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Danger: catblogging

wildcats.jpg

Minion Scubafreak sent me pictures of Schroedinger the kitten on Friday, and I was struck by how much he looks like Damien at that age. “So what, Weasel?” you’re thinking. “Little gray stripey tabbies are as common as muck.”

Can I just take a second to tell you how very tired I am of reading your minds?

Anyhow, gray tabbies are different. Damien was my first and I observed him closely, after which I started paying attention to shelter tabbies and Cheezburger tabbies. It’s not just gray with black stripes and white highlights. Oh, no. There’s a whole constellation of unusual breed characteristics that go with: their paw pads and noses are a brick red. Their lips and the velvets of their paws are black. There’s a hint of brown undercoat around their muzzles and in other spots. Coarse fur, gray on the body (actually a side-by-side mixture of dark and light, like a badger). Long, wavy, blunt tails with black tips and a black dorsal stripe.

I could go on and on. In fact, I just did. Here, have some more.

There’s a tabby personality, too. They’re friendly, pushy, go-to-hell cats. Damien had a little hitch in his britches, a little trot in his trousers, a little wavey, jivey, slinky, shovy, hissy thing going. It was a cinch that boy would get into trouble; he probably invited an 18-wheeler to kiss his stripey ass. I have always believed he somehow bred true to some long ago wild pusso ancestor.

And I’m right, as usual. That lovely beast top left is a Near Eastern wildcat, Felis sylvestris lybica. Thanks to the miracle of mitochondrial DNA testing, they have recently discovered that animal and my boy had a common ancestor 130,000 years ago. Well, five common ancestors. In Eye-rack!

Dude. Read it in the Daily Mail. Must be true. (Okay, here it is in the NYTimes, Stuckup McSnooterson. And yes, it’s from last year).

They weren’t domesticated that long ago. They’re thinking maybe that happened maybe 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, but they used to think was 4,000 years and in Egypt, so this is pretty interesting. If you find this sort of thing interesting. Which I do and it’s my blog so you can cut it out or I’ll turn this thing around right now.

They found a cat buried, presumably with his owner, in a 9,500 year old grave in Cyprus. Which I thought was really sweet until I reflected that they undoubtedly killed the cat to accompany his owner into the afterlife. Unless the cat died first and they killed the man to keep the cat company in the afterlife, but I think that’s pretty unlikely.

Links to nice big color versions of the above: prototabby, Damien and Schroedinger.

Added: Did you see the thing Gabe linked at Ace’s, about how women bloggers aren’t popular because they post too much about their personal lives and their pets? Look, bud, there’s some shit about DNA in there, too. I didn’t really get that part, but it had some stuff with Latin words and everything, so ha ha on you. Jerkface.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 10:20 am

“Minion Scubafreak” sounded so weird that I erased it and retyped it several times. In the end I thought, well, god forbid I should post anything weird.


Comment from Jill
Time: July 28, 2008, 10:44 am

There are weirder things…like, liver and minions…cheezburger and minion rings…you get the idea.

Schroedinger is a very handsome little shit. πŸ™‚


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 10:47 am

I believe we have discussed “filet minion.”


Comment from Jill
Time: July 28, 2008, 11:10 am

Mmmmm…filet minion…

I had a gray tabby named Cato Fong.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 11:43 am

Yes, Schroedinger and I have come to an understanding. So long as I give him copious amounts of fishy snacks on demand (and he can be demanding), he limits the amout of bleeding I do.

He has, however, taken up an unholy fascination with the refrigerator, forcing me to drag him out of it every time the door opens…. πŸ™‚


Comment from XBradTC
Time: July 28, 2008, 12:06 pm

What we really need to grill is feline minion…

Oddly enough, Sox is hiding from me right now. I wonder why?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 12:14 pm

Can’t eat predators. Not kosher. Or Halal. Or cool.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 12:31 pm

Too gamey. Although I am told that Bear and Alligator are tasty.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 1:10 pm

Off topic, but I added another clown video to the clown thread. However, be aware that it is NOT safe for work.


Comment from Gabriel
Time: July 28, 2008, 1:45 pm

If you think that was insulting, go read McCain’s response to my response wherein he really gets nasty (e.g. paging Godwin). He makes some good points, but he’s just too much of an asshole about it. Also, he paints with a mighty broad brush.


Comment from porknbean
Time: July 28, 2008, 2:26 pm

I read the NYTimes piece and then the McCain guys post about it. I’m with the McCain guy. His piece was pretty funny and true.
I wouldn’t take it personal weasel. While you do blog about your life and pets, you are not irritating about it. You aren’t typical. You prolly attract more mens than wimmins. And I would like to think the wominions aren’t typical either.

FOR two days last week, many of the men’s bathrooms at the Westin St. Francis Hotel here were turned into women’s bathrooms. The stalls on the second floor were lined with note cards featuring nurturing messages like β€œYou are perfect.” Nearby, women were being dusted with blush and eye shadow, or having the kinks in their necks massaged.

WTF?


Comment from porknbean
Time: July 28, 2008, 2:28 pm

That Schroedinger looks like some hefty mischief.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 2:47 pm

P&B – you should see the pic of him up on top of the curtain rods….. πŸ™‚

He’s KING OF THE WORLD!!!!!! Well, the living room, anyway… πŸ™‚


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 3:05 pm

I’m not really offended, PnB. I’m just joshing. Anyhow, he’s right: news blogging generates more traffic than personal blogging. You know what drives more hits than news blogging? Smut blogging. Whatevs.

Say, those days I don’t have any Tennessee in the news to be proud of, there’s always Rhode Island.

