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| Bootsy with Harvested Catnip |
I always think I see sadness in Bootsy's eyes. It seems to be there more often since he lost Samantha earlier this year. That might be a projection on my part. I think that is called personification [figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object] By believing that I see sadness, I'm assigning human traits to Bootsy. Nevertheless, I am convinced that cats have their own emotions, probably run by their own internal mechanisms which are not human. Otherwise, if my cats had human emotions, they would probably get upset when I cry - but they don't. I can be crying profusely and they just keep sleeping away. I know they have fear because I have seen it so many times. Recently, Tiger has been running under our bed during thunder storms!
Best to all of my cat and human friends!
Debby in Arizona, USA
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| "I love squirming in the catnip" |
9 comments:
Such cute pictures, Bootsy really is having a good time!
Handsome Bootsy sure enjoys the catnip.
To me cats are capable of emotions like sadness and happiness.
My cats snitch! :)
What a handsome fella!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Caturday!!!!!!!
These are wonderful photos - Bootsy is so handsome!
And my father used to joke that polydactyl cats were more advanced because they were evolving towards having an opposable thumb.
Celtic cats and cats on part of America's Eastern coast and South West Britain. This distribution may well be linked. Except for Twisty Cats, polydactyly is not a product of bad breeding. It is simply a naturally occurring genetic variation and, as noted later on, polydactyly is found in fossil reptiles - meaning that five digits might be the abnormal form! Only one form of polydactyly is known to be harmful.
Polydactyl cats are known by various names - "mitten cats", "thumb cats", "six-finger cats", "Cardi cats" and "Hemingway cats". The latter is because of writer Ernest Hemingway who made his home on the small island of Key West, Florida. He shared the island with nearly 50 cats, including a 6-toed polydactyl given to him by a ship captain; the cats bred and the polydactyl trait became common, hence polydactyls are often known as "Hemingway Cats".
http://www.messybeast.com/poly-cats.html
I think cats do have feelings. I had two cats, brother and sister, and the brother disappeared and never came back. The sister never did get over that and finally she disappeared and never came back. And I have another cat that knows when I am upset about something and she will sit with me for hours whereas normally she won't give me the time of day. Anyway, hope you have a great day.
Bootsy is such a gorgeous cat!! i love his markings and that sensitive expression on his face. great photos!
Bootsy sure is a sweetie!! And he is having lots of fun with that nip!! Ernie is a poly...but he hasn't figured out how to use those extra digits...yet....
These are lovely pictures of Bootsy enjoying the nip! I love his "polypaws" The Messybeast site that Angel posted is brilliant, Sarah is a mine of information on genetics and cat culture.
As for projecting human emotions onto animals when orthodox behavioural science doesn't agree that they have emotions - (anthropromorphism) well, that's going to be the next great big scientific mistake that's tossed into the trashcan (we hope). The work of the ethologists Jonathan Balcombe, Temple Grandin (and plenty of others) covers this subject brilliantly. As many "animal people" know - animals have a full and rich emotional life - just like we do. Past myths now thankfully dispelled (but alas still perpetuated by some people, including some vets) include "they dont' feel pain like we do" - Grrr!
One day, behaviourism and ethology will rise to the esteemed heights of scientific credibility along with human and animal medicine. That day can't come soon enough for us!
Jonathan Balcombe's book "Pleasurable Kingdom" and "Second Nature" are worth a read.
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson's book "The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats" is a real classic on this subject too.
Mark Bekof's "The Emotional Lives of Animals" plus pretty much all his other works too are very good.
Temple Grandin's "Animals Make Us Human" and "Animals In Translation" definately worth checking out.
At the end of the day, cats and humans are all mammals. We are made out of the same materials, we are wired up in similar ways even if our brain's have significant differences.
So yeah, Bootsy, is very likely to feel sadness and grief at losing his friend, just like you and I would :)
Sorry to bang on and on Deb! This is just a favourite subject of mine!
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