The cat loves fish but does not like to wet her paws. English Proverb

I am absolutely in love this picture. It makes an awesome background and can be found here.

Remember the kittens in the truck bed adventure? I hadn’t seen the kittens since that day although I’ve seen Mama a number of times. Since the carport is in the back I use the back door as an entrance and I usually walk in the back door and out the front door to get the mail. Earlier this week I open the front door and there are 2 females and their kittens on the sidewalk that runs from the door almost to the mailbox, stops about 10 feet from the mailbox. Weird. A gorgeous little tortie with 1 black and 1 orange kitten and Mama with her 2, 1 black and 1 gray. The oak trees around the place throw shade onto the sidewalk most of the day so they’re all stretched out, just lazin’ away. Gotta teach these critters how to relax. Anyhoo, I can get within about 6 feet before the kittens split but can get almost within arm’s reach of the queens. Too cool. Kittens are so cute. Those little blue eyes lookin’ up at the giant. We’ve lucked out with the ones we’ve caught so far in that there were no leukemia or FIV/FeLV positives.

Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal. However, in 2004, a domesticated cat that was buried 9,500 years ago was discovered in Cyprus, and a study in 2007 found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) circa 8000 BC, in the Near East.

[snip]

There are two main models for how cats were domesticated. In one model, people deliberately tamed cats in a process of artificial selection, as they were useful predators of vermin. However, some theorists find this implausible, because there may have been little reward for such an effort: cats do not carry out commands and, although they do eat rodents, other species such as ferrets or terriers may be better at controlling these pests. The alternative idea is that cats were simply tolerated by people and gradually diverged from their ‘wild’ relatives through natural selection, as they adapted to an agricultural environment.

From Wiki, citations removed.

Just a little history since the findings of 2007 have given a different spin to the “Egyptians domesticated cats to keep the mice out of the grain” theory.

Are indoor/outdoor or outdoor tigers more free than indoor tigers? What’s the definition of “free” for a domestic feline? Yesterday one of our regular trolls said that none of my tigers was free because they’re indoor tigers. I don’t agree.

“[A]dapted to an agricultural environment.” Have they now adapted to an urban environment? Why did the Black Plague spread so fast in the cities? Most of the cats had been hunted down and killed as the symbols and minions of Satan. It’s not that cats would kill the rats, it’s that rats won’t come around where they know cats are. I see it in my back yard. I have a tangerine tree and Eileen next door has a grapefruit tree. Not a fruit rat in its right mind would come anywhere near the place with all the strays.

But what happens if one of the strays should happen onto a fruit rat? I know one possibility. Yang caught a fruit rat one morning back in the days when Min, Yang and Isis were indoor/outdoor. They were the only cats in the area, making it happy time for fruit rats. Three days later she was at the vet hooked up to IV antibiotics to fight the bacteria she got from the rat. Not a scratch on Yang, apparently a clean kill, but the bacteria in the rat’s body fluids were passed to Yang. She came home a week later, weak but alive. Inner city ER personnel can tell you horror stories about rat bites and the inherent danger of infection from the rat’s saliva, a body fluid.

Isis, a gorgeous creamsicle tiger with a feather boa tail was killed by a drunken neighbor. He then buried her somewhere in his back yard. I was refused permission to dig up the yard to look for her after the asshole moved up north, where he committed suicide a few years later.

One thing all felines, large and small, have in common: they are notorious nappers. Cats spend most of their lives sleeping, inside or outside. Outdoor cats, and dogs, are constant targets for fleas and mosquitoes, ingested fleas pass on tapeworm eggs and with mosquitoes it’s heartworms. Sleeping on the ground provides the parasites a stationary prey for their feeding. Neither parasite lives on the animal, they feed then jump or fly off. Anemia due to fleas is not uncommon with cats who spend a lot of time outdoors. Even the most potent flea control products, e.g., Advantage, become ineffective over a period of time because the fleas in the cat’s environment become tolerant of them.

What about those garbage cans/bags with the rotten meat and who knows what else in them?

Just some of the hazards cats face outside in addition to vehicles, other animals, mean humans, etc. At least in Denver and other high altitude cities there’s no flea problem.

I adopted the animals I have because I wanted to provide a safe, loving home for animals rejected by others. They are not here for my amusement or entertainment. They are not disposable, cast aside when they become irritating or inconvenient. They are living, breathing sentient beings. They are not toys or image enhancers. Three of my tigers, Feurae, Kismet and Brutus, are alive today because I was willing to take them when others had planned to have them euthanized because they had become “inconvenient.” Missy also belonged in that category.

Are they free? They’re free from the numerous hazards faced by outdoor cats everywhere. Are they free to roam around and do stuff that might get them killed? No. Dogs and cats are at times like small children who must be protected from themselves. Cats are predators and dogs have been known to chase the occasional squirrel or cat. Once focused on the prey animal the dog or cat is oblivious to the vehicle they’re about to run in front of and it only takes one. Maste is without a tail because he probably ran in front of a car, resulting in severed nerves and vertabrae. Are they free to kill other living things that they usually won’t eat but will deposit at my feet? No. Are they free to tear the house up? Yep. Are they free to live a longer, healthier life than the majority of their outdoor counterparts? Yes. Missy lived to be 22 1/2 and died at home in my arms from natural causes. I can live with that and since I’ve never had one try to “escape” I have to assume they can too.

Missy. On Missy’s last day I came home from work a little after 5pm. She had not moved a muscle since I’d left after lunch. I knew her time had come. I sat next to her, talking and petting until she died at 11:15 that night. That’s how I want all of my tigers to end their days and will do whatever is necessary to make that a reality. For me, and I can only speak for myself, keeping them indoors is a major component of that reality.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. Joseph Wood Krutch