LINCOLN, Rhode Island (AP) — Authorities charged a man Sunday with killing his parents with a garden hoe and burying their bodies in their backyard cesspool.

Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been a garden weasel. I bet one of those suckers would really hurt!


Comment from Jill
Time: July 28, 2008, 3:11 pm

You know, I like to think of myself as being a girly-girl.
I like to get mah hair did, and have the occasional pedicure. I like to wear CFM pumps and dresses. I also can pour concrete, work on gasoline engines, perform home repairs, and perform a little verbal jousting with my fellow elected officials.

I would not, however, take part in any ‘chick-fest’ that had affirmations in the bathroom stalls and people I hardly know wanting to puff and fluff me just because I’m so freakin’ PERFECT. (insert resounding ha-RUMPH here)


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 4:06 pm

His Maj:

his majesty, Schroedinger


Comment from Jill
Time: July 28, 2008, 4:08 pm

That’s fabulous!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 4:09 pm

The stripe configuration on his face give him a worried look. By the way, the Mail darkened and sharpened the stripes on that Lybica (and possibly flipped the photo). I’ve run across several versions of that image poking around today, and you TOTALLY can’t tell them from a garden-variety stripey pusso. They’re not even larger, as many wild cats are. They’re the smallest of the wildcats, I think.

I’m so naming my next cat Lybica.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 4:40 pm

Stoatie.. LOL I wouldn’t be suprised if he WAS worried, since I had just been discussing his first vet trip on the phone a few minutes before…….

Why do they call it “getting fixed” when nothing was broken in the first place? πŸ™‚


Comment from mesablue
Time: July 28, 2008, 5:58 pm

Scaredy cat — http://img-02.offload.711chan.org/b/src/12169170664.jpg


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 28, 2008, 6:26 pm

I love it…… πŸ™‚


Comment from Fennec
Time: July 28, 2008, 8:12 pm

Oh oh oh… Grey Tabbies are THE cat. They’re not a dainty little Fancy-Feast eating poof. Oh, no sir! I could ramble for hours about my “sister-in-law” Niskie and her wildly behaviors…

BTW: Great blog! I adore the graphics. πŸ˜€


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 28, 2008, 8:15 pm

Hello, Fennec. Stay tuned. If I’m not too hungover, more about gray tabbies tomorrow.

Ohhhh…you typed “grey”…are you a…a…limey, by any chance?


Comment from porknbean
Time: July 28, 2008, 10:21 pm

We had a siamese cat when we were growing up. Sometimes she would get a wild hair up her butt and charge around the house crazed. We would chase after her and she would walk sideways with her ears down and take off running again…sometimes leaping and hanging halfway up the door trim or halfway up the curtains. It seemed our laughter encouraged her.
One day in the midst of one of her stampedes, my mother happened to come home and look up at the house as she was getting out of the car….to see the cat hanging from the drapes staring back at her. I was behind the cat and watched as my mother began to gesticulate. I couldn’t hear her but I could tell by the look on her face that she was doing some serious cussing. The cat jumped down and hid in the basement. So did we. There was some serious hell to pay.


Comment from Allen
Time: July 29, 2008, 3:11 am

Anyone who thinks Weasel’s blog is standard… is well, crazier than I am. That takes some doing.

So good to be home, as soon as I hit the high desert, cool, dark, solitude. Airports suck, especially DFW. Pet blogging? As soon as I got home I had to check the horses, yes that included rubbing their noses. Ewww hay boggers.

Jill, you had me at concrete πŸ™‚

Just for the record… I only moved a touch of shine. Old home week.


Comment from Jill
Time: July 29, 2008, 9:32 am

Hey Allen – πŸ™‚


Comment from porknbean
Time: July 29, 2008, 11:16 am

Hope your trip was loverly Allen. Ooohh…horse nosies! Hmm..what would be worse, hay boogers or cleaning a guinea boar’s sack? Boars are smaller, so I’ll stick with that no matter how beautiful the nose of a horse.


Comment from nicole
Time: July 29, 2008, 11:26 am

Well since this is a catblogging post, here’s my youngest lil shit, Caliban.

As he is now, king of the roost:
http: //www.nicolesrecipes.com/photos/100.JPG

And as he was when I first got him:
http: //www.nicolesrecipes.com/photos/31.JPG

http: //www.nicolesrecipes.com/photos/5.JPG

http: //www.nicolesrecipes.com/photos/6.JPG
Take out spaces after http


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 29, 2008, 1:14 pm

A little ‘shine never hurt anybody.

Unless they used a car radiator for the condenser. Then it pretty much leads to blindness or insanity.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 29, 2008, 3:37 pm

What a beaut, Nicole. Siamese. They’re like some kind of crazy devilmonkeycat. Is he talky?

Sorry about that trip to the filter. Somehow, Akismet figured out those were links even with the space in.

I’ll tell you something, though — without Akismet, I’d have to shut comments down. The spam comments are rolling in at a TREMENDOUS rate at the moment. Hundreds a day. One booboo in that lot is a small price to pay.

Anyhow, I’m thinking of putting vending machines in there. Maybe a nice widescreen TV.


Comment from nicole
Time: July 29, 2008, 3:54 pm

Thanks. Yeah, he is talky and can’t be without people for long. And yes, crazy devilmonkeycat for sure. I have never had a cat that was purebred before. I always got strays and shelter cats. There was a bad accident though, and I lost a stray last year who I know was part Siamese. He just endeared himself to me so quickly. When he passed, I had to have the personality again. And boy did I get it. πŸ˜›

And I’ll never complain about a filter. I know what headache it saves. πŸ™‚ But a vending machine would be nice. Milky Way Dark is my preference. πŸ™‚

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