Speaker 1: to me is like a dog cat. It's like the
Speaker 1: ultimate combination. It is, isn't it sort of? Oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, we saw our neighborhood peacock the other day
Speaker 1: and I thought, of you those things. Yeah, this dude
Speaker 1: has he's a crazy bird guy because he has a
Speaker 1: s Oh, dude, he's got like six peacocks. That's gotta
Speaker 1: be illegal. I don't know. Maybe I would think. So
Speaker 1: you're only allowed to have six cats in Atlanta? That's cats? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Should we turn Holly in now she didn't know more
Speaker 1: than six, I'd be surprised if she doesn't. But Holly
Speaker 1: has a separate litter box for each one of her cats,
Speaker 1: which proves that she's a crazy cat lady. Yeah, she'll
Speaker 1: tell you. Man, um are you're talking about purring? No,
Speaker 1: we were talking about the peacocks. So this guy has
Speaker 1: I think four or five, which is the male and female.
Speaker 1: Which one has the big plume. I think that's the male,
Speaker 1: so I guess he has four or five females. And
Speaker 1: then this one huge male peacock that like will literally
Speaker 1: sometimes be on the apex of its roof. Yeah, screaming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they get up on the roof. It's like they're where
Speaker 1: they like to go. Apparently it's nuts. But he's a
Speaker 1: bird guy, because I've seen his on his back deck.
Speaker 1: He's got this like aviary with parrots and cockatoos and
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff birdland. Yeah. Bird people a weird
Speaker 1: uh purring, So they pur um and most of the
Speaker 1: time it means they're very happy, but they can also
Speaker 1: pur if they're upset or startled or injured, Uh, they
Speaker 1: might pur. And they're direct wiring from the brain to
Speaker 1: the muscles in the voice box, and so they vibrate
Speaker 1: the muscles and the actives a vow for the air.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like one continuous per but if you
Speaker 1: listen closely, uh, it is an inhale and an exhale
Speaker 1: perr going on um. And it's of course if you're
Speaker 1: a cat lover, it's a wonderful thing if your cat
Speaker 1: to per It's very soothing. Put you right to sleep.
Speaker 1: Uh and I guess what else cat up? Well, yeah, cat,
Speaker 1: and that's pretty awesome. It is a It is legitimately
Speaker 1: a drug that cats do. Cats do drugs in the
Speaker 1: form of cat note all right, And you can do
Speaker 1: it two different ways. One you can inhale it. You
Speaker 1: can cook it in a spoon and shoot it right
Speaker 1: through your nose through the cats knows if you're a cat,
Speaker 1: you do it through your nose um, and that sends
Speaker 1: them into like ecstasy. Oh it's yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: And then they can also eat it and that usually
Speaker 1: makes it makes the cat mellow. And it depends on
Speaker 1: the cat only. I think about half cats are actually
Speaker 1: um sensitive the cat its wiles, it's charms, right, but um,
Speaker 1: the ones that are, they go nuts for this stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Both of my cats do UM. And you can get
Speaker 1: it either, you know, dried out like it looks like
Speaker 1: a reguano um And that's what I said. You could
Speaker 1: put in your scratching pads to attract them to that.
Speaker 1: So I put that stuff down and man, they roll
Speaker 1: around in it and it's it's pretty great. Or you
Speaker 1: can my mom gives me, she grows it fresh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's a member of the mint family, it grows
Speaker 1: pretty pretty easily. Yeah, it looks like a little mint leaf,
Speaker 1: and they're more prone to eat the fresh stuff and
Speaker 1: roll around in the dried out I would have guessed
Speaker 1: the opposite. I don't know. It's pretty fun though. I
Speaker 1: think it's hilarious that there's a drug for cats. Dogs
Speaker 1: don't have a drug. Sure, it's called human kindness. They
Speaker 1: get off on that, they do. Uh. If you want
Speaker 1: to know more about cats, there's a lot. I mean
Speaker 1: we didn't even get into the breeds and cat shows
Speaker 1: and cat fanciers. There's a lot more out there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: cat Fancy magazine. You've been to Rome, Italy? Yeah, cats everywhere?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there are a lot of cats there, aren't there.
Speaker 1: And there's a history to that. Amsterdam. I think there's
Speaker 1: that cat boat in the canal. Sure, it's like a
Speaker 1: boat with a hundred cats on it. I've not heard
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, huh, there's there's a lot more out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's sure there's a lot of cats. But we're done
Speaker 1: with cats if you ask me, I agreed. If you
Speaker 1: want to know more about cats, travel to Rome or Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: You can also save some time and money by just
Speaker 1: typing the word cats into the search part how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Since I said search parts time for
Speaker 1: the listener mail, I'm gonna call this. Uh, you were
Speaker 1: right about math, Chuck, sort of. Hey, guys, A huge
Speaker 1: fan of the show. Just started listening a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago after a friend recommended it, and I've been
Speaker 1: hooked ever since. I want to make a quick comment
Speaker 1: about math majors and ambiguity in response to the continent
Speaker 1: naming episode. I am major to math in college and
Speaker 1: definitely have an aversion to ambiguity. I have really, absolutely
Speaker 1: hate movies were unresolved endings with unresolved endings, So perhaps
Speaker 1: you guys are onto something here. However, it should be
Speaker 1: noted that higher level mathematics, especially pure mathematics, can be
Speaker 1: incredibly ambiguous, which is why some mathematicians, most mathematicians, it's
Speaker 1: been their entire careers attempting to solve problems or understand
Speaker 1: or proof theorems without ever solving anything. I can imagine.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen Proof? The movie or the play
Speaker 1: really good, even if you hate math, jails in it
Speaker 1: and Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh wait, it isn't depending how you
Speaker 1: feel about them. Isn't like Albert Einstein a matchmaker or
Speaker 1: something in that one? No, that was thinking of a
Speaker 1: different one Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan Yeah yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: different movie. Uh. Finishing out from Kim, she says the
Speaker 1: uncertainty was maddening. Just why I chose to go to
Speaker 1: medical school instead. So Kim's no dummy. Thanks for the podcast.
Speaker 1: And that's from Kim who uh she is at the
Speaker 1: University of Illinois at Chicago, oh y, that's where our
Speaker 1: taxo plays most is study came from. Actually it's not
Speaker 1: true that came from the University of Chicago, but right
Speaker 1: next door. Yeah. I'm sure they're friends probably or bitter
Speaker 1: rivals maybe. So well, thanks a lot, Kim. We appreciate
Speaker 1: the email. If you want to get in touch with
Speaker 1: us and clarify some random thing we tossed out there,
Speaker 1: we love that kind of stuff, you can tweet to
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